Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is a story of class differences; the narrator, a representative of the educated class, is unable to understand Bartleby, a representative of the working class. Melville demonstrates the economic differences between these two classes through the contrast between the narrator’s life of ease and Bartleby’s life of incessant hard work in the beginning of the story. Moreover, power differences between the classes are displayed through the contrast between the narrator’s expectant mindset and Bartleby’s mere expression of his preferences. These class differences prevent the narrator from understanding Bartleby throughout the story; only Ginger Nut, another member of the working class,
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The narrator is able to live an easy life whereas Bartleby, in the beginning of the story, works incessantly to earn the money he needs to survive; the contrast that Melville presents between these two characters serves to highlight the economic class differences inherent in the story. Right at the beginning, the narrator introduces himself as “Imprimis…a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (1). The narrator’s ability to live an easy life in the first place indicates that he is in a position of wealth and stability in which he has job security and does …show more content…
This contrast enables Melville to present that class differences inhibit understanding and communication between employers and their employees. In the opening paragraph of the story, the narrator describes Bartleby as “a scrivener the strangest I ever saw” (1) and as “one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable” (1). The narrator’s perception of Bartleby’s strangeness and unascertainability stems from the narrator’s inability to understand Bartleby due to the hindering class differences that exist between the two of them. When Bartleby replies that he would prefer not to examine a paper with the narrator, the narrator “sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying [his] stunned faculties. Immediately it occurred to [him] that [his] ears had deceived [him], or Bartleby had entirely misunderstood [his] meaning” (5). In another instance of Bartleby replying that he “would prefer not to” – tell the narrator about himself, in this case – the narrator responds, “But what reasonable objection can you have to speak to me?” (13). In both of these cases, the narrator cannot understand Bartleby’s motivations for not following his orders because his position as a member of a higher, educated class inhibits him from understanding the perspective of the lower, working class that Bartleby is a part of.
The narrator is able to live an easy life whereas Bartleby, in the beginning of the story, works incessantly to earn the money he needs to survive; the contrast that Melville presents between these two characters serves to highlight the economic class differences inherent in the story. Right at the beginning, the narrator introduces himself as “Imprimis…a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (1). The narrator’s ability to live an easy life in the first place indicates that he is in a position of wealth and stability in which he has job security and does …show more content…
This contrast enables Melville to present that class differences inhibit understanding and communication between employers and their employees. In the opening paragraph of the story, the narrator describes Bartleby as “a scrivener the strangest I ever saw” (1) and as “one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable” (1). The narrator’s perception of Bartleby’s strangeness and unascertainability stems from the narrator’s inability to understand Bartleby due to the hindering class differences that exist between the two of them. When Bartleby replies that he would prefer not to examine a paper with the narrator, the narrator “sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying [his] stunned faculties. Immediately it occurred to [him] that [his] ears had deceived [him], or Bartleby had entirely misunderstood [his] meaning” (5). In another instance of Bartleby replying that he “would prefer not to” – tell the narrator about himself, in this case – the narrator responds, “But what reasonable objection can you have to speak to me?” (13). In both of these cases, the narrator cannot understand Bartleby’s motivations for not following his orders because his position as a member of a higher, educated class inhibits him from understanding the perspective of the lower, working class that Bartleby is a part of.