Bartleby, The Scrivener And Modern Times

Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” share the same theme, which is the despair of the working class under the upper class. Bartleby and Chaplin respectively represent the working class in their stories, and they both undergo hardships due to the tedious tasks they are given to perform. Both characters eventually rebel against their managers (which represent the upper class) in their own ways; Bartleby constantly rejects the lawyer’s order of proofreading his documents, while Chaplin causes chaos in the factory he works in. Strong criticism toward capitalism becomes evident in the stories when Bartleby and Chaplin rebel against their managers. In Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener,” the narrator, who …show more content…
Bartleby represented the working class when he followed the lawyer’s orders, but now that he refuses to work and still gets rewarded, he suddenly represents the upper class and shows the nature of capitalism. The text implies that the upper class is similar to what Bartleby is like at this point of the story; like Bartleby, the upper class does nothing, and yet they enjoy their wealth and success off the hard work of the working class. The capitalist system just isn’t fair to the working class since the hard work of a worker greatly benefits someone else while that worker earns little relative to what he actually …show more content…
Turkey and Nippers show flaws within different aspects of their tedious job while Bartleby presents himself as a hero who rises for the working class and signifies their outrage against the upper class by telling his manager “I prefer not to.” Chaplin presents the mistreatment workers get from their superiors, not to mention the expectation of workers to work like robots. Similarly to Bartleby, Chaplin symbolically rebels against the upper class and also presents the working class’s discontent under their managers by causing chaos in the factory he works in. These two stories impressively point out the flaws present in capitalism, and their criticisms can be helpful in resolving those flaws so that the working class can get prosperity instead of being treated