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Examples Of Resistance In Bartleby The Scrivener

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Wall Street Resistance In Bartleby, the Scrivener, Melville is depicting Bartleby’s desire to resist anything that is asked of him. When Bartleby is first hired by the lawyer, he complies to the lawyer’s requests and works on his documents. After some time, Bartleby politely declines a request made of him, which he continues to do. Bartleby’s actions of resistance to society led him to face dire consequences. By facing societies’ pressures and not conforming to society, Bartleby offered an effective form of passive resistance to the lawyer’s attempts to make him useful, until his resistance wasn’t strong enough to withstand the capitalistic culture that he lives in. At first Bartleby is hardworking and does all of his copying duties, until the lawyer asks him to review a paper and he refuses. The lawyer states, “at first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing” (Melville 1108). Bartleby was writing day and night …show more content…
Bartleby’s form of resistance is at a peak moment because his vocabulary is rubbing off on the others. On one occasion, the lawyer was trying to get some answers out of Bartleby when Nippers interrupted stating “prefer not, eh? gritted Nippers – I’d prefer him, if I were you, sir” (Melville 1116). Nippers has little patience with Bartleby and he is making fun of Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer.” The lawyer replies to Nippers, “I’d prefer that you would withdraw for the present” (1116). In both of these statements, Nippers and the lawyer use prefer unintentionally, and it shocks the lawyer. The lawyer realizes, “that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected me in a mental way” (1116). Bartleby’s repetition of preferring not too, has rubbed off on the lawyer’s speech and his mind. The lawyer questions his relationship with Bartleby and if it is worth continuing to figure out why Bartleby is the way that he

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