A Rhetorical Analysis Of Bartleby

Herman Melville writes of the eccentricities of man and the nature of humanity in his short, concise story Bartleby. The fictitious story is narrated by an unnamed lawyer giving his account of the strange scrivener Bartleby. Though the lawyer knows Bartleby for such little time, Bartleby becomes an enigma to him. The isolation and suffering Bartleby dwells in stuns the lawyer. Bartleby’s puzzling personality, or lack thereof, leaves the lawyer in a constant state of debate. His thoughts are often preoccupied with questions of what to do with Bartleby, and how he can fix such a poor soul. Through his process of trying to find solutions for Bartleby, the lawyer begins to learn new truths about the respect and pity people have for others in pain. He draws up truth of pity's breaking point and its effect. In his speech, the lawyer comes to a conclusion about the treatment of those in pain by using valid …show more content…
His word choice reflects this idea that humans can only handle with so much. His speech began with the words “so true it is, and so terrible too”, which immediately tells the reader that the words following his statement are true. Then, he continues to write his speech while referring to a larger group by using words such as our rather than my. He goes on to state, “To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain.” His quote demonstrates how any human being who is sensitive is often hurt by their own pity, it does not only apply to him. Furthermore, he reinforces this sense of a larger group to be the human race collectively when he writes about the selfishness of the human heart and the common sense humans posses. When he writes, he is referring to the souls and hearts of all people, not specifically his own. In addition, the validity of the speech's application to the mankind makes it apply to all humans, rather than the lawyer