Herman Melville is most known for his whaling/boat fiction. He
wrote several sea-based adventure-type novels that made him famous, but Moby
Dick (1851) actually (though perhaps not surprisingly) decreased his
popularity, and he died in relative obscurity as a writer (from Meyer, Michael,
Compact Bedford Introduction to
Literature, Bedford, 2012, 108). This piece was first printed in Putnam’s Monthly: A Magazine of
Literature, Science, and Art, over Nov-Dec 1853,
out of New York, of course.
“Bartleby” is a well-known anthology piece; I teach it in my
introductory English class when we discuss character. However, it is a great
piece for discussing all of the elements of literature, since it is so rich
(students might use the term “lengthy” instead…). The setting, however, is
really pertinent for our discussion today, since it occurs in New York, on Wall
St., as the often-overlooked secondary title tells us. Melville himself in the
text gives us the best context for describing Wall Street at this time: “Of a Sunday, Wall Street is deserted as
Petra [an ancient Arabian city whose ruins were discovered in 1821] and every
night of every day it is an emptiness. This building, too, which of week-days
hums with industry and life, at nightfall echoes with sheer vacancy, and all
through Sunday is forlorn” (para. 90). As a setting, Wall Street, even that
time, feels like an inhumane machine-like place, dedicated then and now to
industry, where one can go to make money but not make friends.
But in addition to its rich characterization and apt
setting, it also is a great story to use in lit classes for discussing point of
view and the unreliable narrator, theme, symbolism, and style. So that is why I
chose it and why it is our first day’s reading.
What fun to find out that I could get the text of “Bartleby”
on a site called “Bartelby.com.” I think it says something for the piece that
one of the first online reference and classical book sites on the web is named
after it! If I had to guess why, I’d
pick the ending: “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!”
NOTE: your paragraph on “context” won’t necessarily be like
this; my context for the story is discussing it in terms of literature, but
yours might be where it comes from in the larger text, or more on the section
of NY in which is it placed, etc. And note I don’t really have a summary at
all; you might think it useful to include one, especially if you’re dealing
with 100 pages of a longer text.
Questions for Discussion
1)
how does the lawyer’s description of himself
characterize him? Are his judgments about others sound? What is significant
about the fact that he is a lawyer?
2)
Why does Melville introduce Nippers, Turkey, and
Ginger before Bartleby? What do we learn about the narrator form these
characters?
3)
Who is the protagonist? The antagonist? Whose
story is it? Who changes? Who grows?
4)
What are some other aspects of setting that are
important?
5)
How is Wall Street a symbolic setting? How else
are walls used as symbols? Are there other items in the story that might be
considered symbols?
6)
How does point of view affect our understanding of
Bartleby and of the lawyer? Why does POV matter so much to us as readers?
7)
Do you think Melville sympathizes more with Bartleby
or the lawyer? What is his tone? With whom do you sympathize more?
8)
How would you characterize Melville’s style of
writing? What IS style?
9)
How do you feel about that last paragraph
Melville adds? Does it help us understand Bartleby?
