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Lawyers and Literature
James R. Elkins
The Mystery of a Man's Life
Bartleby, the Scrivener
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Herman Melville, "Bartleby, The Scrivener" in Jay Wishingrad (ed.), Legal Fictions Short Stories About Lawyers and the Law 224-258 (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1992) [course text] |
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Class Presentation: Bartleby the Scrivener (A Story of
Wall Street) by Herman Melville, Existentialist [audiobook]
[class presentation at 3:08 mins.]
The lawyer
narrator describes himself as an eminently safe man.
 What does it
mean to live a safe life?
Is the narrator's
attempt to lead a safe life illusory?
How does the
narrator's view of his professional life affect your reaction to him,
and your reading of the story?
Before the
arrival of Bartleby, the narrator has managed to shut out the outside
world. "According to my humor, I threw open these doors, or closed
them." How does this capacity affect your understanding of the
narrator's character?
What kind of
person is the narrator? The narrator describes himself as an elderly
man. "I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled
with a profound conviction that the easy way of life is the best.
Hence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and
nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have
I ever suffered to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious
lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public
applause; but, in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug
business among rich men's bonds, and mortgages, and title deeds. All
who know me, consider me an eminently safe man." [224-225]. We are told that the narrator was viewed by
one of his patrons, John Jacob Astor, as a man of "prudence"
and "method." [225] And later, the narrator explains that in his new position as Master
of Chancery, "I seldom lose my temper; much more seldom indulge
in dangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages. . . ." [225]
During the turmoil with Bartleby, the narrator remarks that "for the first time in my life a feeling of over-powering
stinging melancholy seized me." What does this tell us about
the narrator?
How does the
narrator's life change as a result of his encounter with Bartleby?
How does the narrator's profession affect your reading of
the story? How does the fact that the narrator is a lawyer affect his
relationship with Bartleby?
How do you explain the narrator's relation to Bartleby?
How do you
explain the narrator's new found compassion (and responsibility) for
an employee who not only will not work but will not leave the
premises when asked to do so?
Of what symbolic
significance is Bartleby's physical location in the office?
What is your
reaction to the narrator's resolution to terminate Bartleby's employment
because of fear that he will be viewed badly by others?
Why doesn't
the narrator simply take the necessary means to evict Bartleby?
What part do Bartleby's fellow employees at the law office
play in the story?
How does the narrator's
vivid imagery in his description of his employees give life to these
characters?
Bartleby's co-workers don't share the narrator's puzzlement and compassion for Bartleby. How do you account for their indifference to Bartleby?
How is the reader to understand Bartleby's odd behavior?
Of what significance
is the phrase which Bartleby adopts: "I'd prefer not
to"?
What is wrong
with Bartleby?
How are we
to interpret Bartleby's refusal to work when requested to do so by
his employer?
How does Bartleby teach the narrator something he needs to know?
Of what significance is it that Bartleby refuses to reveal anything about himself?
How is a reader
to respond to Bartleby?
Some questions about the story:
Is the central
theme of the story the narrator's "test"?
[One
commentator has suggested that Bartleby is a test by God to see how
the lawyer will react. Harold Schechter, Bartleby the Chronometer,
19 (4) Stud. in Short Fiction 359 (1982)]
What factor does
the "loneliness" of the characters play in the story?
Is the narrator's
social class a factor in the story? In what sense does becoming a
lawyer leave you with the sense that you are moving to "a higher
social plateau"?
Would you recommend this story to fellow law students? If
so, how would you justify that recommendation?
Notes
 "Bartleby, the Scrivener" was published serially and anonymously, in consecutive issues of Putnam's Monthly magazine in November and December 1853. Digital facsimile of " Bartleby, the Scrivener," Putnam's Monthly text is available online: [Part I] [Part II]. "Bartleby, the Scrivener" was republished in 1856 as one of The Piazza Tales, under Melville's name, with the abbreviated title "Bartleby."
"Bartleby, the Scrivner" has been
the subject of a substantial body of scholarly commentary. See e.g.: Daniel Stempel
& Bruce M. Stillians, Bartleby the Scrivener: A Parable of Pessimism,
27 (3) Nineteenth-Century Fiction 268 (1972); Johannes Dietrich Bergmann,
"Bartleby" and The Lawyer's Story, 47 Amer. Lit. 432 (1975); Steven
Doloff, The Prudent Samaritan: Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" as
Parody of Christ's Parable to the Lawyer, 34 (3) Stud. Short Fiction
357 (1997); Richard R. John, The Lost World of Bartleby, the Ex-Officeholder:
Variations on a Venerable Literary Form, 70 New England Quart. 631 (1997);
Andre Furlani, Bartleby the Socratic, 34 (3) Studies in Short Fiction
335-355 (1997); Thomas Dilworth, Narrator of "Bartleby": The Christian-Humanist
Acquaintance of John Jacob Astor, 38 (1) Papers on Language & Literature
49 (2002).
For a collection of essays on the novella, see: M Thomas Inge
(ed.), Bartleby the Inscrutable: A Collection of Commentary on Herman
Melville's Tale "Bartleby the Scrivener" (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon
Books, 1979).
For a socio-political reading of "Bartleby" by a legal scholar, see Robin West, Invisible Victims: A Comparison of Susan Glaspell's Jury of Her Peers and Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, 8 Cardozo Stud. in L. & Lit. 203 (1996) [online text] [See also, Carrie Menkel-Meadow,
The Sense and Sensibilities of Lawyers: Lawyering in Literature, Narratives,
Film and Television, and Ethical Choices Regarding Career and Craft,
31 McGeorge L. Rev. 1, 7-11 (1999)]
"I'm not saying . . . the story solves
anything. Great literature, I think, does not offer solutions or answers,
though it may yield considerable illumination of our problems; it is
like art which Picasso had in mind when he once said that art is a lie
that tells the truth." [Merton M. Sealts, Herman Melville's "Bartleby" 15 (Madison: Wisconsin Humanities Committee,
1982)] Compare the Sealts comment with the commentary in a letter from
the Wisconsin Humanities Committee which sponsored, in 1982, a seminar
on Bartleby attended by 100 lawyers from around Wisconsin. Patricia
C. Anderson, on behalf of the Committee, offered the following description
of the day's discussion: "Among the recurring topics were questions
about how lawyers perceive and act on their responsibilities as professionals
and as human beings to provide care; the limitations of the legal system--or
any system imposed upon human nature; what happens when a lawyer is
dealing with a client who cannot or will not make what are called 'rational
decisions'; how a lawyer can balance the demands of professional standards
with the 'demands of the spirit' . . . . " [Letter to interested persons,
from Patricia C. Anderson, Wisconsin Humanities Committee, October,
1982]
Bartleby has been adapted to film, "Bartleby" (2001)(directed by Jonathan Parker).
Finally, we might note that still another Melville story, Billy Budd, has established itself as a "law and literature" classic. [Billy Budd--an interactive edition] [Billy Budd--the film] [Billy Budd--Wikipedia]
Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener
Hans Bergmann, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences & Professor of English,
Quinnipiac University; audio of his commentary
Reading "Bartleby"
Lea Bertani Voza Newman, A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Herman Melville (1986)
Bartleby the Scrivener Occupies Wall Street
Roberta Bienvenu, ShenandoahBartleby the Scrivener
Wikipedia
Essays & Scholarly Articles
Being as Refusal: Melville’s Bartleby as Anti-Hero
Louise Sundararajan, Janus Head
A Panorama of “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Jason Novak, The Paris Review, March 29, 2012
Refusal in “Bartleby, the Scrivener”: Narrative Ethics and Conscientious Objection
Alvan A. Ikoku, AMA Journal of Ethics Bartleby, Labor and Law
Jack Getman, University Pennsylvania Journal of Business & Employment Law
Invisible Victims: A Comparison of Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener and Glaspell's a Jury of Her Peers
Robin L. West, Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature
The Learned-Helpless Lawyer: Clinical Legal Education and Therapeutic
Jurisprudence as Antidotes to Bartleby Syndrome Amy D. Ronner, Touro Law Review
From Scriveners to Typewriters: Document Production in the Nineteenth-Century Law Office
M.H. Hoeflich, Green Bag 2d
The Specter of Wall Street: "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and the Language of Commodities
Naomie C. Reed, American Literature
From Wall Street to Astor Place: Historicizing Melville's "Bartleby"
Barbara Foley, American Literature
Bartleby or a Loose Existence: Melville with Jonathan Edwards
Branka Arsic, Janus Head
Bartleby'
or The Formula
Gilles Deleuz, Essays Critical and Clinical (Daneil W. Smith & Michael A. Greco trans.)
Videos
Bartleby
[27:41 mins.]
Bartleby, the Subversive
[3:28 mins.]
A Discussion of "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
[45:21 mins. :: Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass & Diana Schaub converse with host Wilfred McClay (University of Tennessee--Chattanooga) about "Bartleby, the Scrivener"]
Professor Bernstein
talks about "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
[9:34 mins.]
Ralph Stevens
talks about "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
[28:30 mins.]
Herman
Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" (Analysis & Interpretation)
[18:19 mins.]
Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Academy of American Poets
Herman Melville
Wikipedia
The
Confidence Man: His Masquerade
Scott Atkins
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