Bartleby the Scrivener
Bartleby is a melancholic copyist, “who obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded of him.” After an initial bout of hard work, he refuses to make copies or do any other task required of him. When asked why, he always answers with the perplexing statement: “I would prefer not to.”
During the spring of 1851, Herman Melville felt similarly about his work on Moby Dick. Thus, Bartleby arguably represents Melville’s frustration with his own situation as a writer. The story itself is “about a writer who forsakes conventional modes because of an irresistible preoccupation with the most baffling philosophical questions.”
- About the author: Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella.
