Bartleby The Scrivener A Story Of Wall Street Summary

Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" Summary and Analysis

Herman Melville’s novella Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street stands as a profound and unsettling exploration of alienation, passive resistance, and the dehumanizing machinery of 19th-century commerce. First published anonymously in 1853, the story is narrated by an elderly, successful Wall Street lawyer who hires a scrivener—a copyist—named Bartleby. What begins as a tale of a peculiar but competent employee spirals into a chilling study of existential withdrawal and the limits of compassion within a rigid capitalist system. This summary delves into the plot, characters, and enduring themes of this American literary masterpiece, revealing why its quiet rebellion continues to resonate over 170 years later.

Plot Overview: The Enigma of Bartleby

The story unfolds through the first-person account of the Lawyer, who runs a modest practice on Wall Street specializing in the conveyancing of real estate. His office is a confined, gloomy space overlooking a brick wall, symbolizing the constrained world of his profession. He employs three other scriveners: the fiery, alcoholic Turkey; the perpetually cold and sickly Nippers; and the errand boy, Ginger Nut. Seeking a third scrivener to handle increasing workload, the Lawyer hires Bartleby based on a recommendation, noting his calm, pallid, and inscrutable demeanor.

Initially, Bartleby is a marvel of productivity, working tirelessly and accurately, day and night. His only peculiarity is his refusal to perform tasks outside his core duty of copying. When asked to proofread or run an errand, he quietly replies, “I would prefer not to.” This phrase becomes his mantra, a gentle but absolute negation that baffles and eventually infuriates his employer. The Lawyer, a man of conventional benevolence, is initially patient, attributing Bartleby’s oddness to a temporary mental peculiarity.

As Bartleby’s refusals escalate—he stops copying altogether, then stops eating in the office, and finally refuses to leave the premises—the Lawyer’s tolerance is tested. He moves his office to escape Bartleby, only to find the scrivener has followed him, now living in the empty office. The Lawyer’s final act of attempted charity is to offer Bartleby money and a place in an almshouse. Bartleby refuses, and the story culminates with Bartleby’s death in the Tombs (New York’s prison), a victim of his own passive refusal to engage with life. The Lawyer, left with a haunting sense of guilt and mystery, closes with the enigmatic, almost supernatural revelation that Bartleby had previously worked in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C., a detail that casts a profound symbolic shadow over the entire narrative.

Key Characters: Mirrors of Society

• The Lawyer (Narrator): He is not a villain but a representative of the comfortable, conventional world. His charity is paternalistic and rooted in a desire for smooth operation, not genuine understanding. His inability to comprehend Bartleby’s rebellion exposes the moral blindness of a system that values utility over humanity. His final, poignant question—“Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!”—captures his belated, confused recognition of a deeper crisis.
• Bartleby: The story’s central enigma. He is less a fully fleshed character and more a symbolic force. His famous refrain, “I would prefer not to,” is not defiance but a withdrawal of consent. He embodies passive resistance, existential despair, and the ultimate consequence of treating human beings as mere instruments. His past in the Dead Letter Office suggests a man who has been processing America’s undeliverable hopes and communications, leaving him spiritually dead.
• Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut: These three employees form a grotesque comic trio, each embodying a different form of dysfunction tolerated by the system. Turkey’s afternoon drunkenness, Nippers’s indigestion-induced irritability, and Ginger Nut’s childish servitude are all quirks that fit within the Lawyer’s manageable world. They highlight that Bartleby’s quiet refusal is far more disruptive than their noisy, conventional failings.

Major Themes: The Wall Street Machine

Alienation and the Dehumanization of Labor: The story is a prescient critique of modern work culture. The Lawyer’s office is a literal and figurative prison. The scriveners are reduced to “human copying machines,” their worth measured solely by output. Bartleby’s rebellion is a desperate, silent strike against this reduction. His refusal to perform any task beyond the mechanical act of copying is a rejection of being a tool. He ultimately refuses to be at all within this system.

Passive Resistance and the Limits of Charity: Bartleby’s resistance is not active rebellion but a profound, immovable passivity. This makes it uniquely challenging to the Lawyer’s model of authority, which is based on reason, kindness, and economic incentive. The Lawyer’s charity—offering money, a new job, shelter—fails because it operates within the same transactional framework Bartleby has rejected. The story asks: what do you do with someone who simply will not play by the rules, yet commits no violent act?

The Unknowable Other and Isolation: The narrative is built on the Lawyer’s failure to know Bartleby. He learns nothing of Bartleby’s history, family, or inner