In the first place, the setting of
Bartleby is Wall Street. This is a place where everything is in motion at all
times, and where being stationary is dangerous and might lead you to misery. It
is curious that, in such a setting, Bartleby chooses not to do his job – we can
say that his attitude is the same that leads one to civil disobedience. He
breaks the chain. Thoreau also does something similar by not paying his taxes.
In Walden, he states: "The
nation itself, with all its so called internal improvements, which, by the way,
are all external and superficial (...) Men think that it is essential that the
Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph..."
(2113), which supports his disdain for technological progress and capitalism.
Secondly, it is curious
to notice that, whenever we get to know that Bartleby refused to complete a
task with something other than "would prefer not", his answer is
always written in the passive voice of the lawyer (E.g. Page 2416). Due,
perhaps, to his previous job in a dead letters’ office, Bartleby seems to show
he does not work for people, but for a purpose. This can be seen on page 2409,
when the character answers the narrator with “What is wanted?”.
The passive resistance in
Bartleby that we have been mentioning is supported on page 2410, 7th paragraph:
“Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. If the
individual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting one
perfectly harmless in his passivity; then, in the better moods of the former,
he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination what proves
impossible to be solved by his judgment.” From Thoreau’s point of view, it was
preferable to resist and even break the law than to harm others. On page 2098,
he states: “But if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent
of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter
friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I
do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
Furthermore, we can
compare the passage “Poor fellow! Thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain
he means no insolence, his aspect sufficiently evidences that his
eccentricities are involuntary” from Melville, with “I was not born to be
forced" from Thoreau. Bartleby’s passiveness was such that, in the end,
the lawyer decided to move instead of confronting Bartleby once more. His
appearance had led the narrator to see his attitude as “involuntary”, whereas
we can discuss that Bartleby might have been very aware of what he was doing.
We may also compare the
passage: "If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so
a man” (2102) with: "The Egyptian character of the masonry weighed upon me
with its gloom. But a soft imprisoned turf grew under foot. The heart of the
eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the
clefts, grass-seed, drop by birds, has sprung” (2427). Bartleby was unable to
keep living has he had chosen to; however, life did not stop when he died.
Plants continued sprouting. Despite Bartleby’s resistance, the world resumed as
usual after his departure.
To conclude, we may say
that the lawyer’s exclamation – “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” (2427) – reveals
his opinion, that is to say, that he thought that if Bartleby’s conduct was
copied or shared by humanity, everyone would end up like him. This, however,
can be refuted with Thoreau’s words: "The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but
consistency, or a consistent expediency”.
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