Choose one of the following questions and comment on it in the box below:
1. What symbolic undertones can be ascribed to the wall and how do these relate to the different types of walls we find in the text?
2. Characterize the narrator as character, from what he tells and shows about himself.
3. How do you interpret the last sentence of the text?
8 comments:
3) No último parágrafo do conto é revelado ao leitor que Bartleby havia, segundo um rumor, trabalhado no "Dead Letter Office" de Washington, tendo portanto lidado diariamente com as palavras e as histórias de centenas de pessoas mortas. Tendo isto em conta, penso que a frase "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" nos indica que o narrador identifica este prévio emprego de Bartleby como o culpado do seu estado mental. Pode também dizer-se que o narrador não está tanto a apontar um dedo à humanidade mas sim a declarar que Bartleby, após ter lido todas aquelas cartas, vivia com a humanidade e todas as suas histórias dentro de si, e que estas morreram quando Bartleby morreu. Pode ainda dizer-se que o narrador está a constatar o incrível grau de "humanity" (no sentido de empatia, de compaixão) que Bartleby possuía, e que no fim se tornou avassalador, causando o declínio progressivo da sua vontade de viver.
The references to some wall accompanies the story from the beginning to the end. The reader understands the relevance of walls from the beginning. The writer is telling something else, something more with the references to the walls. The story’s title is “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall-street”, but the use of walls goes beyond the “wall” in Wall-Street. And also goes beyond the idea that Wall-street may contribute to the loss of life, even though this idea is expressed in the words “ruins of Carthage” and in the descriptions of the chambers’ view.
At the beginning, when the narrator describes his office, he describes the view telling that the white wall was “deficient in what landscape painters call life”. The view from one side and from the other is limited by high walls. The chambers were on the second floor and they were surrounded by buildings of a great height. So, there’s a sense of death, they are buried, and a sense of suffocation. On the other hand, because of the “penetrating the building from top to bottom” and “great high of the surrounding buildings” there’s a restless feeling – the walls pierce the sky, the buildings and the people.
Bartleby’s view was a wall and he was further imprisoned by a folding screen, another wall built in the claustrophobic office. The wall that Bartleby looked at was the brick wall, the wall which was “black by age and everlasting shade”, with “lurking beauties” and “light came down from far above, between two lofty buildings, as from a very small opening in a dome”. This wall seems to carry some hope and beauty but it’s repeatedly referred as a “dead brick wall” or “dead-wall” and Bartleby spent his time in “his dead-wall revery”, motionless, behind the screen. The beauty in the wall may be the beauty of death.
There was also a wall between Bartleby and the narrator, built by the sentence “I would prefer not to”. The repetition of this sentence builds a wall as thick as the physical ones. To the narrator Bartleby was himself a wall: “Rather would I let him live and die here, and then mason up his remains in the wall.”
Bartleby had lost all hope and the walls in work and then, in the prison (which “kept off all sounds”), drained the life that he had left, replacing it by the love of death. His only option to look at was always a high wall. But, he rather looked to a dead-wall than to men. In the prison, Bartlebly “slowly moved to the other side of the inclosure, and took up a position fronting the dead-wall.”
To Bartleby, walls represented death.And to him, death was the only thing that was alive. When he could no longer work, when he had lost all hope, the only thing that was left, the only comfort, was staring at the wall and in the end, he died “huddled at the base of the wall”.
KANSU EKİN TANCA
In this short story, the narrator gives some direct references to his life and also uncovers his identity in the comparisons he makes between him and Turkey and Nippers. In the first sentence, the narrator reveals himself by saying that “I am a rather elderly man” and builds on his account in the following paragraphs (p.2402) I think that, what he himself says about his personality suits to what he does in this short story. For example, he explicitly says that he is “one of those unambitious lawyers” (p.2403). Even from this one single expression, I believe that his self-representation is accurate since his reaction to the whole plot shows that he is not an ambitious person. Throughout the story, when they are at “the good old office”, he shows patience towards Bartleby who gradually reduces his efforts on writing new reports and who eventually ends up with doing nothing (p.2403).
Not only is the narrator patient but he is also able to make fun of the situation in which he is involved. Bartleby’s words “I prefer not” find a voice in the narration several times. For example, after he is talking about Bartleby’s eating habits, he concludes his sentence by saying “Probably he ‘preferred’ it should have none” It suggests that the narrator feels himself involved with the rhetoric of Bartleby and that he does not react in a negative way.
He is also unexpectedly kind towards Bartleby even if he insists on sleeping at the office. The narrator comments “For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam.” In my opinion, this sentence clearly explains why the narrator is not behaving aggressively as a reaction to the problems he has with Bartleby.
Furthermore; the narrator, as a character, appears to be a good observer as well. He pays attention to his “copyists” and his “office-boy” and thus portraits them in a very detailed manner. Thus he describes Bartleby as “But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically” (2407). As it can be seen, in his narration, the use of adjectives and adverbs in a sequence also suggests that he focuses on the movement as well as the appearance of the people he observes; and therefore it is also possible to characterise him as a good observer.
3) No último parágrafo do conto, o narrador refere que ouviu um rumor de que Bartleby trabalhava no “Dead Letter Office” em Washington. Quando o autor acaba o seu texto com “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity”, significa que estas cartas podem estar relacionadas com a personalidade de Bartleby. Bartleby ao ter este trabalho solitário, a ler cartas para pessoas que já não estão entre nós, levou a que o mesmo entrasse num ciclo depressivo, em que não comia nem tinha vontade de fazer nada, o que o levou a acabar os seus dias numa prisão.
4) Relate Bartleby to another work (I took the liberty of discussing a different topic, in absence of inspiration for the suggested ones, or perhaps, excess of faith in my point of view, either way, I hope it is fine)
It would be uninspiring and simplistic to merely rely on the possibility that Bartleby is a depressed and sad being just for the sake of work. What we can interpret, however, in an open-minded term, is that this “scrivener”, that keeps denying the labor he is assigned to, could be an analogy to civil disobedience. In 1849, 4 years before Bartlebly was written, Thoreau writes an essay - Civil Disobedience - that prioritizes moral ethics in the molding of laws, and in which he criticized current institutions and their intents. Bearing in mind, slavery was a controversial topic at the time, Bartleby himself, could be seen as a slave resisting its labor, and this can be regarded as a form of protest against slavery itself, and as we know, Thoreau was against slavery.
Thus, this short story could be about a minority, a rebellion, represented by the “scrivener”, that is against the ways of capitalism and social conformity. People were being "taught" to conform themselves. Moreover, this is what Thoreau was against after all - conformism; for Thoreau people should experiment life abundantly and dream of a great future with foundations, never accommodating themselves. ("If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.").
Bartleby represented a cause, and the fact that he died for it, reinforced its importance. Are we looking at a literary protest in form of short story? Is the protagonist just depressed? Is the scrivener living a meditative/transcendent state in such a way, that the material world did not fulfill his needs no longer? There are, indeed, several interpretations for this brilliant work, some make more sense than others, but the ambiguity mixed with the tone of confusion throughout the plot, is what makes this paper so intriguing and amusing.
3) Tendo em conta a última exclamação do narrador 'Ah humanity!', podemos pensar na situação em que Bartleby se encontrava quando este morreu na prisão: o narrador descobre que Bartleby trabalhava no 'Dead Letter Office' em Washington. Este trabalho consistia em queimar cartas que tinham um endereço inválido, e por isso, não podiam ser entregues. Provavelmente Bartleby lia as cartas no seu trabalho antes de as queimar, com as histórias de tantas pessoas diferentes: de felicidade, tristeza, entre outras. As histórias que ficaram por contar de pessoas que nunca se conseguiram corresponder podem ter afectado Bartleby ao ponto de este se tornar um pessoa apática, com pouca ou nenhuma vontade de viver. O facto de este responder sempre com 'I would prefer not to.' revela a falta de vontade que Bartleby tem em realizar as mais simples tarefas, até mesmo as necessárias para sobreviver, como comer: 'I would prefer not to dine to-day, (...) It would disagree with me; I am unused to dinners.' (150).
No entanto, a verdade é que Bartleby comia antes de ir para a prisão. Quando este se encontrava empregado pelo seu ex-empregador, este comia apenas ginger-nuts, uma espécie de bolo. É provável que isto acontece-se porque Bartleby se sentia confortável no seu espaço claustrofóbico criado pelo seu empregador, que este usava para viver, inclusivamente. Bartebly sentia-se confortável naquele pequeno espaço, em que se encontrava sozinho, fechado, em que podia olhar para as pessoas lá fora a viver as suas vidas a um ritmo acelerado. Este espaço provavelmente era considerado por Bartebly como a sua "concha", a sua protecção contra o resto do mundo e toda a sua correria, todos os seus problemas que este não queria confrontar. O facto de este não querer sair do espaço até depois de o seu empregador mudar de instalações demonstra que este se encontra extremamente apegado ao espaço, e, quando este foi preso, sentiu-se traído pela pessoa que este pensou que o protegeria dos problemas e da maldade do mundo. Isto é demonstrado quando Bartleby fala pela última vez ao seu ex-patrão, já quando se encontra na prisão: 'I know you (...) and I want nothing to say to you.' (149). O narrador poderia, então, considerar que Bartebly carregava todo o peso das frustrações e sentimentos não correspondidos da humanidade, aqui representada como a população frenética de Nova Iorque.
A exclamação do narrador pode também ser uma reflexão da maneira como a sociedade se encontrava na altura - desenvolvia-se a um paço frenético e cada vez mais as pessoas deixavam de ter relações de relevo umas com as outras para se dedicarem ao seu trabalho para poderem garantir a compra e manutenção do seus bens materiais e propriedades e da sua sobrevivência. Esta condição da sociedade acabou por se reflectir no comportamento de Bartleby, fazendo com que este se tornasse uma pessoa apática e distante.
3.
No último parágrafo do conto, é nos revelado pelo narrador um rumor de que Bartleby trabalhara no "Dead Letter Office" de Washington, onde lia e queimava cartas de pessoas mortas. Este trabalho foi certamente o que conduziu Bartleby a um estado mental depressivo, com que o narrador mais tarde se deparou.
Ao apreender esta informação, o narrador exclama "Oh Bartleby! Oh Humanity!". Esta exclamação não me parece uma crítica à humanidade ou a sociedade, pois aparenta ter um tom tanto de alívio como de empatia e admiração. A empatia para com Bartleby sentida inicialmente não era injustificada, o narrador admira agora Bartleby pela sua compaixão e pela sua "humanidade". As suspeitas do narrador - de que Bartleby era de facto uma boa pessoa - confirmam-se ao tomar conhecimento do passado deste, levando-o a uma melhor compreensão da pessoa que Bartleby fora até ao fim dos seus dias.
3.
By ending the story with "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" the author manages not only to show that the narrator somehow cared for Bartleby despite all that had happened, but also comment on society as a whole. Throughout the narrative, Bartleby is portrayed as someone who "fights" change. By calling out humanity at the end, one can assume there is an attempt at establishing a parallel between the two. This way the author can point out a flaw with society's tendency for sameness, for the general resistance to change. Much like Bartleby, most people "prefer not to" make any progress, deciding instead that they've done enough. The very last words of the text, in my opinion, are an attempt to tell people that if you don't strive for change and improvement, you too will succumb to vegegable-like procrastination, and you could end up sharing the fate of Bartleby for it.
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