Bartleby the Scrivener is a tragedy

Bartleby the Scrivener is one of Melville’s most famous stories. It is a tragic short which is told in mode of realism. Bartleby the Scrivener is the principal character or protagonist of the story. In this story the writer has carefully arranged the incidents to achieve the tragic effect, involving the emotional and artistic aspects.

          The plot of the story Bartleby the Scrivener is tragic. It is written in the mode of realism. Bartleby is a tragic anti-hero, not in the sense of Aristotle, but in the modern sense of an ordinary man, a hero in grief, misery or disaster. He does not possess heroic qualities or virtues such as idealism, courage or steadfastness like the traditional tragic heroes. He is a tragic hero in the sense that he imposes upon himself extraordinary sufferings for some mysterious reasons.

          Bartleby the Scrivener is a tragic short story. It has characters, incidents and settings on a shorter scale. Bartleby, Nippers, Ginger Nut, Turkey and the author are its characters. There is single incident of an ordinary man named Bartleby, who joined the author’s office as a scrivener. After a few days, he started refusing to do any work saying “I would prefer not to”. He ultimately died in the Tombs. All characters have been developed by means of this central and representative incident.

          As the story is written in realistic mode, the realistic aspects emerge from the situations into which the protagonist has fallen accidentally, in his ordinary way of life. Bartleby joined the author’s office as a clerk and did extraordinary amount of writing during the first two days. But from the third day, he began to behave abnormally. When the author requested him to examine a small paper, Bartleby surprisingly replied, “I would prefer not to”. It was strange that there was no uneasiness, impertinence or anger in his manner. A few days later when the author called him for verification of an important document copied by Bartleby himself, he again said, “I would prefer not to”. The author was astounded but there was something in Bartleby which disarmed him, and drew his sympathy. Thereafter the author closely observed his conduct, and found out that he never left his assigned place in the room, lived on ginger nuts and never took any dinner. To all questions put to him he either remained silent or said, “I would prefer not to”. A few days later he gives up writing itself which was his job. He was not malleable to any entreaty or reasoning. The author was rather compelled to move his office, but still Bartleby hunted the old place. The landlord of the old place and the new tenant called the police who put him into prison called the Tombs. Bartleby did not take any food for several days. The author wants to visit him and gave the grub man some money to give good dinner to Bartleby. After a few days, the author re-visited the prison. The author found him lying on his side, his knees drawn up and head touching the cold stones. The author went close up

to him, stooped over him and saw that his dim eyes were open, otherwise he seemed profoundly asleep. The author touched him, and a tingling shiver ran up his arm and down his spine to his feet. The author replied to the grubman’s words:

“lives without dining”. Then he dosed his eyes, and murmured,

“Eh! He’s asleep, ain’t he? With kings and counsellors”.

         

The story of Bartleby’s life is definitely tragic. He lost all things of life; he even refused eating which is the only means of sustaining life. We come to know that he is a victim, almost innocent, of the social system he had to live in. He becomes a sort of death-in-life existence extremely indifferent to all sorts of things of the world. He might be profoundly affected by his dealing with dead letters. These letters were sent on errands of life, but actually they did speed to death. Perhaps, he became almost dead, even while he was alive, for he was deeply affected by the constant exposure of the dead letters he handled and his death speeded up.

          Thus, Bartleby the Scrivener is clearly a tragic short story, told in the mode of realism. It has all the features of a short story. It depicts the tragic life of an ordinary man named, Bartleby, through the problems and issues of a real life situation.