Would you say the narrator is sympathetic to Bartleby? Does he think of himself as sympathetic, or in some other way? What is a particular moment in the story that drives your thinking about his reaction to the scrivener?
5 thoughts on “Bartleby”
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I think the narrator is a sympathetic character primarily because he is relatable. Bartleby, as a figure of both quiet innocence and unsettling insolence, evokes contradictory emotions within the narrator and the reader. If the narrator had been entirely good-willed or mean to Bartleby, I think the story would have lacked the nuance and uneasy cloudiness that naturally accompanies any tale about a figure who does not “fit” into society as we know it. Bartleby is threatening, non-violent, and generally tolerable, but he nevertheless invokes a sense of deep uncertainty about the mores and norms of his community and his time period. That he can so easily flout norms makes him intriguing to the narrator, but also “repulsive”. To me, that reads as a relatable reaction, so I can sympathize.
Ultimately, the narrator seems particularly sensitive to the curious case of Bartleby because he understands that Bartleby was created both by an inherent force within him and by the world in which he had to exist. The narrator tries to “conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to pallid hopelessness…” and acknowledges that there is an important feedback between the internal and the external life of Bartleby, and any individual. This is an important moment, to me, because it offers the narrators sense that Bartleby is not wholly unique, but perhaps an extreme case of what each person experiences.
I would say the author is most definitely sympathetic towards Bartleby. There are many reasons indicating this, the first of which I would argue is his natural instinct. His “gut feeling” if you will is almost always implying how sorry he feels for Bartleby, before then getting mad at him. On page 10 the author wrote, “I regarded Bartleby and his ways. Poor fellow! though I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence…” He then nearly repeated this exact on page 21 when he wrote, “Poor fellow, poor fellow! thought I, he don’t mean any thing; and besides, he has seen hard times, and ought to be indulged.”
I would say the moment that stood out to me most though as indicating how sympathetic the author was to Bartleby came on page 23 when the author refused to send Bartleby to jail for squatting in the office building. It didn’t even occur to him as a possibility and he hated himself for even thinking about it at all. He then went on to even invite Bartleby into his home, and act he never would have done if he didn’t even slightly feel sorry for the man.
Though I do believe, as Emory and Hannah have noted, that the narrator is at some times sympathetic to what he perceives as Bartleby’s struggles and misfortunes, I think he is ultimately motivated to help Bartleby by a selfish sense of guilt. He admits this himself when he states, “Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy” (21). To the narrator, his concern for Bartleby is mixed with a desire to assure himself of his own moral righteousness and his own image as a charitable gentleman. He continues to state throughout the account that he has done all that he could and that he has fulfilled his duty to Bartleby, language that suggests less sympathy than a desire to distance himself from Bartleby and assuage his guilt at Bartleby’s demise.
The narrator of the story goes through an internal conflict with how to respond to Bartleby’s nonchalant defiance. Bartleby’s mannerisms make the narrator uneasy and unable to respond in the way he would to any other copyist. In this sense, he is sympathetic to the assumed hard times Bartleby has encountered and notes, “it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary.” (10) However, later the narrator explains that his sadness and pity for the eccentric man evolved into fear and “repulsion” (14). Ultimately, the narrator suppresses feelings of resentment and uneasiness that come from Bartleby’s peculiarities and sympathizes with his former employee in trying to secure him employment, housing, and eventually food in jail. It is possible that the narrator identifies some of Bartleby’s qualities with attributes he finds detestable within himself. Although he is capable of recognizing the monotony and disinterest as undesirable, he can’t confront them in himself nor their manifestation in Bartleby.
I think the narrator is sympathetic, mostly because he references the “melancholy and sincerest pity” (p. 14). Similarly, the narrator describes Bartleby as “harmless and noiseless,” comparing him to an old chair. The narrator seems primarily confused by what to do with Bartleby, because of how “disarmed” (p. 8) he becomes around Bartleby. The sympathy seems to stem from the sort of innocence Bartleby portrays. The impression I get is that Bartleby is lost and childlike in his answers – “I would prefer not to” versus “no”. The irritation that the narrator references is not unlike the type of irritation one would get with a stubborn child. More so, the type of responsibility and ownership of Bartleby after moving out of the offices resembles that of a worried guardian. Even the tone of “With kings and counselors” (p.29) seems to be caring, remorseful, and respectful.