"Bartleby the Scrivener"

Paper Summary:

A psychoanalytic interpretation of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" can be focused in one of two ways--a psychoanalytic connection between author and character and a psychoanalytic interpretation of the story itself. This paper shows how Melville formed the psychology of the characters and created a unique psychological bond between Bartleby and his employer. The two approaches really are interconnected as the situation of Bartleby mirrors aspects of Melville's own life.

From the Paper:

"The title character in "Bartleby the Scrivener" is fascinating because he is so outwardly unformed as a character. Bartleby is a man who withdraws from life. He does not do so as a protest, and indeed a protest would have to be an overt act of the sort quite out of character for him. His prison is entirely internalized. He creates his own prison, though the fear on the part of his boss is that perhaps Bartleby sees more than the rest of us and has lost hope because he knows that we are all in some sort of prison. The story of Bartleby is ambiguous because we see his life entirely from the outside, never hearing anything in Bartleby's own voice except the repeated, "I would prefer not to." Our view of Bartleby is through the eyes of his puzzled employer, a man who wants desperately to understand but who ultimately is left as uncertain as we."

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