February 8, 2007; Class Discussion of Bartleby's Character

Amy Woolston
“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
FOCUS: The NarratorPhysical. What does the character look like? How old is the character? How do the character’s physical attributes play a role in the story? How does the character feel about his or her physical attributes? How does the character change physically during the story? How do these changes affect the character’s experience?
The Narrator is:“I am a rather elderly man.” Pp 133
Peaceful, “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.”
Formally dressed, “One winter day I presented Turkey with a highly-respectable looking coat of my own, a padded gray coat, of a most comfortable warmth, and which buttoned straight up from the knee to the neck.” Nice hand-me-downs!
Perhaps soft-spoken and thoughtful. He thinks before he speaks/reacts. Also, he seems to speak wisely to his employees and evokes no anger from them. He seems to be a calming force in the office. “I came within an ace of dismissing him then.”
The narrator doesn’t really change physically during his time with Bartleby. But, since he is elderly, he sees to opportunity to just move his office rather than deal with Bartleby’s “stand the ground behaviour.