#Bartleby the scrivener quotes free#
While Bartleby exercises his free will toward his boss by refusing to do the things he is asked, he is also gaining a bad reputation for himself in the workplace.Ī relevant article to compare the thought of free-will is one by Lee McIntyre called, Free Will in the Social Sciences. It might make you begin to question the person’s integrity, but at the same time appreciate their politeness. What if you asked someone to do something and that person replied with a polite, yet to-the-point remark saying that they would not like to do it? It wouldn’t necessarily infuriate you, but it may confuse you. The author explains, “Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance” (Melville). This is understandable if you put yourself in the narrator’s shoes. The narrator also seems to have many mixed feelings about Bartley. Even with Bartleby being there at the firm causing issues, the narrator seems to back down from all confrontation. “A profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (Melville). He seems to appreciate the essence of life and keep himself at a low stress level at all times. One would typically describe “free-will” as an action that you’re capable of doing and deciding to do on your own without anyone else compelling on that choice.Īlthough we do not know much about the narrator, we can assume certain characteristics about him throughout the text. With this statement being his main monologue in the story, it simplistically portrays a theme of exercising free-will.
Bartleby creates conflict throughout the story and repeatedly says “I prefer not to” to just about everything that the narrator (his boss) tells him to do. For example, the narrator once observes “Bartleby sits in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but his own peculiar business there” (Melville).
Many other characters have a difficult time reading him because he does not talk much and keeps to himself. He does questionable things and exhibits a stubborn like behavior. Get your custom essay onīartleby would be best described almost as a puzzle.
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