Talk:Bartleby, the Scrivener

Miscellany, unorganized
More information is needed about the John C. Colt - Samuel Adams murder case.

I don't know particularly a lot about Wikipedia customs and practices, but I thought that this would be best to put here (?): The "alternate" explanation of Bartleby's refusal to work is utterly shortsighted and literarily ignorant. It really shouldn't be here. What is the protocol for removing something like this? Tweedy7736 10:09, 19 June 2006 (UTC)tweedy7736

Right—it's outta here. Tweedy7736 08:36, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

"However, Bartleby 'prefers' not to eat" - Very funny

Dostoevskian Influence?
Can anyone confirm whether Melville would have had access to Dostoevsky's short stories, in particular "An Honest Thief" (1848)? I read Melville second and it struck me as very similar to Dostoevsky's story, except in its conclusion. (I'm not sure if Dostoevsky would have been available in a language Melville could read in the five years between the publication of the two pieces.) If anyone could help here, it would be much appreciated. -- Todeswalzer | Talk 01:27, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

According to The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, the first English translations of Dostoevsky didn't come out until the 1880s. Crassiodorus (talk) 00:16, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Dates written, published
I don't understand how the story is cited as being written in 1855 or 1856, but it was published two years earlier in Putnam's Magazine. SparkNotes also lists these dates, which are impossible. A story can't be published before it is written. --Mbcudmore (talk) 16:51, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

The Raven and Bartleby
Interesting and well-written--but sounds like original research to me. As such, it invites deletion. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ilyaunfois (talk • contribs) 22:26, 13 January 2007 (UTC).

A quick search reveals at least one writer who relates Bartleby to the Raven: www.jstor.org/view/00031283/ap020051/02a00060/3. I imagine there must be others. Tweedy7736 01:58, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Updated URL:
 * Andy Dingley (talk) 23:41, 16 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Andy Dingley (talk) 23:41, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Title
It is my understanding that the title is "Bartleby, the Scrivener," not "Bartleby the Scrivener." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.10.241.65 (talk) 04:32, August 27, 2007 (UTC)

Influence
The article notes that the short story was a precursor to absurdist literature, which may be true (although needs a reference), but then makes a fragile attempt to link Melville and Kafka via the absurdism or "existential" themes of Bartleby (and even claims Kafka didn't read Melville). I find this "influence" tenuous at best. I suggest that a stronger case be made for the connection, or it should be deleted.Platypusjones (talk) 15:49, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Additionally, the influence of Melville on Camus would be better suited to the Melville page (or the Camus page), as this should be about the influence of Bartleby, not the author.Platypusjones (talk) 15:23, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I have added a reference to the 2006 film Accepted where the main protagonist is called bartleby. This is effecttively original research as I do not know whether the reference was intentional but it seems extremely likely that it was given that bartleby is an extremely uncommon name and given the overlap in ideology between the film and the novella —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.84.240.98 (talk) 08:41, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I had a professor in college tell the class that Office Space was an adaptation of this short story. Does anyone know of any works to cite for this influence? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.162.129.52 (talk) 01:36, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Internal links
i have a gripe. i understand the goal of wikipedia is to provide a comprehensive source of information about anything and everything in the world. but do we really need internal links for "lawyer," "office," "wealth," and so on? I can definitely see the need for a link to "dead letter office," and "kafka," and i'm even open to the dates and years. but really...if we subscribe to the established trend, the whole article will be blue. I'm removing those unnecessary links.Platypusjones (talk) 04:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I most strongly agree. Unfortunately, this is an attitude a lot of people embrace Wiki-wide presumably help increase their contribution score. Kayhan Yavuz (talk) 09:22, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

§Bartleby and the Absurd needs to be revisited
While I feel this is an important section, it is full of conjecture and needs revisiting.

Removed the sentence "Bartleby never refuses to do his work." He quite pointedly refuses to do at first aspects (proofreading, errands) and then any work at all.

The absurd aspect of the epilogue is that Bartleby is a dead letter. 98.119.35.172 (talk) 00:52, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

plot summary
Just wanted to drop a note that this is possibly the most fluent, enjoyable plot summary I've read of anything on Wikipedia. It's been more years than I care to count since I read Bartleby, so I can't comment on its accuracy, but it's a pleasure to read an article that sounds as if it were written by lively human beings instead of bots. Cynwolfe (talk) 18:26, 21 July 2010 (UTC)


 * It is fluid. Enough to make me suspicious. I suspect much of it is copied from other sources. Now that I've found out what most of them are, I'll be doing further investigating. If it's original, then kudos to the author! BartlebytheScrivener (talk) 17:23, 23 July 2010 (UTC)


 * A suggestion. The opening sentence of the summary that introduces the characters is missing a reference to Ginger Nut. GN is mentioned later in the section on how this story could be seen as an example of clinical depression. But since that is the first time GN is mentioned, we don't know who that is from the plot summary. AccountantsRcool (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 20:58, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Bartleby and the Absurd
I went ahead and deleted the section Bartleby and the Absurd because it made absolutely no sense. No offense but it was apparently written by someone who knows nothing about absurdism or absurdist theory or even what the word absurd means. Just for future refernce to whoever wrote this, the word absurd conveys more than just pointlessness. So saying something is pointless therefore it is absurd is incorrect. Whoever wrote it just kept saying over and over that Bartleby is absurd, his life is absurd, etc. without any support whatsoever. It is really bad analysis in that there is no analysis just baseless conclusions. Even if the editor could accompany evidence from the text (i.e. more than just saying "Bartleby's catchphrase 'I would prefer not to' is absurd", which it isn't, at all), it doesn't matter because there shouldn't be original research in a Wikipedia article. There was only one sentence which was based in support but it is one critic/theorists opinion and it should be worded as such. A critical work on the piece should not be treated as a source in the same way scientific data is. What I mean is that a person shouldn't just quote from a literary critic's work and pretend that the quote is a fact. It is still an opinion and it should be listed as an opinion and attributed to the author of the opinion. But this is all besides the point as there is no reason to keep a section alive if there is only one supported sentence in it.Jdlund (talk) 22:18, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Why a tag on the plot summary?
The plot summary has been tagged with the "excessively long or detailed" - label since April 2014, yet it does not seem excessively long or detailed to me. Also, if you look above on this talk page there is a section praising the plot summary here. My proposal is to remove the label. If no one protests its removal I will do this by Friday.MackyBeth (talk) 12:27, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Characters
I would like to add a section that discusses the different characters that are in the story what they represent throughout it. Nsiss2 (talk) 02:52, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Article structure according to Manual of Style
Today I reverted recent edits and made additions to get the article structure closer to Manual_of_Style/Novels. According to these guidelines, interpretative material should be worked into sections like "Themes", and not merely be listed without being integrated into the article itself. MackyBeth (talk) 18:07, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

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Ozark
Ozark Season 1, Episode 8, "Kaleidoscope" Marty explains to his wife, Wendy, that when the potential for Del (the cartel) to ask Marty to work for him that he would respond as Bartelby would, "I'll give him my best Bartelby impersonation, and I'll say, 'I prefer not to.'" Chrisjburt (talk) 18:33, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

✅ Bod (talk) 19:53, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

The Economist column
If the following is relevant I leave it to wiser heads to weave it in :)

On May 26th 2018 The Economist began a column on management and work under the byline Bartleby, The Scrivener. The initial column gave a summary of Melville's tale and an explanation for the byline,,,

"This enigmatic tale can be interpreted as an essay on management failure; the unnamed narrator fails to find a strategy that can motivate his employee. Or it can be seen as an act of human rebellion. Bartleby fails to acquiesce in carrying out his humdrum, tedious tasks. So this column will concern itself with the plight of managers, as they attempt to understand what makes their workers tick. And it will also empathise with the plight of Bartlebys, as they deal with the mundanity of working life and carry out their bosses’ often bewildering orders, even when they would 'prefer not to'." --- Shannock9 (talk) 20:03, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

An example of clinical depression
The section As an example of clinical depression cites Robert E. Abrams, '"Bartleby" and the Fragile Pageantry of the Ego", ELH, vol. 45, no. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 488–500, but that article makes no mention of clinical depression. A better example of psychological analysis might be Morris Beja, "Bartleby & Schizophrenia", The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 555-568 which argues on page 556 that, "A clinical analysis of Bartleby would probably identify him as at least schizoid, probably schizophrenic." Sqrlntz1999 (talk) 22:09, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Bartleby and Austism Spectrum/Asperger's
Upon reading this, I was stunned at how many of Bartleby's "quirks" mirror my son, who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (now a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder) as a young teen. No eye contact, most typical response "I'd rather not," at one job he stayed longer and longer, often 3-4 days at a time, sleeping under his desk, then slowly losing all desire to work at all. I searched Bartleby and autism, and found a number of pages that said the same thing, for example: http://www.interactingwithautism.com/section/understanding/media/representations/details/57. I think this is more obvious than clinical depression, which may follow as a symptom, not as the primary cause of the behaviors. hmarcuse Hmarcuse (talk) 22:37, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Eyesight
I wonder whether something should be added to 'As a reflection of the author' regarding Bartleby's eyesight. While it's known that Melville had significant eye issues from at least the 1860s onwards, does anyone know whether Melville's eyes troubled him occasionally in the early 1850s, and especially whether some credible reference speculates on Bartleby's eyes versus Melville's? To the narrator, Bartleby's eyes appeared 'dull and glazed' and finally 'dim'; he surmised (rightly or wrongly) that "copying by his dim window... might have temporarily impaired his vision". Mebden (talk) 20:01, 17 September 2023 (UTC)