Isolation in Bartleby the Scrivener :: Bartleby Scrivener Essays

Isolation in Bartleby the Scrivener   "I prefer non to," "I prefer not to," tells the reader about Bartleby isolating himself. The musical phrase shows his lack of involvement, another gain of isolation. The narrator tells the reader exactly what he did to Bartleby, very vividly, as shown below. In the novella, the author tells the reader, down to the atrophiedest detail, what he did to Bartleby to impound him from the world. He tells us in this passage, "I placed his desk close up to a small side window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain muddied backyards, and bricks, however which, owning to insubsequent erections, commanded at present, no view at all, though it gave nigh light. Within three feet of the panes was a wall, and the light came down from far preceding(prenominal) between two lofty buildings, as from a very small opening in a dome. Still further to satisfactory arrangement, I p rocured a green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though, not remove him from my voice." The quotation describes how the narrator secludes Bartleby from society. Even his window, usually a form of escape, results in Bartleby being trapped behind another wall, thus reinforcing his kernel isolation. The irony lies in the fact that the narrator, while trying to isolate Bartleby, becomes touch on by it, so much so that he appears almost human. kind of of dismissing him on the spot for refusing to copy, proofread or leave the premises, he tries to have other employment for him, and even considers inviting him to live in his residence as his guest. The narrator develops before our eyes into a caring person, very contrasting from the cold, unsympathetic person at the beginning of the story. "To befriend Bartleby, to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually wax a swee t morsel for my conscience." The narrator would normally befriend Bartleby or any other "sucker," but Bartleby has given him a conscience. The narrator has agnise that a common blemish in a person does not determine the person. In the beginning of the novella, the narrator only cared about his work, but now he realizes that people have a life distant of work, except Bartleby.