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September 26, 2005
Bartleby and the Custom's House
Melville, ''Bartleby the Scrivener'' (1853) -- American Literature, 1800-1915 (EL 266)
I saw a few similarities between the Custom's House Chapter in the Scarlet Letter and Bartleby the Scrivener. First, the narrorator of both of the stories seems to be the owner or the boss of the workplace. Finally, I saw a similarity in the fact that before Bartleby worked for the Lawyer, he worked for the dead letter office until their was a change in administration, and he then came to work for the Lawyer. This is the same as the fact that the Narrorator in the Scarlet Letter worked at the Custom's House until a political change and he lost his job and began to write his interprettion of the Scarlet Letter.
As for the story, the quote that I found interesting was one by the Lawyer. He said, "Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange wilfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience." I think that this quote shows that although the Lawyer may seem as though he is trying to do something nice for Bartleby, he is really making himself feel better. He is saying that if he keeps Bartleby at work rather than firing him, he will be able to make himself feel better knowing that he helped someone by letting them keep their job. He is doing more of a favor to himself than he is to Bartleby.
Posted by StacyEstatico at September 26, 2005 09:42 AM
Comments
You've hit on a good point -- for some time, I did think that the lawyer's loneliness was more pronounced than Bartleby's. However, the genre divide between The Scarlett Letter & Bartleby is huge. Try looking at it from a satire point of view...there's a lot to discover.
Posted by: Neha at September 26, 2005 01:56 PM
Oh, good idea. The lawyer is just pacifing himself by keeping Bartleby on, no matter how much he annoys him. He just wants to feel that he is doing good for someone for something, regardless of whether it really helps him or not- which I'm not sure it does. By "befriending" (since they were never truly friends) Bartleby the lawyer is creating a tie to him that he cannot break. Bartleby will not leave and the lawyer has become too attatched to kick him out without offering him money first. Is the lawyer being a good person by caring or a weak one for getting attatched to an employee?
Posted by: Vanessa at September 26, 2005 09:58 PM