Bartleby, the Scrivener

“I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds. All who know me consider me an eminently safe man.”

Melville characterizes the narrator and his perceptions of the main setting at once. The lawyer is unambitious and safe, in contrast to the volatile scriveners he employs in his office.

“My chambers were up stairs at No.—Wall-street. At one end they looked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft, penetrating the building from top to bottom. This view might have been considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape painters call ‘life.’ But if so, the view from the other end of my chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if nothing more. In that direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required no spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but for the benefit of all near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my windows panes.”

The vivid imagery of this passage paints a picture of the lawyer’s office and foreshadows the significance of the brick wall, which later gains importance as Bartleby’s focus for his daydreams. The “lurking beauties” that can be seen unaided also foreshadow Bartleby’s damaged vision.

“I always deemed [Nippers] the victim of two evil powers—ambition and indigestion. The ambition was evinced by a certain impatience of the duties of a mere copyist, an unwarrantable usurpation of strictly professional affairs, such as the original drawing up of legal documents.”

Melville uses humor both to reveal the narrator’s opinions on ambition and to describe Nippers to the readers. The narrator’s harsh view of Nippers’ ambition is expressed by Melville’s word choice of “unwarrantable usurpation.”