Research Paper on:
Bartleby in Herman Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener'

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
many levels. Melville was quite successful in using this story as a platform for exposing several issues which were of importance to him. This paper will relate how  Melville used the character of Bartleby to show how appearance and psychological state influence behavior. This paper will highlight how Bartleby was both neat and orderly in appearance yet  mentally disturbed, and those qualities both led to his untimely death. Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener is a short story about a  Wall Street attorney set in the industrial period (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). This story relates the "tedium and monotony of the workplace" by examining "the effect of repetitive  and boring work" (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). The narrator of the story is actually Bartlebys employer and he is called Master of Chancery (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener).  The narrator spends the entirety of the story trying to figure out his strange subject, Bartleby, but in the end is unsuccessful (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener).  Bartleby is a well-dressed, man (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). When he first appears in the law office, the Master of Chancery is taken with his appearance and because  of this, decides to hire him on the spot (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). Essentially, he figures that if he looks well-dressed and clean-cut, then he must be okay  (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). Obviously, this was not to be the case after all (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). "Unable to use ones creative abilities, a scriveners  chief skill was his focus on detail and ability to copy words verbatim" (Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener). Perhaps this is the reason why Bartlebys neat, tidy and organized