The lawyer is stupefied and wonders what Bartleby is doing.
To his surprise, Bartleby answers the door half undressed and tells the lawyer that he cannot come into his own offices at the moment, as Bartleby is busy. One Sunday morning, the narrator decides to visit his office before church services. Bartleby “prefers not to” accept a request to visit the post office to defuse the tension and continues copying as Nippers and Turkey verify his work.ĭays pass following the conflict between Turkey and Bartleby, and the elderly lawyer begins to see Bartleby as his star employee. Turkey moves to make good on his threats, and the narrator must restrain him. Tension escalates when Turkey threatens to assault Bartleby for refusing to do anything but copy documents. The narrator begins to view himself as generous and charitable toward Bartleby. These observations earn Bartleby the pity of the narrator, who decides to continue to employ Bartleby, as the narrator reasons other employers would treat Bartleby poorly. The narrator notices Bartleby never leaves the office and only eats ginger nut cakes, a cheap snack food. The lawyer finds himself fascinated with Bartleby’s unshakeable calm and quiet refusals. Sometime later, Bartleby says that he would prefer not to verify his copies with the others in the office. The greatly confused lawyer hands the work to Nippers instead of forcing Bartleby to complete it.īartleby becomes a permanent fixture in the office, like a piece of furniture, and offers the lawyer reassurance with his quiet presence.
To this, Bartleby replies he would “prefer” not to and continues working behind his screen.
Soon into Bartleby’s employment, however, the narrator asks him to help verify a copy of a document. He works through all parts of the day, even writing by candlelight at night. Because of Bartleby’s promising nature, the narrator places him in his personal office, giving Bartleby privacy behind a folding screen.īartleby is an excellent worker at first, producing more copies, or “folios,” than the other scriveners. Where Nippers is irritable in the morning, Turkey struggles with his work in the afternoon, meaning a scrivener is always performing subpar work in the office. The narrator hires Bartleby because a recent increase in the lawyer’s importance means he needs additional help. Of the four named characters, only Bartleby is called by his actual name the other three have nicknames. Ginger Nut is an errand boy who spends most of his time fetching apples and ginger nut cakes for the scriveners. Nippers, Turkey, and Bartleby are scriveners, people who copy documents by hand, often for legal proceedings. The lawyer employs four people: Nippers, Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Bartleby. “Bartleby” is narrated in the first person by an unnamed senior lawyer on Wall Street in New York City.
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