Bartleby: Parable of The Walls

Melville's Parable of the Walls Author(s): Leo Marx Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 61, No.
4 (Autumn, 1953), pp. 602-627 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27538316 . Accessed: 02/04/2014 11:02
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MELVILLE'S
PARABLE
OF THE WALLS
By LEO MARX
Dead, 25. Of or
ous.
a wall.
. .: Unbroken, absolutely ?New
interruptions;
unrelieved by breaks and continu uniform English Dictionary
IN
the spring of 1851, while

Herman letter Melville to Hawthorne: or I go and wrote his
still at work on Moby

celebrated "dollars damn
Dick,
me"
to New to bury myself in a York, on work and slave "Whale" my third-story That the press. is the only it is driving while through am so can now?I hither and thither it I finish way pulled the the The circumstances. silent grass calm, coolness, by a man to compose,? mood in which ought always growing . . . damn me. be mine. Dollars that, I fear, can seldom on a at is be shall last dear me,?I Sir, presentiment My . . .What worn to out and perish. I feel most moved not that is will pay. banned,?it Yet, write, altogether, I cannot. the other way write so, room, He went on and wrote was the "Whale" and most refused modes, 1852 he as he felt moved cool. to write Never way, and
In a week
it; the public theless Melville to his more the travel
apathetic
critics were to return the South
stubbornly earlier successful In not
to the Sea
other
romance
narrative. certain
even more were turned his
vehemently to shorter dealt
hostile. fiction. with
stories,
year, Melville following the the first of "Bartleby Scrivener," a problem like the one Mel unmistakably
to be popular. the Then,
Pierre, published this time And
a novel the critics
ville had described to Hawthorne.
LEO There able begin Wall are excellent to do with the story reasons
MARX for
603
having with, Street
Melville's
as a par reading "Bartleby" own fate as a writer. To a "copyist" in a is a man copyist of writing can be de little and auto
is about
office. lawyer's to go refuses who obstinately the Under manded of him. doubt about the own. connection
of writer, the Furthermore, on doing the circumstances between some
a kind
sort there
Melville's
facet of the story, a close examina biographical a more detailed reveals with Mel tion of the parable parallel than has been In fact the theme situation ville's suggested.1 a more a once can at in which described establishes be itself way relation. precise to conform fuses about vantly, an of irresistible re is not only about a writer who "Bartleby" to the demands of society, but it is, more rele a writer who foresakes conventional modes because
Although of this relevance
dilemma Bartleby's critics have noted the
with the most preoccupation baffling philosophi attention This is the symbolic shift of Bartleby's cal questions. own shift of interest between of Melville's Typee equivalent
andMoby Dick. And

in this the as light,
it is significant that Melville's
story, read
of and about
change. to show, I shall attempt of his recent work. the value Indeed, immense if I am correct for
does not by any means proclaim in a time of deep It was written it reflects Melville's
the desirability hopelessness, doubts
about what
so much it is because reveals "Bartleby" Perhaps to took such extraordinary that Melville of his situation pains to he This may chose its meaning. mask explain why rely upon
of the story arc those of Richard Chase and xThe most interesting interpretations stresses of the parable in his Herman the social Arvin. Chase Newton implications Arvin A Critical describes "Bartle 1949)5 PP- I43-H9(New York, Study Melville, now be called intuitive ..." study in what would by" as a "wonderfully schizophrenia nor Arvin in his Herman Neither Chase Melville pp. 240-242. (New York, 1950), a detailed of the walls. E .S. Oliver of the symbolism has written makes analysis at ideas in "A Second Thoreau's Look of the tale as embodying 'Bartle political by'," College English (May, 1945), 431-439
cilessly has left
it provides importance, statement of his self-critical us.
this parable means, it has mer the most and explicit own dilemma that Melville
604
melville's
parable
of
the
walls
derive from his earlier work, and to handle them symbols which so light a touch that only comes to the with the reader who can be expected to in the other novels story after an immersion see how much is being Whatever said here. Melville's motive may grave have defect I believe been, of the parable decided for reading that a it may be accounted legitimately to that we must back and go Typee
Moby
Melville
Dick
had
and Pierre for the clues to its meaning.

only adequate so a self-revelation sharing damaging of his own work. I the test of
It is as if
a reader's was a
qualifications thorough
"Bartleby of writer's
about a particular is a parable kind a to kind of society. relations The sub particular "A of Wall the first clue about Street," Story provides title, the nature of the society. It is a commercial society, dominated the Scrivener"
Most of the action takes and finance. by a concern with property inWall But the designation has a further mean Street. place a walled as street it becomes describes the Melville literally ing: street. in fact which reflective prosaic story. The it may hem walls of the story, and symbols controlling this is a parable of walls, the walls artist and for that matter in the meditative every be said that Melville are also explicitly to an tells us that certain of the con cen actual are the
man. facts These
"indispensable" into two facts fall
understanding categories: first, details the narrator, important,
and profession of the personality cerning ter of consciousness in this tale, and more floor-plan The of his narrator chambers. is a Wall Street lawyer.
the the
One
can
easily
sur
mise
looked
that at this unhappy turning point in his life Melville
was
fascinated
his sort of writer of seeing what by the problem a American. For his narrator he like to representative chose, as he did in "Benito Cere?o," which belongs to
therefore
LEO the same a man
MARX status with a
605
propensity
period,
of middling in
for getting
perception. observer comfortable, of
along with people, but a man of distinctly

Speaking Bartleby's methodical lucid, matter-of-fact behavior He describes has strange and prudent.
limited
this as -, he
language, himself prospered
unabashedly tells of the praise with which John Jacob Astor has
or as he says, he is a conservative, Naturally, spoken of him. an "eminently in rich men's of his traffic snug safe" man, proud and deeds. As he tells the story we are made bonds, mortgages to feel his mildness, his satisfaction with him his good humor, self and his way of life. He is the obsolete sort who sinecure munerative the re prefers of the Master
though avowedly has just been bestowed which of upon him when Chancery, ship to of the courtroom. He the action starts, the exciting notoriety to wants his be disturbs left alone 3 nothing complacency only until well appears. Bartleby chosen ; he stands and retying As at
unravelling
a spokesman he is for the society a critical role, its center and performs the invisible cords of property and
equity which
system.
intertwine
describes
in Wall
his chambers
Street and bind

with great care,
the social
and only
The
lawyer
when
the
the plan of the office is clearly
in mind
can we find
are on the the chambers to the parable. Although key rise above and the surrounding second them, buildings floor, are to those in as a result vistas limited presented only very a out upon the windows look At each end side the office. wall. white. windows No wall One which is part of the walls, the best light available, It provides the white wall which open upon of of the sun the a sky-light but even is shaft, from the
the
direct
rays at the other view ten
contrasting ture within everlasting
penetrate legal seems at first to be a sharply end gives us what It is a lofty brick struc of the outside world. of and lawyer's is black with the window. age -, the It space stands in an it encloses
sky is invisible. sanctum. The
feet
shade
606 reminds couraged skyward recall how the two
melville's the
parable black black
of
the
walls But we are not en and will
lawyer of a huge to take this extreme at face
cistern.
contrast illusory
value
and white, earthward Dick of (readers Moby
colors can be), for the lawyer tells us that in their of have very "views," colors, spite something are common: in in what "deficient land they important equally in color is less import call 'life'." The difference scape painters than the fact that what we see through each window is only
ant
a wall. This until is all we are told about the arrangement of the chambers the lawyer is appointed Master services of another He copyist. and appears, him. Clearly of the the the hastily cares lawyer kind of writer inter great that Bartleby lawyer
is hired. When Bartleby he requires the in Chancery an advertisement, Bartleby places and hires checks his qualifications little about Bartleby's inWall Street
wanted
experience; previous be one need merely
the
labor force. It is true white-collar changeable seems to him peculiarly and but on the other forlorn, pitiable is favorably hand the lawyer by his neat, respectable impressed seem to he So sedate does that the boss decides appearance. place Bartleby's he thinks it will able then a man within desk close to his own. to have call. He be useful easy until arrives This is his first mistake; so quiet and tract apparently does not understand Bartleby relationship that there ends. is also a kind folding
or at any point
their we
difficult discover
When of wall doors from
Bartleby inside the office. which the
It consists the
separate desks of the Unlike barrier
lawyer's other employees,
of the ground-glass and now desk, the
Bartleby's, and the copyists however, a makes this
office boy. is a social of
the walls men he
telling his humor. ground different
point to opens and shuts these doors according Even when be noted, the they are shut, it should an at least illusion of penetrability quite glass provides of the walls outside. from the opaqueness us that
the windows, outside can cross, and the lawyer
LEO So external and the far we world other have been told are It of
MARX two
607
views of the possible one black from the office,
which white. is what
only to be had
like Bartleby neither black now added
is fitting us makes
that
the
nor white, but to the topography
one aware view, a quite distinct is third view which Street microcosm. of the Wall
coming of another
of
a writer
I placed part of certain
in that his desk close up to a small side-window corner near the the room [a folding-doors]?a
window which
originally
back
had afforded a lateral view
of
to bricks, but which, yards owing grimy no at at view commanded present all, subsequent erections, some light. Within three feet of the panes it gave though was a wall, be and the light came down from far above, as from a very tween two lofty buildings, in small opening a dome. to a satisfactory I Still further arrangement, pro cured a high screen, which green entirely might folding not remove from my him isolate Bartleby though sight, a so And in from my voice. and manner, thus, privacy were ciety conjoined. and
Notice
best
that of all the people in the office Bartleby
is to be in the
a close scrutiny to make of a wall. His position possible narrator three And the is only feet away. mentions although at all," we recall window offers "no view that the new writer's a moment that he has, paradoxically, "view" used the word be to describe the walled vista to be had every window the important is that he is closest in the difference to a wall. through office looks between Another the out other upon
fore
windows. some and sort the
Actually of wall;
others
Bartleby notable
difference is implied by the lawyer's failure to specify the color

of Bartleby's wall. also enhances This the wall with the the stark which illusion problem it is almost colorless, Apparently to the new man's scrutinize ability limits his vision; he does not have of blackness of or whiteness. presented Only by or blank. and to know
contend faces For
perception
Bartleby the walls.
608 him
Melville's external
parable
of
the
walls
thus takes on some of the character it had reality for Ishmael, who knew that color did not reside in objects, and saw beyond the deceptive to therefore whiteness of the whale the only is con
all-color of atheism." As we shall see, colorless, nature of the wall with which the enigmatic Bartleby can account fronted for his strange behavior later. "a What impressions consecutive to the Wall yer follows we (and receive
movements: Street
to remember it is necessary that all the are the lawyer's) takes place in three resistance Bartleby's gradually stiffening the law
to enforce of
punishment
then a series of attempts routine, by the scrivener's and conformity, finally, the recalcitrant writer.
society's
the first movement the initiative. After holds During Bartleby seems content to he remain in the quasi-isolation he is hired screen the and to work green silently by "protective" provided This and its' screen, too, is a kind of wall, industriously. a means as become deal. will great apparent, color, Although seems it and with reliance upon great Bartleby pleased places an screen It is the the wall. flimsiest is ineffectual extremely it, and of all with the walls the in and out of door?both it has most the office; are "folding," at first seems in common that is, sus
glass ground to human ceptible manipulation. his likes Bartleby job, and in the years between
in fact
the exemplar
of the writer wanted by Wall

Typee defatigable
Street.
Like Melville
he the is an ardent with
himself
and in
and Pierre,
lawyer proba impresses worker; Bartleby to He for famished "been something copy." long bly having his and and although candle-light, employer, copies by sun-light a curiously in Bart silent and mechanical he does detect quality to "check refusal copy." to for the scriveners It is customary help each other in this dull to do it, to everyone's is first asked Bartleby task, but when not to. From the he simply says that he prefers astonishment, first sign of trouble is Bartleby's leby's The behavior, is well satisfied.
LEO of view
MARX the accuracy But job. concerned of his
609
copy" is an
lawyer's
point
part of indispensable is the sort of writer who curacy
"to verify the writer's is little
evidently Bartleby ac the detailed with
or in any case he does not share the of his work, lawyer's of accuracy. standards This is because the troublesome passage seem to suggest a latter-day words accuracy" "verify conception to imply For Melville of "realism." that what the public
wanted of him in 1853 was a kind of "realism" is not plausible

on historical nals" makes and But if we recall the nature of the "origi grounds. which the lawyer wants the incident impeccably copied sense. are mortgages and title-deeds, These documents
re the official version of social (property) they incorporate lations as they exist at the time. It occurs to the lawyer that not have acceded to such "the mettlesome would poet, Byron" a demand poet, Bartleby revolutionary or "common "common usage" nothing apparently that this writer sense"?a does not want lawyer's way of saying a faithful as they to embody his work relations copy of human are conceived in the Street. cares for After Bartleby's not this we hear over To and over every again request refuses the reiterated that he do refrain something of either. And like the
nay-saying. to." He
other than copy he replies with his deceptively mild,

prefer copy, or to run not until much adamantly or to do errands, later that the good-natured
"I would
to verify the accuracy of But but write. it is anything lawyer begins resistance. passive For one thing mask he (he to A ad ex
the seriousness of his employee's grasp number of things hinder his perception. that he is put off by the writer's mits
impassive
presses himself only in his work);

seems
this and the fact that there
saves Bartleby him human" about nothing "ordinarily on his the business fired from being too, preoccu spot. Then, from the away "hurry" lawyer considering constantly pations to He has more to do about Bartleby. what important things think about; and since the scrivener unobtrusively goes on work
610
melville's
parable the
of
the
walls to regard has become him
ing in his green hermitage, as a "valuable acquisition." On conciled this typically pragmatic
lawyer
continues
basis
the narrator
re are tells four
to Bartleby one Sunday, when most until, people to stop at his office. in church, he decides he Beforehand us that there are several to this Wall Street keys world, in fact, and has another, the that and he the of key himself has scrub woman each he social cannot one, has one the has for. of the other third. its own When
copyists
representative there is a fourth
stratum account
(Apparently But key.) he arrives amaze that
ment
at the office, expecting he finds it to be deserted, that Bartleby is there. this suggests, (If an the missing holds it is merely key, Bartleby are never a detail Bartleby's has the actually which with
to his however,
we
does, about until
provided explicit serves to underline Melville's throughout to leave, that he the the story.)
for intimation, that he evidence misgivings After waiting enters and soon resident as well of as
conduct a chance scrivener chambers,
Bartleby that discovers his Wall works At On Street there.
has become
lawyer a permanent and eats sleeps
strange the one hand are being
this
rights
the narrator feels mixed emotions. discovery the vaguely the effrontery, felt sense that his him. He thinks his actual angers subverted, from his property inseparable I consider that one ... is somehow is rights, unmanned
identity, manifestly "For threatened.
when he tranquilly permits his hired clerk to dictate to him, and

order him away that from his own premises." But at the same time
the lawyer feels pity at the thought of this man

silent lessness desert and isWall Street draws loneliness
inhabiting the
on Sunday. Such abject friend hu him, by the bond of common solitude of the writer. a pre out, He it provokes in his mind form winding
to sympathize with manity, is this solitude So horrible monitory among image uncaring of the
the horrible that
scrivener's
strangers,
"pale in its shivering
. . . laid sheet."
LEO is reminded the "long now that After ized death of
MARX of
611
the man, and of at his pale win out,
the many "quiet mysteries" he would stand looking periods that death wall hear which several re is somehow comprises times of an
dow behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall?'

is aware no-color this we important Bartleby's the forlorn view
The
of
lawyer
of reality. immobil of than
constituent
writer
in a "dead-wall which stands
He is obsessed very." by him and a more between ample
the wall reality
he finds inWall
The of puzzled an "innate"
Street.
him, and efforts to make between most
that Bartleby is the victim lawyer now concludes or "incurable" to question he decides disorder; to dismiss if that reveals nothing But his him. useful, talk the down. about rest himself of Wall The next fail. Street the Communication society has al
Bartleby the writer and broken
lawyer completely day a "dead-wall now remains in fixed that Bartleby permanently announces that the He who questions writer, calmly revery." "And what is the reason?" asks he has given up all writing. the by curs lawyer. enigmatically to him have that had "Do you replies. the writer's not see The the reason for yourself?" and the looks, Bartle only clue
notices
lawyer
he finds is the dull and glazed

may this effect
look of Bartleby's eyes.
It oc
diligence" "unexampled upon his eyes, particularly
in copying since he has
been working near the dim window. (The light surely is very If the lawyer is bad, since the wall is only three feet away.)
correct in assuming of that the scrivener's vision has been "tem
porarily
impaired" (Bartleby never admits it himself)

the colorless he has dead-wall become which has by a writer of
then it
incapaci trying
work
to paralyzed the philosophic by problems represented now on Bartleby From does nothing but stand and the wall. wall. gaze at the impenetrable seem to be abandoning the equivalence Here Melville might in the shadow he has established between Bartleby's history and his own. Un
is the proximity As tated him.
612 til he the
melville's chooses to have
parable
of
the
walls
parallel
transparently arrival vener's and
and stare at the wall stop writing Bartleby is his career as a writer between and Bartleby's scri the The close. following immediately period at the office, when he works with such exemplary to the industri
apparent diligence Melville's after years
satisfaction, clearly corresponds return to America, he so when
ously devoted himself
to his first novels.
And Bartleby's
in
to Melville's not to") corresponds refusal transigence ("I prefer . . . write to another I write the other way cannot.") ("Yet own another 'Redburn'." in his or, words, "beggarly Omoo, Bartleby's at the wall to that switch from copying what he is therefore, stage in Melville's romances dominate to copy to staring the emblematic counterpart is told
best-selling themes which
to
he shifted from writing a preoccupation with the philosophic But the Dick and Pierre. Moby Mardi, staring of mind at in
presumably, career when
merely passive is, can we accept Bartleby's question to the state as in any sense a parallel the blank wall wrote the later novels? which Melville The is the answer, if we recall who
story, and lawyer's this stage of his career is artistically critics and the public, barren; ceas of is in fact the themes to turn his equivalent metaphysical Melville's of his contemporaries In the judgment ing to write. absurd are no more than Bartleby's later novels meaningful habit view of of at the dead-wall. staring Street the Wall lawyer, of his work and of his Writing Melville life.2 The from accepts the the point of
the story, is Yes. This is telling in his eyes, as in the eyes of Melville's
estimate
scrivener's
popular trance
like stare is the surrealistic device with which Melville

us into trymen
2It
leads
coun
world the nightmare a world It is do.
where evoked
he by
sees himself terror, and
as his
particularly
for entertaining this to speculate that Melville's is not unreasonable capacity it. Was about of his own doubts is in fact a symptom of his work view negative to himself? He may have that he was merely talking there some truth to the view that this fear, at be admitted at the time, and it must this question asked himself in fact. basis is not without and Mardi, least in the case of Pierre
LEO the out duce all fear of that he may have
MARX himself the writer's
613
to get disastrously to pro refusal
allowed Here
touch with the
what
public
actuality. wants ideas.
is a ludicrous He becomes
the Scrivener" "Bartleby that of of exhaustion jection premonition to Hawthorne. ville had described To the the life return first, to
capacity consciousness.
to convey
He loses mystery. a prisoner of his own is an imaginative pro and death which Mel
only he is therefore
the story. to stop copying With his decision or "Bartleby," movement For him writing ends. is conceivable kind of action, and during the rest of his incapable of action or, that matter, When passivity. for of
making ceases
that of utter he any choice except to write to die. a fixture he begins He remains in the and it is the lawyer who now must take the chamber, lawyer's initiative. the is touched the miserable Although lawyer by and he soon
he is a practical man, of the inert writer, spectacle takes steps to rid himself of the useless fellow. He threatens
cannot be frightened. but the writer Bartleby, no He tries to bribe him, but money holds for Bartleby. appeal a to he what conceives he thinks be he Finally "masterly" plan; to the idle writer will that he "assumes" Bartle convey simply by, now that vacate will the productive, com to the office after having But when he returns he characteristically this assumption, which thinks is he finds Bartleby still at his window. This acceptable, ceased as he calls it, fails because he and the whatsoever about either he has to be
premises. municated universally "doctrine writer
assumptions the nature of reality. if Bartle However, to accept the premises the Wall Street upon which by refuses see to he world that also leave. We refuses later the operates, or to available is of death. by way only escape Bartleby prison human behavior or Bartleby After yet articulate stays another scrivener on, and then abortive an extraordinary thing happens. to communicate the in with attempt finds himself in such a state of
of assumptions," share no patently
the narrator
614 nervous Bartleby. does
melville's
parable
of
the
walls murder doctrine
that he indignation The fear recalls
is suddenly to his mind
afraid
he may the Christian
of charity, though he still tends, as Melville's

to interpret later, it pays to be charitable. leads him the doctrine
Confidence Man
tian view
to self-interest: according return to a Chris this However, partial on toward metaphysical and it speculation,
is here that he finds the help he needs.

Edwards Christian on ciled the on the will and determinists road
After
reading Jonathan
on necessity, and the both other
Joseph Priestley one is a Calvinist (though he becomes He
to his
to Unitarianism), with relationship that it is his This fate
theologians of subsistence. him a kind
Bartleby. to furnish
recon completely these infers from with the means
excursion
situation poor At
of resignation; further without suffering. have
teaches theology to accept the inexplicable he decides or alleviate to effort understand the
Bartleby in Protestant
scrivener's this
"lawyer's" as "some by he And
point we movement
reached He
stasis
and
the
ends.
can tolerate it is an
purpose the obstinate ironic
of an allwise writer
accepts his Providence." although this upon
relation As he cannot
or second, to Bartle a Christian help him.
of what
has happened on are to be explicitly
commentary that the directed
explanation own activities from now lawyer's as the evidence of the insofar not, force, but supernatural Now it seems that it determines Bartleby's it not for
fatalistic
story can be taken as complete, by any itself. rather by the Wall Street society of the social order which is the nature
fate.
Street's his
(The subtitle should be recalled;

story too.) For friends the and professional lawyer clients admits he
it is after all Wall

that were have condoned
would the
presence indefinitely. Bartleby's in the the scrivener hovering ences Street. particularly causes understandable Businessmen writers
But
background the men of the uneasiness among are perplexed disturbed and by writers, ask When who don't write. they Bartleby
of figure sepulchral confer of business
LEO to fetch
MARX
615
a paper and he silently declines, they are offended. must the lawyer that his again Recognizing reputation suffer, now sees that the He decides that the situation is intolerable. mere as Street of a writer who does not accept Wall presence has a dangerously effect business. upon inhibiting sumptions a gloom over more seems cast dis to the and office, Bartleby
turbing, his attitude implies a denial

more clearly than the jeopardizes insubordinate "claim before, sacred right in the lawyer of private the end may his office]
of all authority.
is aware property "outlive" that
Now,
writer
Bartleby for the itself, so him and
... possession (a wonderful cupancy" unorthodox dominate by "relentless
[of
touch!).
oc by right of perpetual If this happens, of course, than Street. the lawyer's will The lawyer's
Bartleby's eventually friends,
rather assumptions the world of Wall
upon him, and of the great power action When which and against
to bear pressure remarks," bring great an instrument is in effect the lawyer henceforth of social forces him to take
custom, which writer. the non-conforming
fails another strategem time, the only new persuasion he does, This is to change offices. the lawyer can conceive screen which removes has the portable in the process green what The a naked little defense Bartleby writer has is left had "the against motionless his en oc
provided vironment. cupant the of
inanimate room." it is not a visit
that lawyer Soon he receives scrivener do anything including still
clear to it soon becomes However, so easy to abdicate his responsibility. from a stranger building. days who The later reports lawyer several him with that refuses excited the to
inhabits further. his not
the old But
a few
sons,
former only this
that Bartleby the whole undermined. explicitly
continues
landlord, to haunt Street
confront
per the news but that
structure By
of Wall
society
the building, is in danger has
time Bartleby's character:
rebellion
taken
of being on an the
revolutionary
"Everyone
is concerned,"
616 landlord fears Fear to seek Bartleby no,
melville's tells the
parable
of
the
walls the some
are "clients lawyer, . . are entertained of a mob. ." in the public of exposure a final interview with the a series of new jobs. case he press
leaving now
offices; the time he
moves This the
squatter. To each offer that he
lawyer offers says
scrivener
although about what to him.
in every he does;
asserts
is "not
Desperate into "immobility truly charitable
is, all the jobs are equally to frighten of his inability the lawyer is driven compliance," that because he asks the abject copyist
particular" distasteful Bartleby's to make home
offer:
to come
with him.
(The problem of dealing with the writer gradually

But he is. the have learns city, and removed that even Bartleby
brings out the best in this complacent American.) to he does not want stay where charity; prefers Then when Bartleby physical he the narrator returns to escapes. actually there is word that as He the
leaves police
the Tombs
was compulsion that he had and composure, There is an official police.) and make a statement approval alone standing and of at
a vagrant. to shake unable silently
the
impressive the orders of the obeyed to appear for the lawyer request He feels a mixture of in facts. news. At the prison he finds
(He the writer's
dignation Bartleby
the
yards" grass-platted a to his efforts wall. get through Renewing high facing silently all the lawyer can elicit is a cryptic "I know where to the writer, turns away and again later Bartleby takes A moment I am." a The wall, with its Whether Bartleby. for anything but the resort is out of of
in the
"inclosed
the dead-wall." "fronting position deathlike engages character, completely concern no or he has "free" imprisoned up omnipresent the "normal" his mind. A few days pass and the lawyer returns and impenetrable the lawyer man, wall.
the last Taking that Bartleby concludes
to
the Tombs
only
to find that they have become, for Bartleby,
literally a tomb.
LEO He discovers
MARX the writer dim gives huddled at
617
up the
base
the wasted of figure of a wall, but his with dead, In a brief epilogue the lawyer a vague hears He story. leby's "certain interest" ; it suggestive subordinate clerk in the Dead to believe, vocation is some his reason
eyes open. us a final which he
clue
to Bart has a a
Letter
There destiny, a writer
had been Bartleby at Washington. Office in other words, that Bartleby's
report is that
asserts
appointed who handled
in this
communications
had been that of society, no for which there were
recipients?PERSON
The story ends with and for Bartleby
UNKNOWN
lawyer's humankind. II the
AT
heartfelt
THIS
ADDRESS.
of pity
exclamation
What
that value. we
did Melville
the
think of Bartleby? The

is of course not that to be scrivener says he does, and
lawyer's notion
taken where at face he is
was Bartleby For when
insane
he knows
can
there was Street or for the of
the central that irony is that only believe as the writer's a difference, so was far freedom scarcely and Wall In Wall between the prison Street. concerned, not read refuses or write to eat or talk them anywhere in prison too) or, would distinguish or go
did Bartleby eat any dinners do that matter, from free man
the course, was How walls.
(he which normally anything in solitary the prisoner confinement. And, was he had worked enclosed office in which by this to be distinguished from the place where
he died?
was entirely It was The quiet. yard common The surrounding prisoners. character of the masonry weighed turf grew But a soft imprisoned it seemed, the eternal pyramids, through magic, had sprung. the clefts, upon under wherein, not to the accessible of walls, amazing me with its gloom. The heart of some strange by by the birds,
thickness, kept off all sounds behind them. The Egyptian

foot.
grass-seed,
dropped
618
melville's
parable
of
the
walls
At first glance the most

Street walls, dows. office while On and
striking difference between theWall
the prison is that here in prison there are four from the lawyer's win only three had been visible we that the side of the recall however, reflection, in effect through distinction a fourth it. The between wall plain the not He Bartleby. is that he inference for lawyer's to be solved chambers by had ack and
office containing the door, which offered a kind of freedom to

others, was to walk refused the nowledged the world no
outside;
his problem
was
leaving
the office, or by leaving Wall Street; indeed, from Bartleby's Street was America. The difference be point of view, Wall
tween Wall yer's, lawyer of the not Street and the Tombs In the he was an illusion for of the law the slits peer where Such Bartleby's. because is disturbed prison thinks yard, he sees, example, the through thieves"
jail windows,
the "eyes
of murderers
and
ing at the dying Bartleby.

the writer's he is, and distinctions minor thing ways man is that incorruptible he offers no do still
(He has all along been persuaded of

honesty.) But the writer knows thieves. the which to being among For him him. same dead-wall
objection not interest fronts the
he
important has al
the mind of and upon his consciousness, upon impinged the archaic Egyptian of time. since the beginning (Notice come as close to has of the prison wall.) character Bartleby the wall as any man
can hope to do. He finds that it is ab as the Ahabs of the world is that and it not, solutely impassable, a pasteboard mask which like to think, merely would through is of "amazing thickness." can strike. The masonry man
Then why has Bartleby allowed the wall to paralyze him? The others in the office are not disturbed by the walls; in spite Is it possible of the poor light they are able to do their work.
that Bartleby's is symptomatic us reason is, to some extent, suffering fear of the perhaps morbid as much. For self-inflicted? of annihilation that mani it
fested in his preoccupation with

to suspect
the dead-wall? Melville

Bartleby has come
gives
to regard
LEO the walls
MARX
619
as permanent, of the structure of immovable parts to to surmount the man's limitations things, comparable inability or to death has He of his sense perceptions, itself. comparable account to that take of the these fact walls particular forgotten are the office are, after all, man-made. surround which They products timeless of society, but he has imputed condition eternality of man to them. In
his disturbed mind metaphysical

concomitants of the
problems which
seem to be
and problems
created by the social order are inextricably joined, joined in the

tortured yet, even if we grant that Bartleby's his dead-wall, Melville in creating has had a part the writer's for share of nored society's responsibility symbol And of the wall. imagination has not ig fate. There
state of mind may be understood is a sense in which Bartleby's to the hostile world has as a response Street. Melville of Wall us a fact of the utmost the window through importance: given . . . at the stared wall had had which "originally Bartleby afforded but . . . a lateral owing at all, bricks, at present subsequent erections, some light." Melville's insinu it gave though for its whatever the wall, symbolic significance grimy to backyards commanded served vision an impediment the around world of as moment in Melville's to him. (or substitute is per This self-exami view of certain and
no view ation
is that
actually Bartleby, the writer's for?) haps nation. the most The whole
awesome
cold
and leby's motives, of those metaphysical What able made hint
of Bart fable consists of a surgical probing the value, for a novelist, here he questions dominate his later work. themes which to the wall? (fixing his There attention is the unmistak on "subsequent
turn Bartleby that such themes
erections") had had the effect of shielding from view the sordid social scene ("grimy backyards and bricks") with which Mel
ville, novels for had example, such as Redburn being asked been more or White to consider directly Jacket. whether concerned At this point in earlier we are
apparently
Bartleby's
obsession
620 was
melville's
parable a defense than Street he
of
the
walls social To
a palliative, perhaps which had become more the nature by's does fate. not of the Wall
against stand. could has
experience this extent to Bartle
society here,
contributed
What exonerate
is important the writer
has made ciety. Bartleby be appall Melville's of Bartleby's may analysis predicament he but it is by no means When unsympathetic. ingly detached, a man contrast the between and the typi like Bartleby develops cal American writers of his age there in is no the doubt office them where his The lie. sympathies earners. status as wage by key," pletely competitiveness?even suggest "nip and other The their accept are tinged and "Tur com lawyer
however, all by placing a fatal mistake.
is that Melville the onus upon so
copyists relations their
between
tuck."
satisfactory and
employees;
names, "Nippers" Nevertheless they they are "useful"
are not to the
only half of the time. During

industrious he tends to be
half of each day each writer

half But
is
fortunately gressive
the other and compliant; during respectful and even mildly rebellious. recalcitrant are never these half-men for their employer same and so he dominates to do
time, easily sort he wants, of and the writing compels to his work standards. their the of according accuracy" "verify waver resistance When they characteristically begins Bartleby's them between missive" him moods and the lawyer. Half the
at the
ag them, he has them
is Bartleby's), against
in their "sub time, as "prefer" is their favorite word ("submission" are and the incensed with they stand employer resistance approve inconveniences of his behavior, toward inde and, these though com
his when particularly Bartleby, rest of the time they mildly them-, the ineffectual their own it expresses since Such are the writers the
pendence. not too lavishly, rewards. finest One of Melville's pliant enlist and representative
society
impulses selects
touches scriveners, begin
is the way
he has
in Bartleby's
cause,
they never though to echo his "prefer"
actually without
LEO aware
MARX
621
being nucleus
is the of its source. So does the lawyer. "Prefer" not "I and of Bartleby's it embodies to," refrain, prefer the very essence It simply means but of his power. "choice," as case not in the the it other is backed it of is up, copy clearly
ists, by will.
cial difference Nippers they are
And
it is in the strength of his will
that the cru
between
and Turkey
unconsciously of the truly cabulary course in the but of choices. from uine In
and other writers lies. When Bartleby use the word it is only because "prefer" vo the the manner, surface imitating independent the parable writer; they say they never make "prefer," any real
their mouths
"submission"; act of will.
In
only fact writers a trait
actually "prefer" in Bartleby's does
is indistinguishable it stand for a gen and Turkey for Bartleby, are the
incapable lawyer,
through the police). the and landlord, clients, lawyers' agencies, threat if the ineffective, represents ultimately only real, Bartleby some support to Henry Thor to society; his experience gives man can one the shake founda lone intransigent eau's view that the tions But sequence enemy. Bartleby the of our he institutions. shake them, and in the end society was true; insinuates Bartleby, nor the the practical has eliminated con an
and
of action, the social
like Nippers reserved carefully itself system (acting
various
can only of Bartleby's The
rebellion
is that
lawyer's
in death. For
premonition the story Again
sees he finally severe the most attracted cistern-like neither black
self-criticism. by skyward
lifeless the nearly white wall, tending
wall,
death
had fixed his eyes on the "dead" wall.

which surrounds
This wall
heroes
of
us, and which Melville's in common with the deadly to needed pierce, has much perately as a who first spoke of the whale Even Whale. White Ahab, mask" strike, sensed this, through which man might "pasteboard
so des
and he significantly shifted

brated quarter-deck reply
images in the middle
of his cele
to Starbuck:
622
Melville's
parable
of
the
walls
. . . are but as pasteboard All visible masks. objects, man, can the If man will strike How the mask! strike, through reach the outside except through prisoner by thrusting near To me, the white is that wall, whale shoved wall?
to me.
Like
the whale, the wall will tries too the man who destroy so to had it. become obsessed penetrate by obstinately Bartleby to prison hardly that his removal the problem of the dead-wall the state of his being; or, for that matter, changed his condition,
even in the walled suffused by death.

The tion detachment
street he had allowed his life to become

with which Melville views Bartleby's the fable. He Street situa gives society of his to
us
is perhaps striking a powerful and unequivocal of the writer, for its treatment
the most
thing about case against Wall he avoids sanction
in social evil finding hero thinks and does. Bartleby's of writing walls. needs and
yet a sentimental True, the
the for
temptation
he prefers
aspirations; not to do; shares
society has it has demanded and, most the
everything been indifferent of him of all,
a kind it has
serious
impaired his vision by forcing him to work in the shadow of its

Certainly of society responsibility for Bartleby's
fate. But Melville

in the guilt To nation. to condone
will not go all the way with those who find

an excuse what refuses the blame What led for the writer's every halluci to Bartleby's behavior is not to ignore the painful fact that it was for Bartleby's delusion,
society understand
it. Melville
even shares if society a delusion. nevertheless not built the walls by men
but themselves, the wall of human with
this writer was killed ultimately the walls the fact that he confused mortality.
Ill
Is this, then, utter negation"? note of as F. O. Matthiessen If it is not here has written, "a tragedy of there is a clear if muted it is because must not be ignored. In the
affirmation
which
LEO
MARX
623
to feel that the action has somehow end, in prison, we are made us source to the mysterious taken in closer of positive values Melville's universe. yard, is the of the "it sky, "And is not and in the prison there Look, presence in presence the says the see," so sad a place here is the to Bartleby lawyer as one might think. To the grass." lawyer is as wonderful where "by as its some
the grass of heart the
in the Tombs eternal
pyramids
strange magic through clefts, grass-seed, had sprung." attributed The saving power is the clue to Melville's affirmation.8 The whether Wall made green black Street of the grass everything signifies or blank, do not. Most for what
by birds, dropped to the green grass
that men they
or white
who
the walls, inhabit
the walls accept merely structures which compartmentalize are abstract
are?man
they leby, however, to man's realization of his place sees characteristic that the yer outstanding
To Bart experience. of all the impediments the law in the universe. Only emblems of the walls, is that they whether
are "de or as symbols, as material regarded objects on other is the The in . . . 'life'." life. ficient hand, Green, which is the key to a cluster of images of fecundity color green recurs It is the with in Melville's work Typee. beginning It is the isle. dominates that tropical color which primitive color of growth and imminent motive for the Indeed experience. pastoral an is of our agrarian society important on "Are the the green Pequod. signing of all
disappearance Ishmael's
at the I quoted in the letter to Hawthorne which 3Recall that two years before, the unhappy circumstances under had contrasted of this essay, Melville beginning a man in which to "the silent grass-growing mood which he wrote Moby Dick ought to compose." in his own development Later in the same letter he described always in "Bartleby": comes to the mind of the the identical lawyer image which after I am like one of those seeds taken out of the Egyptian which, Pyramids, a seed and nothing in but a seed, being three thousand planted years being and then fell to the mould. itself, grew to greenness, English soil, it developed The fact tion with conclusive letter. of images that this same constellation between the same theme (the contrast between the evidence of the relation in conjunc in "Bartleby" reappears seems to me two kinds of writing) and the "dollars damn me" parable
624 fields
melville's he asks the time
parable as Moby of as Dick
of
the
walls And "I later declare he
gone?"
begins.
in describing that for the a green tint
ecstacy I lived
sperm: squeezing in a musky meadow." vision of
says, to you a
So he gives felicity," the heart,
to his
he felicity which that the bed?wherever, force in the world. giving "Bartleby," There Melville tain ment ducing green paint fore also makes made
redeeming says resides
"attainable
the wife, in the country, men the magical life know may is, the year be And Pierre, published a green a with vision of begins paradise. a cer He his meaning compares explicit. of ele pro
with the "democratic verdigris as subtile acid among us, forever operates [which] . . ." new things by corroding the old.
can be more in general Now of decay nothing significant on than the idea of corrosion; the other yet hand, nothing can more luxuriance of life than the idea suggest vividly as a is the peculiar of green for green signet of all color; fertile Nature herself. By some curious quirk of the human situation, Bartleby's to prison, him also faith. the of Melville un takes deftly the the
takes which resistance, compromising of animal him a step closer to the green this note of hope by having introduces in the prison yard to the mystery grass In time greenness, pyramids. trate the most massive of walls. inherent in time itself, the
compare lawyer the grass within
may pene suggests, lawyer seems Indeed green virtually a somehow of man's eternal property
universe.
most and
And
in a Wall
Street society it is (paradoxically)
to the scrivener when he finds himself in prison accessible obses If suicidal at the verge of death. Bartleby's Why? sion has taken him closer to grass and sky, are we to understand and meaningful? both heartening that it has had consequences in spite of all the reasons he has given us Is Melville implying, for that of Bartleby's motives, being skeptical a us to the way show of his fate may genuine an understanding Be affirmation?
LEO fore note ville to answer remarkable While
MARX
625
to it is appropriate and content Mel are never explicitly
attempting here how has
these a fusion the
questions, of manner
achieved. are most
asked, they of this tale, on its placid
that suggest a perfect embodiment apparently message While the clue
The unique carefully quality to say almost in fact, resides in its ability nothing to and inscrutable and yet so powerfully surface, a great deal is being said. This of is quality style of the theme itself: concealed of beneath Bartleby death scene the is a if not mad behavior
questions insinuated.
meaningless to all men. of utmost significance the presence of the grass at Bartleby's to Melville's the affirmation affirmation, of the scrivener's mind. Green now
is
outside
can only exist means to nothing from was the the
him.
were
In theWall
Street world he had known, the green fields

able The to see neither grass that screen, But the nor sky remained the
he was gone; walled-in windows.
only green artificial green his flimsy upon painted which he did his diligent early work. chimerical pointing early novels means the most of protection.
screen
behind
screen
accusing a strong contained which
Melville Again at himself. questions ingredient
a proved seems to be not his
Had
of primitivism? of the
Had
he not in effect relied upon the values

experience new America? as a defense by and his damn me!), made green, (values Was reappeared
implicit in the Typee

image inac
in the
cessible "insular Tahiti"
in Moby Dick)
as his shelter from the
this pastoral commitment of any real worth a Wall Street story of Bartle against society? The to the like letter Hawthorne screen, green (dollars or man that it was. In this fable, denies artificial used as a shield in aWall Street
abets office, merely the natural As for the other green, of the self-delusion. green never the it is that in clear appre grass Bartleby prison yard, For one thing, a color could hardly have its meaning. hended at to that His taken meant had him stage. anything skepticism him beyond any trust in the evidence of his senses ; there is no
626 reason color
melville's to believe than the that
parable green or white was of
of for
the him
walls any We less a
black
the walls.
illusory know, more
over, that when he died Bartleby was still searching: he died

with It his eyes open. the writer but the the complacent represen lawyer, there who tative American, is aware of the grass and to whom, in the is is If there any hope fore, granted. meaning finally Recall it is hope for his, not Bartleby's, salvation. dicated, that everything we understand of the scrivener's From fate has come the to us by way of the lawyer's has situation of the writer latent pathy, a cry little sensibility, gradually of his recognition of of from problem. consciousness. been working the first the is not
drawing the bond this man "Ah,
upon for upon his capacity his desperate between who had once Ah,
narrator's sym em
ployee and the rest of mankind.

compassion the writer's
And Bartleby's death elicits

grasped humanity!" so Bartleby!
are his (and Melville's)

revelation. nearest It Such equivalent is an expression cal as the leaves to meet real and
last words.
They
contain the final
is the felt and spontaneous sympathy deeply reach of man. to the green of the grass within as magi as persistent, of human brotherhood en is the force which may of grass. Charity of death, whose many manifes challenge the valiant annihilated Bartleby. imagined, the from his hero: his they at once acknowledge If such a man delusion.
able men tations,
The
final words of the fable are of a piece with Melville's

aloofness
undeviating
and repudiate courage Bartleby's then how as the lawyer is ultimately capable of this discernment, to the ex was become the wall in permitting wrong Bartleby can be saved. But The of his concern! clusive lawyer object has or one of Hawthorne's like Ahab, the scrivener, genuises, made failed tween the fatal error that to see the He his back on mankind. turning no walls in fact there were impenetrable which walls The and himself. only of has be had
lawyer
separated them wrere the folding
(manipulatable)
glass doors,
LEO and screen. the green Bartleby as Ahab's mad is a hero; much Ishmael's salvation,
MARX is wrong,
627
or not, he but wrong occasion the necessary is the necessary
for
quest was annihilation this writer's
for Everyman's perception. statements of the artist's the countless imaginative Among in its is exceptional in modern "Bartleby" literature, problems of in the and for the and average man, severity hope sympathy its treatment we consider been of the artist. the seriousness This of the remarkable is particularly had rebuffs Melville when so re
occasion
he is But nothing, given by his contemporaries. to his of the writer relieve be allowed obligations saying, may as If he forgets to mankind. did, his art humanity, Bartleby so will he. The will die, and this, at the last realizing lawyer, cently moment couples Bartleby's name with that of humanity itself.
The
eerie
fate of the artist is inseparable from that of all men. The
to the self-ab rebuke is a compassionate story of Bartleby to so a he himself devote that of the artist, and plea sorption ex the rest of mankind. Today, strong his bonds with keeping is Scrivener" the a century after it was written, "Bartleby actly canon of "or to the large and ever-growing a counter-statement dealist" interpretations of the situation of the modern writer.

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Melville's Parable of the Walls Author(s): Leo Marx Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 61, No.

. .: Unbroken, absolutely ?New

unrelieved by breaks and continu uniform English Dictionary

the spring of 1851, while

still at work on Moby

it; the public theless Melville to his more the travel

critics were to return the South

stubbornly earlier successful In not

even more were turned his

vehemently to shorter dealt

hostile. fiction. with

to be popular. the Then,

Pierre, published this time And

a novel the critics

ville had described to Hawthorne.

having with, Street

of writer, the Furthermore, on doing the circumstances between some

Although of this relevance

dilemma Bartleby's critics have noted the

andMoby Dick. And

it is significant that Melville's

the desirability hopelessness, doubts

cilessly has left

it provides importance, statement of his self-critical us.

and Pierre for the clues to its meaning.

man. facts These

"indispensable" into two facts fall

understanding categories: first, details the narrator, important,

that at this unhappy turning point in his life Melville

LEO the same a man

MARX status with a

along with people, but a man of distinctly

language, himself prospered

Street and bind

the plan of the office is clearly

rays at the other view ten

contrasting ture within everlasting

sky is invisible. sanctum. The

606 reminds couraged skyward recall how the two

parable black black

walls But we are not en and will

lawyer of a huge to take this extreme at face

and white, earthward Dick of (readers Moby

experience; previous be one need merely

When of wall doors from

Bartleby inside the office. which the

separate desks of the Unlike barrier

lawyer's other employees,

of the ground-glass and now desk, the

Bartleby's, and the copyists however, a makes this

office boy. is a social of

the walls men he

telling his humor. ground different

the windows, outside can cross, and the lawyer

which white. is what

like Bartleby neither black now added

nor white, but to the topography

I placed part of certain