"Bartleby the Scrivener": An Allegory of Reading

Abstract

"Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” has challenged many readers over the years with its title character’s inscrutability and refusal to undertake any action with his categorical statement, “I would prefer not to.” Unlike most stories that seem to generate interest solely with literary critics, Melville’s story has attracted the attention of many philosophers who have been seduced by Bartleby’s firm resistance and opposition to anything that the lawyer-narrator has asked him to do. However, these philosophers are not concerned with the story of Bartleby per se: who he is or what he did or did not do. Their only concern is with what Giorgio Agamben has called the “formula”: “I would prefer not to,” which they take as the starting point for developing their philosophical analysis.... We know very little of Bartleby, where he came from, his family, his hopes, or his desires. The reader’s frustration is similar to that of the lawyer in the story, who asks: “In mercy’s name, who is he?” Attempts over the years to answer this question have been many, and not very
satisfactory. Critics are like the lawyer-narrator in the story who tries to befriend Bartleby and to help him as much as he humanly can, but with no results. Critics have identified Bartleby as everything from a Christ figure to a new Ishmael, or to an artist figure reminiscent of Kafka’s Hunger Artist. Suffice it to say that these readings do not exhaust all interpretive possibilities, and none of them provide a satisfactory enough answer not to warrant further readings."