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Nineteenth-Century Fiction.
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Bartlebythe
Scrivener:
A Parable
of Pessimism
DANIEL
BRUCE
STEMPEL
M.
AND
STILLIANS
IN
[2681
269
270
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
fidelity
ofhis translations
ofexcerptsfromhisworksand in general
was delightedby thearticle,whichattackedthe Germanacademicians forfailingto recognizethe geniusof a philosopherwho was
not a professor.4
The WestminsterReview, as Hugh W. Hetheringtonhas
pointedout,was one ofa numberof Britishmagazineswhichwere
widely circulated in the United States, often arrivingby fast
steameraftera two-weekcrossing.5
Melville was an avid readerof
the periodicalpress,and it is likelythathe read the Westminster
Review,if onlyto see whetherhis bookshad been includedin the
regularsurveyof Americanwriting.The Review had printeda
briefbut favorablereferenceto Melville'sworkin 1852.6It is not
possibleto determineexactlywhereand when Melville pickedup
the April issue because the opportunitieswere omnipresent.In
May he was in New Yorkto see his father-in-law
offto Europe and
it washiscustomto go to thereadingroomoftheNew YorkSociety
Libraryand scanthelatestperiodicals.7
Further,he could haveread
theAprilissuein Bostonat theAthenaeumor even in Pittsfield.
Grantedtheopportunity,
whatabout the interest?Here theevidence is so strongas to rule out the possibilitythathe mighthave
simplyignoredthearticle.On his tripto Europe in 1849 Melville
traveledwithGeorgeJ. Adler,professor
of Germanat New York
University.
Adler,whomMelvilledescribedas "Coleridgean,"was
an enthusiasticstudentof Germanphilosophyand lostno timein
of transceninitiatinghis travelingcompanioninto the mysteries
dental metaphysics,
"Hegel, Schlegel,Kant, 8Cc." 8 And Melville
was a farfromunwillinglisteneras theystrolledthe deck talking
absoof his favoritetopics,"Fixed Fate, Free will, foreknowledge
9
lute." Nor did thisinterestwane whenhe returnedand settledat
Arrowhead.J. E. A. Smithof Pittsfieldnoted thatafterhis day's
12 (1923-25), v.
4 "Vorwort,"Jahrbuch der Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft,
5 Melville's Reviewers (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1961), pp. 5-6.
There was an American edition of WestminsterReview, published in New York at
this time. See F. L. Mott, A History of American Magazines (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1938), 2:129-30.
6 See Jay Leyda, The Melville Log (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1951), 1:442.
7 Sealts, p. 15.
8 Herman Melville, Journal of a Visit to London and the Continent,ed. E. M. Metcalf (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1948),p. 12.
9 Ibid., p. 5.
271
11 The Piazza Tales, ed. Egbert S. Oliver (New York: Hendricks House, 1948), p.
272
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
273
Oxenford,PP. 405-7.
274
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Ibid., P. 405.
275
league, is the "victimof two evil powers-ambitionand indigestion" (20). He is possessedby anotherformof generalizedviolence
grindshis teeth,constantly
adjustshisdesk,and muttersmaledictionsunderhis breath.
But Bartlebycopiesdocuments-and thatis all he will do. When
he is askedtoverify
hiscopies,he refusesin "a singularlymild,firm
voice": "I would prefernot to." He repeats this formulathree
times,withoutoffering
anyreasons,yetmaintaininghiscomposure.
His employeris at a loss: "Had therebeen the least uneasiness,
anger,impatienceor impertinencein his manner;in otherwords,
had therebeen anythingordinarilyhumanabout him,doubtlessI
should have dismissedhim fromthe premises.But as it was, I
should have as soon thoughtof turningmy pale plaster-of-paris
bustofCiceroout ofdoors"(25). He sensesthatBartlebyis notlike
other men, that there is somethingunmoved and unmovingin
Bartleby,like the pallid bust of the old Roman. In a second encounterhe receivesthesameanswer,and againthestrangecharisma
of Bartlebyrestrainshis employer:"With anyotherman I should
have flownoutrightinto a dreadfulpassion,scornedall further
words,and thrusthim ignominiously
frommypresence.But there
was somethingabout Bartlebythatnotonlystrangely
disarmedme,
in
a
but,
wonderfulmanner,touchedand disconcertedme" (26).
The lawyergraspsthe factthatthisis not some arbitrarycaprice,
thatwhile Bartlebyfeelsthe request is quite reasonable,he has
some "paramountconsideration"thattakesprecedence.Although
he appealstocommonsensebyenlistingthesupportofotherclerks,
thishas no moreeffectthanhis appeal to reason.Bartlebyreturns
to his littleniche,his "hermitage,"as his employernow has unconsciouslyfalleninto the habit of referringto it. He is, to use
Oxenford'sdescriptivephrase,like "the anchoritein the Egyptian
the span of his acdesert,"an asceticwho is graduallycontracting
tivity,
withdrawing
fromthevisibleworld.
Unable to cope with the remarkablebehaviorof Bartleby,the
narratoris forcedto rationalizehis own inexplicablereactionin
termsofhisquid proquo philosophy,
theethicofthejust man. He
pities Bartlebyas an involuntaryeccentricand consoles himself
withthethoughtthathisgenerosity
will be rewardedby"layingup
in mysoul whatwill eventuallyproveto be a sweetmorselformy
conscience"(28). The conditionslaid down by Bartlebyare tacitly
276
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
Oxenford,P. 405.
277
a handkerchief.
This removestheone motivethat,to his methodical mind,mighthave justifiedBartleby'sbehavior-poverty.And
the lawyerreviewsthatbehavior':Bartleby'ssilence,nevervoluntarilybroken;his long reveriesbeforethe blank wall oppositehis
window; his self-imprisonment
in his hermitage;and his "pallid
haughtiness,"thattotallyself-possessed
and deliberatewithdrawal
fromlifewhichnot merelydisarmsbut "awes" his employerinto
"a tamecompliancewithhis eccentricities"
(34). The resultof this
meditationis what the narratorcalls "a prudentialfeeling"-we
rememberthathe has boastedthathis first"grandpoint" is prudence.Melville'slawyerinstinctively
reactsas Arnoldreactedin his
278
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279
280
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281
The epilogueto the tale is that"vaguereport"whichthenarrator mentionsin his opening paragraph.Bartleby,it seems,was a
clerkin the Dead LetterOffice,and his employermusesover the
possibilitythat,given Bartleby'scharacter,"by natureand misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness,"nothingcould have been
worseforhim than the openingand destructionof letterswhich
havenotbeen deliveredbut "on errandsoflife.. . speedto death."
But this epilogue, supplied as an "explanation" of Bartleby's
by
tragicdecline,failslike everyotherrationalexplanationoffered
thenarrator.It tellsus nothingof real importanceabout Bartleby,
changehas taken
but it does indicatethata deep and irreversible
place in thenarrator.Actually,thesafeman,thesuccessfullawyer,
is farmorecomplexthantheenigmaticBartleby.When one grasps
the significance
of the end towardwhich Bartlebyis moving,his
linear.Havingmade theone freedecision
courseappearsruthlessly
ofwhichanyman is capable,thechoiceof theextinctionof thewill
to live,he allowsnothingto turnhim aside. In contrast,the narratorwavers,tornby an innerconflict.For him Bartlebyrepresents
a negationof values whichhe has neverquestioned,the values of
thevalue of existenceitself.
his socialgroup,and, moreimportant,
and a prudentselfishness
counOn theone side,nativeshrewdness
sel thattheremustbe a reasonableexplanationforBartleby'smartyrdom;on the other,a stillsmallvoice criesout fromthe depths
thatsuffering
and existenceare one and thesame,thatall menshare
Bartleby'spain,ifnothiswisdom.
The symbolof thedead lettersis ambivalentpreciselybecause it
servesas the focusforthisinnerconflictin theclosingparagraphs.
What can be moredepressing,the narratorwonders,than to open
theseletterswhichbringhope and reliefand have neverreached
This seemsreasonableuntilthereaderaskswhy,
theirdestinations?
to be completelyrationalabout the matter,the narratordoes not
seemto be awarethatdead lettersmaycontainbad newsas well as
good and thata clerkin theDead LetterOfficemightspendmuch
ofhis timedisposingofunpaid bills! It is evidentthatMelvillehas
deliberatelyemphasizedone aspectof his analogyand suppressed
theotherin orderto movethesymbolof thedead letterout of the
realmof normaleverydayprobabilityand into the realmof theology-or atheology.These letters,like the long-awaitedblessingof
gracewhichreleasesman fromthe slaveryof his owii will, never
282
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
In 1856 Melville visited Hawthorne in England and spent several days with him at Southport. "Melville," Hawthorne noted in
his journal, "as he always does, began to reason of Providence and
futurity,and of everythingthat lies beyond human ken, and informedme that he had 'prettymuch made up his mind to be annihilated'; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and,
I think,will never rest until he gets hold of a definitebelief." Hawthorne also noted that Melville had been afflictedwith neuralgic
complaints in the head and limbs and that "his writings,fora long
while past, have indicated a morbid state of mind." He seemed to
Hawthorne "a little paler and a little sadder." 19
Perhaps Bartleby the Scrivener was the journal of a descent into
that valley of the shadow which Schopenhauer had charted for the
nineteenth century,a metaphysical desert in which so many perished. "It is strange how he persists,"Hawthorne mused, "and has
persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before-in
wandering to-and-froover these deserts as dismal and monotonous
as the sand hills amid which we were sitting."20
18 Richard Tuerk makes an interestingconjecture on the source of the dead-letter
metaphor in "Melville's 'Bartleby' and Isaac D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature,"
SSF, 7 (1970), 647-49. However, there is no reason why the dead letter should not
have seemed to Melville, as it did later to Gerard Manley Hopkins, an appropriate
symbol for the failure of communication between man and God: "cries like dead
letterssent / To dearest him that lives alas! away."
19 The English Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. Randall Stewart (New
York: MLA, 1941; London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1941), p. 432.
20 Ibid., pp. 432-33