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In Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, what part do the setting and the subtitle ("A Story of Wall Street") play in the story? Why does the...

The subtitle, “A Story of Wall Street,” appears to refer to the famous street in Manhattan, and would seem to support a particular reading of the story, in which Bartleby can be seen as an exploited worker, worn down by long service to the “machine” of capitalism. While this may be true, it’s not the only (or best) reading of the story. As you point out, the story is full of references to walls, screens,...

The subtitle, “A Story of Wall Street,” appears to refer to the famous street in Manhattan, and would seem to support a particular reading of the story, in which Bartleby can be seen as an exploited worker, worn down by long service to the “machine” of capitalism. While this may be true, it’s not the only (or best) reading of the story. As you point out, the story is full of references to walls, screens, and blank views. The lawyer is at great pains to position Bartleby behind a screen; Bartleby’s window looks out only onto another wall; in fact, the whole architecture of the office seems designed to box Bartleby in and conceal him from view. Bartleby is as “blank” himself as the view out his window – the lawyer is never able to learn much about who he is or where he comes from. As the lawyer discovers when he finds that Bartleby has been living in the office, and persists there even after he relocates his office to another building, Bartleby has become part of the architecture, a kind of “ghost in the machine,” a mute symbol of whatever essential yet elusive thing the lawyer feels he lacks – commonality, friendship, love, or perhaps simply the need for an object on which he can bestow his generosity. Whatever it is the lawyer wants, his desires are always blocked by Bartleby, who can always be counted on to “prefer not to.” In this sense, we can understand the “Wall Street” of the subtitle to refer to a place full of obstacles and impediments, an endless series of walls between us readers and the human connection we all desire.

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