Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" introduces many interesting characters with many different personalities to us.
Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” introduces many interesting characters with many different personalities to us. However, out of Ginger Nut, Turkey, Nippers, and Bartleby, the narrator an elderly man, who makes his living helping rich men deal with their legal documents, is the most intruging. The narrators feelings towards Bartleby change as the story progresses making him a round character, and one of the narrator's personalty traits is him not being very assertive, having a weak will.
The narrator is a round character because he goes through a change of personality from being upset at Bartleby, to being kind and caring to Bartleby. For example the narrator needed to proofread four quadruplicates of an important document, he calls in all of his employees to sit and proofread while he reads aloud from the original, and all of them come except for Bartleby. When called on specifically, Bartleby answers as usual, "I would prefer not to"(123). When the narrator tries to reason with him, Bartleby simply repeats, "I would prefer not to"(123). The narrator becomes agitated, and is so taken aback by Bartleby's refusals that he looks to his employees for support. Aside from being upset at Bartleby, the narrator's sincerity towards Bartleby is also questionable. Every time the narrator tries to assist Bartleby, he seems to do it only to gratify himself. After the narrator informs Bartleby that the office must be vacated, he says to himself, "As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity"(132). On his way home that night, the narrator congratulates himself on his handling of the situation. The narrator is glad to have gotten rid of Bartleby, but only it seems, because he gave Bartleby money. But the narrator's feelings towards Bartleby seems to take a turn and he becomes more caring. For some reason, something about Bartleby touches the narrator. He resolves to help Bartleby if he can. After all the trivial attempts to help Bartleby by giving him money and offering Bartleby a place to stay, the narrator begins to have feelings for Bartleby. Bartleby's gloom begins to infect the narrator: "Before, I had never experienced aught but a not-unpleasing sadness. The bond of a common humanity now drew me irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam"(128). Bartleby's plight draws the narrator into depths of feeling that he did not know he was capable of having. After moving, and being rid of Bartleby, he finds a note telling him that Bartleby has been arrested and moved to the Tombs as a vagrant. The narrator goes to the prison to check on Bartleby only because he cares and knows that nobody else will. This shows how the narrator has changed and how he is truly beginning to care about Bartleby.
