Michelle Lemaster's "Bartleby's Preferences"

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Melville is about a man who is a copyist. He copies papers for a living and never does more than that. When Bartleby is asked to do more, he always replies, "I prefer not to." Bartleby is finally imprisoned for preferring not to leave his former employer's former office. He then dies in prison preferring not to eat. Bartleby is never a man of emotion or invention. He never wants to do anything new or different. His life is filled with his mechanical, repetitive job. His reply, "I prefer not to" becomes as mechanical as his job as a scrivener. Any question posed to him receives the same answer as if Bartleby does not even contemplate the question.

Bartleby had the habit of starring blankly out the window on to the blank brick wall. I think that Bartleby thought of his life as this blank brick wall. The line, "a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade;" describes Bartleby very well. He is a pale man who was of some years. I believe the brick wall symbolized the end of Bartleby's career but that he prefers not to acknowledge the fact. That is why he does not want to leave the office because, if he does, his life would be as black and as shaded as that wall.

In the end, I think Bartleby wants his life to go on without him taking any action to change it. He is afraid of changing himself because he is always the same, just like copying, always the same as the original. Bartleby dies preferring not to live.

[Bartleby -- Full Text]

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