Bartleby

“Bartleby”

Herman Melville created Bartleby to be a satire [which is a writing that ridicules or criticizes ideas, work ethics, and even individual] that criticizes the transcendentalist ways of life, which is shown by using a sympathetic tone throughout the story. Melville shows that Bartleby is a satire, by ridiculing the way the narrator runs his office. Right after Bartleby refuses to examine the paper, the narrator, instead of getting mad and laying down the rules just “Stood gazing at him awhile, as he went on with his own writing, and then seated himself at his desk. This is vary strange, he thought. What had one best do? But his business hurried him. He concluded to forget the matter for the present…” (12). Oliver, in the Second Look at “Bartleby” , shows that Melville makes a joke of the situation, because the narrator instead of being outraged by the usurpation, he instead is overwhelmed by the idea of how lonely Bartleby must be (69). Again Bartleby is shown as a satire, when Melville criticizes the idea of individualism and living a simplified life. Bartleby, who can be considered to be a transcendentalist due to his individualism, simplifies his life so much that he would “prefer not to dine to-day...it would disagree with me; he is unused to dinners” (40). Oliver shows that Melville wrote this satire to make fun of transcendentalist life style of simplifying your life, by showing that one cannot afford such a lifeless lifestyle; that to do nothing and live within yourself is to not live at all (66). These two examples given show that Melville wrote Bartleby to make fun of the silly lifestyle of the transcendentalists and the simplified life of an individual, which makes Bartleby a satire.