The Mask of Melville’s Lawyer in Bartleby

Her humanity Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener gives the reader an unnerving, yet fooling look at a fable of a man dulled by the repetitiveness of urban life. Melvilles characters are rife with symbolism, nevertheless it is also the umpteen allegories of modern life that makes it so powerful. indeed setting the written report in nineteenth century Wall Street port cobblers lasts of the climax wealth and power of New York City, and the veritable life existence of the characters in Bartleby that predated this prosperity and who continue to exist today.The character of the attorney in Herman Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener is cl pop out into an outright confusing situation that he has never encountered in his life. All who realize me, consider me an eminently safe man, (Melville 2) he says as he describes himself. Although a attorney by profession, he does non dissemble himself with the intricacies and morality of the police, merely content on dealing with property a nd other thick mens businesses. As Davis saysObviously, the lawyer is a man dedicated to the laws of the earth, and, not only has he dedicated himself to these laws, but deals exclusively with the laws of property, of rich mens bonds and mortgages and prenomen deeds. The narrator seems to hold no interest, or, at the least, no ambition in practicing law that demands of him thoughts of higher things. Before the appearance of Bartleby, by the narrators own admission, he has not struggled with the ethics of justice, of good and evil rather, he makes his room in this world comfortable by dealing with the physical, the tangible, that which he can know. (2)Relating this intellect to Dunbars We Wear the Mask, the attorney who hires Bartleby has unavowed himself from these higher functions from the world, and the people around him, by abideing this mask of feigned simple-mindedness. We survive the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes (Dunbar 1-2). It pre vents the lawyer from actually accepting who Bartleby is till the end of the story. Through the years, this mask becomes ingrained to the record of the Lawyer, that he fails to understand anything that touches him through this shield. provided this is exactly what Bartleby does, and what evokes the Lawyer and the readers interest at the same time. We are unmated as to who this exotic shaft is and why he is that odd. Chisdes provides an interesting analogy between the two main characters.This story is a story of contrast between Bartleby and the narrator. The narrator does everything possible to reach out to his fellow humans and Bartleby does everything possible to attenuated himself off from his fellow humans. Whereas the narrator embraces life, Bartleby rejects it. (Chisdes par. 23)Bartleby does not choose a mask for himself, rather, his has already eroded into the sullen drudgery of social occasion life. The Lawyers narration of his story at the end, of how Bartleby was working at a Dead Letter Office (Melville 37) wear that although Bartleby changed him, his mask remains on him. In the words of Mason, The lawyer gives Bartleby a nonaggressive and contentedending to diminish his culpability in Bartlebys demise. (par 7). Till the end, the Lawyer does not recognize his relationship with Bartleby outdoor(a) his mask of pretend virtue. He freshman decides to place him aside, but with his associates getting curious approximately this shell of a man in his office, he decides he cannot con anymore.Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, allow them only see us part, We wear the mask. (Dunbar 6-9)The Lawyer cannot stomach this aberration. Not because he is worried about himself, but about what other people think of him. He only lets the world see him while wearing his mask.At last I was made aware that all through the circle of my professional acquaintance, a susurrus of wonder was running round, having referenc e to the strange creature I kept at my office. This worried me very much. (Melville 28)Bartleby only serves to bring out this deficiency in the Lawyers character, something that is true for each one of us. Dunbars poem reflects our inner weaknesses, that we only ruffle with culture through a persona. As the Lawyer was presented with someone whom the mask of himself is not affecting, he becomes confused, leading to the darkly clownlike events that follow.R E F E R E N C E S Chisdes, Jonathan. The Narrator in Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener Morally Corrupt or Deep Humanitarian?. May 12 1995. chisdes.com October 28, 2007. http//www.chisdes.com/bartleby.htmlDavis, Todd F. The Narrators Dilemma in Bartleby the Scrivener The resplendently Illustrated Re-statement of a Problem. Spring 1997. Studies in short-change Fiction. October 28, 2007. Dunbar, Paul Laurence. We Wear the Mask. The fill in Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1913.Mason, Joe. Ideologi cal acknowledgment in Herman Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of Wall-Street and Poor Mans Pudding. Southern Connecticut University. 2005. October 28, 2007.Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener. 1853. Kessinger Publishing. 2004.