Society's Imbalance in Bartleby

Through characterization, setting, and theme, Herman Melville, a Romantic author, illustrates the imbalance between American social classes and the decay of social concord through his short story masterpiece, Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street He creates very distinct and symbolic characters that represent the different social positions in life, the worker and the wealthy employers. Bartleby, a mere worker in the company of the attorney, embodies the feelings of the “common man” and indirectly forces the narrator to reflect on the existence of the ordinary workers Melville skillfully locates the story in Wall Street, New York’s center of commerce and business, to reveal the harsh reality of the social hierarchy, and natural defiance from the working class.

Melville chooses interesting personalities for his characters to display the existence of the dominant employer and employee relationship in an economically focused society.

The narrator is the typical attorney who prefers to think logically rather than to relate to the feelings of the worker, Bartleby, to solve his problems.

Repeatedly, he tries to establish a healthy connection to Bartleby but fails to do so before Bartleby’s death. This nameless character represents corporations, businesses, and wealthy men above the rest. Above all, his behavior is like that of a narrow-minded businessman, who tries to figure out his employee without knowing how to go about it first. The wealthy may try to please the working class with inconsequential offerings, but the barrier between the two classes does not vanish so easily Bartleby personifies the common workers of society under the pressure of labor and poverty.

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He represents the labor unions, the poor, and the oppressed, with little authority over his own life.

By juxtaposing the narrator and Bartleby, Melville creates an allusion to the social problems in society, Melville sees Wall Street, not simply as a setting for the short story, but a location with specific qualities to better display the theme. The financial district of Wall Street is a center of wealth, investment, and monetary interests, but people like Bartleby do not have the wealth, or the opportunity to become involved in business and commerce. This is a home for the businessman, or the successfully positioned, such as John Jacobs Astor, not a place for the common man. Its name is also significant, as walls and barriers are frequently shown throughout the story.

Towering buildings and narrow paths contribute to the isolation of the financial center, which is important to the theme of the story because the relationship between the workers and the wealthy is between a virtually imposed wall. Through the use of many literary devices, Melville expresses a theme that reflects the hierarchy of classes and American industrial society Within a country that consistently has a booming economy, growing industries and corporations and internal improvements, there exists, the weak, the poor and the oppressed Melville uses Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street to reflect on the reality of the barriers between social classes, and how there is a failure of communication between the groups.

No matter how successful the country becomes, how fast those factories produce, the domination of the wealthy is present, while the poor continue to suffer. Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street reflects upon a realistic conflict with fictitious characters. They represent the different classes of society and their everyday problems in the office emulate the troubles of business life between the employer and the employee. Melville describes this relationship in Wall Street to further emphasize the setting’s involvement with the conflict, to prove that along with urbanization, the hierarchy grows in influence The social pyramid’s structure is so that the upper class is few in number, but remains at the top while the struggling working class continues to struggle at the brink of survival.