Bartlebly The Significance of The Wall
The world is made up of walls. Skyscrapers, houses, schools, theatres and offices are all just a collection of walls with a roof over them. Everything we see has a wall. In addition to their literary function, in Bartleby the idea of the symbolism of the wall is continuous throughout the text. Herman Melville's short story is rife with images that represent the ever-present Wall as more then just a barrier between rooms. For example, the office that the story is set in is in New York City, on Wall Street. The Walls symbolizes the proverbial "end" of Bartleby's existence. It also symbolizes the end of what Bartleby can "see", the limits of his own life and how those limits are his downfall. The Wall also symbolizes the end of the narrators' perspective on Bartleby, the human enigma. The Wall is a symbol for everything that Bartleby is as a person. Bartleby is a human enigma. He is described at first as having an insatiable appetite for his work, copying folders as if "long famishing for something to copy". However, he began to fade, in a way. He would sa
Bartleby knows that Death looms near. Throughout all of this, Bartleby seems to dominate the thoughts of the narrator. Bartleby can see the Wall that he must overcome. Bartleby only recognizes the wall after he begins to work in the scrivener's office. Even in his jail cell, closed in by the four walls of the place that is called "The Tombs", holding him for death as that inescapable wall closes in. His job is to get things copied in a timely fashion. It dominated his very being until his death. He is a thorn in the side of the very way of life that the narrator is used to. In any other case he would get angry at an employee who shirked his work, but in this case, Bartleby's seemingly indifferent attitude pacifies the narrator. To the narrator, Bartleby signifies his end, a puzzle he cannot solve. The narrator cannot seem to move on, cannot seem to get beyond the enigma that Bartleby presents. Death is not the ever-present and unstoppable enemy. The wall was blank, uninteresting, "commanded at present no view at all"; however he just started at it as though seeing some deeper meaning to its existence. The wall can be overcome, but it takes work. Throughout all of this, Bartleby is fixated on the Wall.
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