Lesson Plan/Teaching Notes

Discussion questions

"Bartleby the Scrivner"

·         Who’s telling the story?  What’s his job?  What’s his character?  How does his character effect his decisions? Who does he admire?
·         Nicknames – who has them: who doesn’t?  What difference does it make?
·         How are Bartleby and the narrator similar?  How are they different?
·         Is it significant that a lawyer is telling the story?
·         What is the significance of the subtitle "A Story of Wall Street?"
·         Who is the protagonist?
·         What is the significance of walls in the story?
·         What is the significance of writing in the story?
·         Who changes in the story and how and why?
·         Why does the narrator become so attached to Bartleby?  Point to specific passages which show this.
·         Analyze the passage on page 921 starting "My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy  . . . ."  What is the narrator talking about?  Does this occur often?
·         What are Bartleby's physical characterisitcs?  Do they suit his personality? Does he stay the same or regress?
·         When does the narrator finally lose patience with Bartleby?  Why? (931) because he finally talks
·         What's the importance of the subtitle?
·         Why does Bartleby tell the narrator: "I know you . . . and I want nothing to say to you."  Why does he not want to talk?
·         What is the significance of Bartleby ending up the "the Tombs"? -- and be sure to check the bottom of 933 before answering the question.
·         Why does the narrator end his story by linking Bartleby with "humanity?"
·         For whom does Melville want us to feel sympathy for?  How can you tell?
·        What is this story saying about alienation and isolation?
·        What’s the definition of passivity?
·        What’s the definition of passive/aggressive? How does it apply here?
·        How is Bartleby a subversive character?  Think of the 60’s and the civil rights non-violence movement.   Example of person not admitting his name or who he worked for about filling up the dumpster with carpets.

·        Walter Sokel, in a commentary on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, makes a connection b/t Marxism and the alienation of repetitive work that I think bears consideration with “Bartleby”

Only where work appears as its own reward are human beings truly human.  Where it is imposed by economic necessity, the worker is not merely alienated from himself as an individual; he is estranged from his humanity.  Marx’s idea of human self-alienation is not restricted to factory work, but includes any kind of work in which an individual is engaged merely for the wage or income it beings him.  The worker is dehumanized wherever his work fails to involve his creative urge and desire. (Sokel 106)

Group Discussion Questions: “Bartleby, the Scrivner”

1. After Bartleby announces he will no longer copy, he tells the narrator, “Do you not see the reason for yourself?” (2344). What’s the reason? Is the narrator’s response the only possible reason?
2. What’s the significance of the following quote to the story?

Only where work appears as its own reward are human beings truly human. Where it is imposed by economic necessity, the worker is not merely alienated from himself as an individual; he is estranged from his humanity. Marx’s idea of human self-alienation is not restricted to factory work, but includes any kind of work in which an individual is engaged merely for the wage or income it beings him. The worker is dehumanized wherever his work fails to involve his creative urge and desire. (Sokel 106)

1. On page 2338 the narrator thinks, regarding his behavior towards Bartleby, “I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange wilfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will prove a sweet morsel for my conscience.” What kind of rationale is this? What’s odd about the language he uses to describe this?
2. What’s the definition of passive/aggressive? How does it apply here?
3. Why does the lawyer eventually act and move to get away from Bartleby? What do these motives reveal about his character? What does Melville suggest about society through his actions?
4. For whom does Melville want us to feel sympathy for? How can you tell?

Five Easy Pieces

"Bartleby" has been seen first as a "parable of walls," a depiction of "self" as irrecoverably immured and unfree, and thereby a companion piece to Franz Kafka's The Trial (1925), Albert Camus's The Plague (1947), or Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot (1952).

Other interpreters look at "Bartleby" more as a quasi-religious fable, Bartleby himself as the spurned Christ or Buddha, and his eventual muteness as the token of God's inscrutable withdrawal from, or irrelevance to, the world.

Less cosmically, it has been argued that "Bartleby" offers a classic portrait of catatonia or schizophrenia, in which copyist and lawyer constitute divided facets of a single personality, a doppelganger story in the manner of Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" (1839) or Henry James's "The Jolly Corner" (1908).

Or, "Bartleby" is a story of Wall Street, in which this business epicenter of nineteenth-century America is seen as murderous to the human creative spirit, a site only of commodification and of the fetish of property and profit.

A much favored recent interpretation sees the story as deeply autobiographical. Bartleby functions as a surrogate for Melville himself, that is, Melville as a scrivener who "would prefer not" to "check his copy" and write to the required norm. His books, too, at least Mardi and Pierre, had quickly enough become "dead letters," left to dust and obscurity in out-of-the-way libraries.

Benito Cereno

Based on a true story: what about it would have intrigued an author in 1855.

Capitan Delano possessed a “singularly undistrustful good nature, not liable, except on extraordinary and repeated incentives, and hardly then, to indulge in personal lalarms, any way involving the imputation of malign evil in man” (2372)

Like Billy Budd, this is about perceptions, and how people’s perceptions are not faulty: heavy use of irony

• Delano ’s views of negroes
• “the repute of making the most pleasing body servant itn eh world; one, too, whom a moster need be on no stiffly superior terms with, but may treat with familiar trust; less a servant than a devoted companion” (2376)
• “Faithful fellow!’ cried Capt. Delano. ‘Don Benito, I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him’” (2380)
• “The whites, too, by nature, were the shrewder race” (2395)
• Blacks as gentle nature – animals
• “Sprawling at her lapped breasts was her wide-awake faun, stark naked [. . . .] There’s naked nature, now; pure tenderness and love, thought Capitan Delano, well pleased” (2393)

 

Delano thinks Cereno is the problem

• “To think that, under the aspect of infantile weakness, the most savage energies might be couched – those velvets of the Spaniard but the silky pay to his fangs” (2386)
• “He recalled the Spainard’s manner while telling his story. There was a gloomy hesitancy and subterfuge about it. It was just the manner of one making up his tale for evil purposes [ . . .]” (2389)
• Mistakenly shoot Spanish Sailor at end of story

Delano is the quiet American – so typically innocent (American Adam), exceptionalism

“What, I, Amasa Delano – Jack of the Beach, as they called me when a lad – I, Amasa; the same that, duck-satchel in hand, used to paddle along the waterside tot eh school-house made from the old hulk; -- I, little Jack of the Beach, that used to go berrying with cousin Nat and the rest; I to be murdered here at the ends of the earth, on board a haunted pirate-ship by a horrible Spaniard? – Too nonsensical to think of! Who would murder Amasa Delano? His conscience is clean. There is some one above. Fie, fie, Jack of the Beach! You are a child indeed; a child of the second childhood, old boy; you are beginning to dote and drule [. . .]” (2396)

Comment on slavery

• What do Cereno and the other spainards become? 2392 – the tar on the hand of the Spainiard
• #### “a sort of saddened satisfaction stole over Captain Delano, at thinking of the kindly offices he had that day discharged for a stranger” (2411)

Comments on Slavery

• “Ah, this slavery breeds ugly passions in man – Poor fellow!” (2404) NOTE HOW IRONIC THIS IS – WHO DOES IT BREED UGLY PASSIONS IN? (Amistad 1839-40)

General Questions

• “Why have follow your leader” painted on the side of the ship?
• The scene with the razor and the Spanish flag (2403)

“Billy Budd”

·        death scene (2481): discuss symbolism – and why the line about marble on page 2484?

·        Why include chapter 27 (2482) – on the men twice murmuring and this murmuring suddenly being broken up by action?

·        What do you make of the three different epilogue chapters? (chapter 28 Vere dying and his last words; 29     ; 30

·        Allegorical approach: Christian myth: “Billy as Adam, his hanging as a kind of Ascension, the yardarm as the True Cross” (Bertoff 33)

·        Budd’s a “child-man” – yet he commits murder?

·        Claggert a terrible person – yet a victim? Vere is apparently so wise and fatherly, yet he permits his own “son” to be killed? (Johnson 51)

·        Are both Billy and Vere right?  Are they essentially the halves of the coin Budd=emotion/innocence, Vere=rationality/experience?  Which one “wins” in this story?  Billy is killed, but Vere dies soon afterward – before he can earn the fame which should be his.  What song is there for Vere?

·        Bertoff 43= argues that a triangle is created: Claggert=evil and then Vere and Budd both, in his words magnanimous.

·        Critical views include an affirmation; and the obverse – a negation of man. An “acceptance of tragedy” or a railing against the fates

·        (Johnson 48) How many times does this story end?  4: 1) death of Billy 2) story and death of Vere 3) the transcription of the naval newspaper 4) “Billy in the Darbies”

·        Compare Claggert with Chillingworth

Summarize the story in a short paragraph. Which element of fiction—plot, setting, point of view, characterization—is of most interest to the reader? Why? How does Melville make his own interest apparent? What is the relationship of the action to the characterization of Bartleby and his employer? In other words, is the action consistent with the characterization?

Who is the narrator? How does Melville’s adoption of this particular point of view limit the reader’s knowledge of the main character? Why do you suppose Melville chose this point of view rather than having Bartleby tell his own story or writing from an “omniscient” point of view?

The narrator tells us that he is a man who finds the “easiest way of life best.” How does his life compare for surface ease with Bartleby’s? What is paradoxical and ironic in this contrast?

What does the narrator tell us about Bartleby in the first paragraph? How much more do we actually know about him in the end? Some critics of short stories tell us that a character should change or develop as the story progresses. Do you clearly see such changes in Bartleby? If so, what is the direction of the change? Are the changes occasioned by the situations in which Bartleby finds himself, or do they seem to result from his own nature? Explain.

Although the narrator is not the principal character, we learn more about him than we do about Bartleby. How is he characterized? Why is Bartleby’s tragedy heightened by the selection of a benevolent rather than a malevolent antagonist?

The subtitle: “A Story of Wall Street” would lead us to assume that the setting is of some importance. If we accept “Wall Street as a symbol, what might it represent in the story?

Do the minor characters, Turkey, Nippers, and Gingernut, advance the plot in any way? If not, what is their function? Note the paragraphs in which each of these characters is described. How does Melville’s ability to convey a quick dominant impression of these characters compare with Irving’s, Poe’s, or Hawthorne’s?

What adjectives area used to describe Bartleby? How do his actions and his words carry out the qualities that the adjectives name?

What elements of the story seem to be autobiographical? Do you see any justification for the opinion of some critics that Bartleby’s “failure of communication” is somewhat like Melville’s own failure to communicate to his own contemporaries? If we consider Emerson’s optimism as the “everlasting Yea,” then what might Bartleby’s “Everlasting Nay” indicate about the difference between Melville’s and Emerson’s outlook on life?

What do you think is the theme of the story? State the theme (or themes) in a sentence or two.

Several symbols Melville uses throughout the story help to unify the tone of the work and to convey his central themes. These are “hermitage,” “tombs,” “dead letters.” Locate the first mention of each of these words. In what context do they appear? Then follow their use (or the use of synonyms for each) through the story. What additional connotations or “clusters” of meaning do they acquire? Do you agree that these words are symbols? Do you find other symbols in the story?

Richard Chase says that Melville was preoccupied with the “contradictoriness of life.” What are the contradictions in Bartleby’s life? How does Melville use the devices of ambiguity, paradox, and irony to emphasize this contradictoriness? Recall the purposes for which Hawthorne used these devices. What difference in purpose do you observe in Melville’s use?

R.W.B. Lewis has called this story “something of a parable.” Do you agree?

We have observed that all good writing is capable of being interpreted in many different ways. Discuss the possible meanings that may be attached to Bartleby’s situation from a social, psychological, and moral viewpoint. Do you agree with Richard Chase that “The story is a subtle study of the mystery, perhaps the pathology of the fate of the dissenter or nay-sayer in a yea-saying culture.” Does Bartleby’s nonconformity relate him more or less closely to Melville’s own era or to ours? Explain. Do you think Thoreau would have approved or disapproved of Bartleby?

Look up tragic comic in the dictionary. What is both comic and tragic about the story? How does this mixture intensify the reader’s empathy with Bartleby? How does it reinforce Melville’s concern with the paradox of life?

Does the theme of this story seem in any way related to the major theme of the “The Search for an American Identity”—or a second theme—“The Artist in American Society? Explain.

Voices from the Past

As the reformer cum novelist Lydia Maria Child noted in Letters from New York, "In Wall-Street, and elsewhere, Mammon, as usual, coolly calculates his chance of extracting a penny from war, pestilence, and famine, and Commerce, with her loaded drays, and jaded skeletons of horses, is busy as ever fulfilling the 'World's contract with the Devil.' . . . I have often anathematized the spirit of Trade, which reigns triumphant, not only on 'Change, but in our halls of legislation, and even in our churches. Thought is sold under the hammer, and sentiment, in its holiest forms, stands labelled for the market. Love is offered to the highest bidder, and sixpences are given to purchase religion for starving souls. In view of these things, I sometimes ask whether the Age of Commerce is better than the age of War? Whether our 'merchant princes' are a great advance upon feudal chieftains? Whether it is better for the many to be prostrated by force, or devoured by cunning?" (qtd. in Curti 378)

From The Almighty Dollar! or The Brilliant Exploits of a Killer, a Romance of Old Quakerdelphia. Philadelphia, 1847. Rpt. in Notions of the Americans 1820-1860. Ed. David Grimsted. New York: George Braziller, 1970. 245-259.

"aristocrats." From their "Constitution:" "Society is so framed, and the DOLLAR has become such a mighty engine, and those who have wealth have power, and those who have poser will be sure to abuse it . . . . Therefore, it is apparent that the rich want a signal estrangement from the people, and WE, the people, swear an eternal estrangement, a deadly enmity, a war of extermination against the aristocrats, the plunder and burning of their property, and all the mischief that can be concocted and executed against those overbearing and self-styled demigods" (Almighty 251) cf. Barnaby

"There is no surer sign of an unmanly and cowardly spirit than a vague desire for help; a wish to depend, to lean upon somebody, and enjoy the fruits of the industry of others. There are multitudes of young men, I suppose, who indulge in dreams of help from some quarter, coming in at a convenient moment. . . . some benevolent old gentlemen with a pocket full of money . . . who will, perhaps, give or lend them anywhere from ten to twenty thousand dollars" (Titcomb 16)

"It is the general rule of Providence, the world over, and in all time, that unearned success is a curse. It is the rule of Providence, that the process of earning success shall be the preparation 20 for its conservation and enjoyment" (Titcomb 19-20).

Lippard, George. New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million. Cincinnati: H. M. Rulison, 1854.

‘Thus far toward freedom! Here they come, -- three hundred serfs of the Atlantic cities, rescued from poverty, from wages-slavery, from the war of competition, from the grip of the landlord! Thus far toward a soil which they can call their own; thus far toward a free home. And thou, O! Christ, who didst live and die, so that all men might be brothers, bless us, and be with us, and march by our side, in this our exodus.’

The speaker was the socialist, -- Arthur Dermoyne.

And let us all, as we survey the masses of the human race, attempting their exodus from thraldom of all kinds, -- of the body, -- of the soul, -- from the tyranny which crushes man by the iron hand of brute force, or slowly kills him by the lawful operation of capital, labor-saving machinery, or monied enterprise,-- let us, too, send up our prayer, -- ‘O! THOU of Nazareth, go with the People in this their exodus, dwell with them in their tents, beacon with light, their hard way to the Promised Land!’” (Lippard New York 283-84)

Pictures from the Past

Melville

From www.english.uiuc.edu/baym/ 255/melville.jpg

From http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK9283-0002-230

Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art. / Volume 2, Issue 11 page 546 November 1853

Quotes from critics

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David Bordelon