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Character analysis

The Narrator (The Lawyer)

in Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

The Narrator, who identifies as an "eminently safe" Wall Street lawyer, acts as both the central consciousness of the story and its moral conundrum. He is comfortable, cautious, and takes pride in his esteemed connections—he mentions John Jacob Astor with visible pride—as he runs a small law office with a team of quirky copyists. His character development hinges entirely on his relationship with Bartleby: what starts as benign curiosity from an employer turns into confusion, then pity, guilt, and ultimately a sense of helpless grief. When Bartleby first responds with "I would prefer not to" to a simple request, the Narrator is so taken aback that he doesn’t assert his authority, a trend that only intensifies. He attempts to rationalize (maybe Bartleby has trouble seeing), show charity (offering money and a place to stay), and reflect on theology (thinking about predestination to justify his inaction), but never truly understands or shows real compassion. His most revealing failure occurs when, instead of addressing the issue, he moves his entire office to avoid Bartleby—a humorous yet damning act of evasion. Even after Bartleby is imprisoned in the Tombs, the Narrator visits him and arranges meals through the Grub-Man, gestures that are kind but come too late and are insufficient. His final exclamation—"Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"—indicates that he has recognized some universal sorrow, but he can neither articulate nor resolve it. He is both sympathetic and complicit, a well-meaning individual whose self-interest continually overshadows his better instincts.

About this character

Form
Short story
Author
Herman Melville
First published
1853

The person01–03

01·Who they are

Who is The Narrator (The Lawyer)?

The Narrator introduces himself with careful self-satisfaction: a Wall Street lawyer of the mid-nineteenth century who occupies what he calls "a snug retreat" doing a "snug business" in chancery law. He is not a courtroom advocate but a conveyancer and title-searcher—someone whose profession is built on paperwork, precedent, and the avoidance of conflict. He name-drops John Jacob Astor with barely concealed pride, signalling that social respectability is a core value. He describes his own temperament as "eminently safe," and the phrase serves more as confession than boast. Safety—emotional, financial, professional—is his ruling instinct, and every subsequent decision in the story flows from it. As the sole narrator, we view everything through his rationalizations and blind spots; Melville ensures that this is a man telling his own story, editing himself along the way.

02·Arc & motivation

What is The Narrator (The Lawyer)'s arc and motivation?

The Narrator's arc is one of slow, inconclusive awakening. When Bartleby first responds with "I would prefer not to" and returns to his copying, the Narrator is paralyzed—not by sympathy, but by bewilderment. His authority has been refused without hostility, and he lacks a framework for it. From that moment, his motivation splinters: he wishes to be charitable (he genuinely offers money, lodging, and alternative employment), but he also desires peace, comfort, and the good opinion of his professional peers. These two drives cannot be reconciled, and the story's tension resides in that gap. He reaches for intellectual escape hatches—speculating about Bartleby's eyesight, meditating on Calvinist predestination—rather than engaging directly. His arc concludes not with transformation, but with a mournful stasis. His final cry, "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" suggests a widened emotional response but no increased capacity for action.

03·Key moments

What are The Narrator (The Lawyer)'s key moments?

The first refusal. When Bartleby declines to help examine a copied document, the Narrator simply backs away. His inability to assert authority here is the hinge on which the entire story turns; every subsequent evasion is licensed by this moment.

Moving the office. Instead of dismissing Bartleby or confronting the problem directly, the Narrator relocates his entire law practice to a new address. The scene is darkly comic, yet it serves as damning evidence of his character: he will rearrange his physical world before he faces a human one.

The offer of lodging. He invites Bartleby to come home with him—an act of genuine, albeit clumsy, generosity that Bartleby quietly declines. This offer reveals that the Narrator's better instincts exist; their insufficiency highlights how much those instincts are limited by discomfort.

The visit to the Tombs. He arranges meals through the Grub-Man, presenting himself as a benefactor. Bartleby refuses to eat and is shortly found dead, curled against the prison wall. The Narrator's charitable gestures arrive too late and demand nothing from him that entails real sacrifice.

The cast04–05

04·Relationships

What are The Narrator (The Lawyer)'s most important relationships?

With Bartleby, the Narrator plays the roles of employer, reluctant guardian, and ultimately failed witness. He is Bartleby's only advocate in the world, yet he cannot maintain advocacy when it jeopardizes his comfort. He tolerates Turkey's afternoon incompetence and Nippers' morning irritability with easy paternalism—eccentricities that are ultimately manageable and even amusing. Bartleby's refusal is different in kind, not degree: it is non-negotiable and makes no concessions to the social contract. The Narrator has no template for it.

With Turkey and Nippers, the Narrator's habitual indulgence is revealing. He accommodates their complementary dysfunctions because they remain productive and because managing eccentricity flatters his self-image as a reasonable, humane employer. Their absurdity makes him appear tolerant; Bartleby's silence makes him seem impotent.

With the Landlord, the Narrator confronts the external consequence of evasion. The Landlord's blunt, practical demand—remove Bartleby or face legal trouble—strips away the Narrator's façade of charitable deliberation and reveals it as mere delay.

With the Grub-Man, the Narrator delegates his last act of care, which symbolizes a diminishment—charity outsourced, concern at arm's length.

05·Connected characters

How is The Narrator (The Lawyer) connected to the other characters?

Bartleby

The Narrator is Bartleby's employer and the story's primary witness to his passive resistance. He oscillates between fascination, pity, and exasperation, ultimately failing to save Bartleby despite repeated attempts—offering money, lodging, and alternative employment—because he can never fully subordinate his own comfort to Bartleby's need.

Turkey

Turkey is the Narrator's senior copyist, whose industrious mornings and erratic, blot-prone afternoons the Narrator tolerates with paternalistic indulgence. Turkey's volatility implicitly contrasts with Bartleby's absolute stillness, highlighting the Narrator's habit of managing eccentricity rather than addressing it.

Nippers

Nippers is the Narrator's younger copyist, ambitious and irritable in the mornings but calm in the afternoons—a comic complement to Turkey. The Narrator's easy accommodation of Nippers' quirks underscores how unprepared he is for Bartleby's fundamentally different, non-negotiable form of refusal.

Ginger Nut

Ginger Nut is the Narrator's young office errand boy. His minor role as provider of snacks—especially the ginger-nut cakes that become Bartleby's near-sole sustenance—quietly underlines the Narrator's failure to notice how little Bartleby is actually eating until it is too late.

The Landlord

The Landlord pressures the Narrator to remove Bartleby after the Narrator has vacated the office, forcing a confrontation the Narrator had hoped to avoid. The Landlord's practical insistence exposes the limits of the Narrator's strategy of evasion and relocating rather than resolving.

The Grub-Man

The Grub-Man is the Narrator's intermediary at the Tombs, tasked with ensuring Bartleby receives food. Bartleby's refusal to eat even there renders the Narrator's charitable arrangement futile, cementing the Narrator's ultimate impotence in the face of Bartleby's will.

The evidence06

06·Key quotes

What are The Narrator (The Lawyer)’s most famous quotes?

“With kings and counselors.”

The Narrator · Conclusion · Closing reflection after Bartleby's death in the Tombs prison yard

Why it matters

This cryptic phrase comes from the narrator of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" (1853) as he contemplates Bartleby's death and burial in the Tombs prison yard. The phrase references Job 3:13–14, where Job mourns his life and wishes he had died at birth to "rest with kings and counselors of the earth." By bringing up this passage, the narrator seeks some solace or nobility in Bartleby's grim fate — implying that in death, the impoverished scrivener finds a form of equality with the powerful. This quote captures the story's key themes: the dehumanizing impact of capitalist work, the isolation of individuals in contemporary society, and the narrator's ongoing inability to genuinely understand or connect with Bartleby. It also highlights Melville's critique of Wall Street's environment, where human dignity is stripped away during life but, ironically, is somewhat regained — if only symbolically — in death. The phrase lingers at the end of the story, prompting readers to reflect on mortality, solitude, and the limitations of human empathy.

“On errands of life, these letters speed to death.”

The Narrator (the lawyer) · Conclusion / Final Paragraph · Closing paragraph — the Narrator's reflection on the Dead Letter Office rumor after Bartleby's death

Why it matters

This haunting line is delivered by the unnamed Narrator—a Wall Street lawyer—near the end of Herman Melville's 1853 short story Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. After Bartleby has died in the Tombs prison, the Narrator recounts a rumor he once heard: that Bartleby had previously worked in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C., sorting undelivered mail that was destined to be burned. The quote concludes the story's famous final paragraph, which opens with "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" This line is thematically significant on several levels. Literally, dead letters represent messages filled with life—love, money, hope, forgiveness—that never reached their intended recipients, instead being sent toward destruction. Symbolically, they reflect Bartleby himself: a person brimming with untapped meaning and potential who was consistently overlooked and discarded by a society indifferent to his presence. The contradiction of "life" rushing toward "death" captures the story's main exploration of alienation, the dehumanizing nature of clerical work, and the tragic breakdown of human connection. It elevates Bartleby from an eccentric office figure to a universal symbol of existential despair.

Study07–08

07·Questions

Questions readers ask about The Narrator (The Lawyer)

How does the Narrator describe himself at the start of 'Bartleby, the Scrivener'?

The Narrator introduces himself as an "eminently safe" Wall Street lawyer running a quiet chancery practice—a conveyancer and title-searcher rather than a courtroom advocate. He mentions John Jacob Astor with barely concealed pride, indicating that social respectability is his primary value. The phrase "eminently safe" serves as a confession: safety—emotional, financial, and professional—shapes every decision he makes throughout the story.

What is the Narrator's relationship with Bartleby?

The Narrator is Bartleby's employer and serves as the sole witness to his passive resistance. He fluctuates between fascination, pity, and exasperation, repeatedly trying to help—offering money, lodging, and alternative employment—but never fully prioritizes Bartleby's needs over his own comfort. He acts as Bartleby's only advocate while being his ultimate failure, a hesitant guardian whose charity does not require genuine sacrifice.

Why does the Narrator move his entire law office instead of firing Bartleby?

The Narrator moves his practice because confronting Bartleby directly threatens his instinct for emotional and professional safety. Instead of facing an uncomfortable human reality, he rearranges his surroundings—a darkly comic action that Melville presents as damning evidence of the Narrator's character. The relocation shows that avoidance is not a rare occurrence but his default response whenever self-interest and compassion conflict.

How does the Narrator treat Turkey and Nippers compared to Bartleby?

The Narrator tolerates Turkey's blot-prone afternoons and Nippers' irritable mornings with easy paternalism, as their quirks remain manageable and even enhance his self-image as a humane employer. Bartleby's refusal differs fundamentally: it is absolute and disregards the social contract. This contrast highlights the Narrator's tendency to accommodate eccentricity he can control while being entirely unprepared for a non-negotiable form of resistance.

What is the Narrator's most famous final line in 'Bartleby, the Scrivener'?

The Narrator's most recognized line is his closing apostrophe: "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" This is expressed after Bartleby is discovered dead in the Tombs and reflects a broad emotional response—a recognition of universal sorrow. Many critics argue that this cry is an evasion, universalizing a specific failure to avoid accountability, thus representing the Narrator's most significant act of "preferring not to."

What does the Narrator do when Bartleby is sent to the Tombs?

The Narrator visits Bartleby in prison and arranges meals through the Grub-Man, positioning himself as a benefactor. These gestures are kind yet arrive too late and require no real sacrifice. Bartleby declines to eat and is soon found dead curled against the prison wall, rendering the Narrator's charitable efforts futile and emphasizing his ultimate impotence in the face of Bartleby's will.

Why does the Narrator fail to help Bartleby despite genuinely pitying him?

The Narrator's pity is sincere but does not translate into solidarity—he empathizes with Bartleby but never truly stands with him. His conflicting drives for charity and the maintenance of peace and professional respectability cannot align, with self-interest continually prevailing. He seeks intellectual escape routes—pondering Bartleby's eyesight, reflecting on Calvinist predestination—rather than engaging directly, making his compassion performative and stopping short of any action that might challenge his comfort or reputation.

How does the Landlord's role reveal something important about the Narrator's character?

The Landlord's blunt demand—remove Bartleby or face legal consequences—strips away the Narrator's facade of charitable deliberation, exposing it as mere postponement. While the Narrator had cloaked his inaction in sympathy and theological discourse, the Landlord's practical insistence clarifies that the Narrator's approach was always evasion rather than engagement, forcing a confrontation he had hoped to avoid by relocating his office.

08·Essay angles

Use this in your essay

Tool · Essay angles

  • The limits of liberal sympathy. The Narrator repeatedly performs compassion without sacrificing comfort. Argue that Melville uses him to critique a class of well-meaning professionals whose charity never exceeds the boundaries of self-interest.

  • Narrative unreliability as moral evasion. Because the Narrator controls the story, he can soften his failures with self-deprecating humour. Examine how his rhetorical choices—hedging, rationalizing, quoting Scripture—function as another form of "preferring not to."

  • The Narrator as Wall Street's representative man. His office, his clients, his pride in Astor's approval—all position him as a symbol of capitalist order. Build a thesis around how Bartleby's refusal exposes the human cost that order requires but cannot see.

  • Pity versus solidarity. The Narrator pities Bartleby but never stands beside him. Analyse the distinction Melville draws between these two responses and what it reveals about the social distance between employer and employee.

  • The final apostrophe as evasion. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" is the story's last line, attributed to the Narrator. Argue that this cry is the grandest evasion of all—universalising a particular failure in order to avoid accounting for it.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

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