Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!
The last line in Herman Melville's , "Bartleby the
Scriveners," exhibits irony at its finest. The final line "Ah Bartleby!
Ah Humanity!" illustrates the lawyers'
flawed understanding of humanity(Melville,250). The lawyers position and attitude toward
bartleby is parallel to that of humanity or society. The lawyer applies a similar route that the
rest of society has taken against bartleby;"Since he will not quit me, I will
quit him(Melville, 172)." He did
nothing more or nothing less then what humanity was already doing. Bartleby was
pushed aside even avoided ,"I will move elsewhere," by the lawyer and
society (Melville, 172). The irony displayed in "Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity" exposes the ignorance of the lawyer and society(Melville, 250). The lawyer, a nondiscriminatory position, was lacking objectivity allowing ignorance to be present in the story as well as in Humanity.
Work Cited:
Herman Melville (1819–1891). Bartleby, the Scrivener. 1853.
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Or the narrator could be exclaiming his anguish over the state of the world, a worldly social climate in which an individual could reach a nadir of emotion and not find succor anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI also interpreted his last line as a deep sadness that he never found a way to penetrate Bartleby's deep depression and lead him back to the light.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteYou chose some meaningful quotes to analyze. I am not sure that the narrator's understanding of humanity is flawed. I interpreted it as more of a moral dilemma. On one hand he wants to help Bartleby, but on the other he appalled by his work ethic. Once he realizes that the problem runs much deeper than work, he is further inclined towards a humanitarian approach. When the narrator resolves not to quit Bartleby, he is going against the tendencies of society. I believe society take more of an everyman for themselves approach to these issues. I think that the narrator was all but ignorant with Bartleby. He could have immediately dismissed him but instead gave much reflection to the situation. In the end, he did abandon Bartleby, but only after great internal conflict. Good post.
-Aaron Isaacson