Suppression and Subversion through Walls in Bartleby the Scrivener Es

stifling and Subversion through hem ins in Bartleby the Scrivener In Bartleby the Scrivener an decrepit lawyer recounts the tenure of a scrivener, Bartleby, from his office. The progression of this employer/employee human relationship depicts disengagement mingled with opposing social classes and its consequences. The presence of the subtitle of Bartleby the Scrivener A tosh of Wall Street has been given much consideration. The subtitle carries the baggage of the emerging capitalistic culture, but it overly alludes to the confinement that walls enable. Melville strategically uses architecture in his short story, Bartleby the Scrivener to raise the disengagement mingled with social classes that capitalism produces. In the story, the narrator, proxy of the upper class, controls the actual physical partition separating him and the scriveners, representative of the lower class. In the same way that he controls the sliding doors, the lawyer manipulates religion and economic f actors to control the separation between him and Bartleby. Architecture is also a part of Bartlebys characterization he is always pure(a) at a brick wall. Melville is acknowledging Bartlebys inability to conquer the brick wall. Melville demonstrates in the relationship between Bartleby and the lawyer that the walls that each puts up are not without consequence, in the end leading to the death of Bartleby. Whereas capitalistic culture constructs a sky-lit window of opportunity for the lawyer, Bartleby is bound to a vision of a brick wall. Melville also uses architecture to demonstrate the ways in which each character engages and disengages with the other. Ultimately, the architecture of the social classes that a capitalistic culture produces results ... ...r hand, Bartleby is unable to conquer the confines of the lawyer, but he does find a way to manipulate them in order to abuse the authority of the lawyer. The walls that the lawyer and the scrivener use disguise the bonds of c ommon world that Melville is interested in uncovering. Because the lawyer ignored the fraternal bond between them, he refused to recognize Bartleby as an individual, ultimately causing Bartlebys erasure, through starvation.Works CitedBarnett, Louise K. Bartleby as Alienated Worker. Studies in Short Fiction 6.4 (1974) 379-385. Print.Marx, Karl. The communistic Manifesto. Chicago Henry Regnery, 1954. Print.Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener. Electronic Classics Series. Penn State U, 2002. 1-45. 18 Nov. 2010. Wilson, James C. Bartleby The Walls of Wall Street. Arizona Quarterly 37.4 (1981) 335-346. Print.