Why does bartleby prefer not to

Yesterday, they finally got around to responding to my request. It was a no, offered in a withering one word response. Image: The very funny LOLerature. We are currently in Beta and are only allowing really desperate people to join.

More: Bartleby Facebook Melville. This apprehension had not been without efficacy in determining me to summary means. As Nippers, looking very sour and sulky, was departing, Turkey blandly and deferentially approached. I never use it myself. But, sir, as I was saying, if he would but prefer—". Here, the narrator—himself a boss—recognizes his own "involuntary" way of using the word "prefer," and "tremble[s] to think" of the other ways in which Bartleby might have "already and seriously affected" him.

He observes how his employee, Turkey, has also "got the word," even if Turkey himself does not realize how that "queer word" has entered into his everyday lexicon. As the narrator dismisses Turkey, he has a brief exchange with his other employee, Nippers, who similarly asks "whether [he] would prefer to have a certain paper copied on blue paper or white. He did not in the least roguishly accent the word prefer.

It was plain that it involuntarily rolled from his tongue. I thought to myself, surely I must get rid of a demented man, who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads of myself and clerks.

But I thought it prudent not to break the dismission at once. It is at this point—the point at which Bartleby's language has entered into each character's mode of expression—that the narrator decides to take action to remove Bartleby from the premises. And it is at this point that Bartleby, himself, decides to cease writing altogether; his work is done. The work of Occupy Wall Street is not yet done.

Secondly, what was wrong with Bartleby? We are led to believe though the lawyer stresses that he doesn't know with certainty that Bartleby suffers from despair. He starts off in his job as a hard worker who impresses his new boss, the lawyer.

Then he decides that he would "prefer not to" work. Melville tries to prove that Bartleby has his principles and cannot betray them. That is why he refuses to accept aid from the Lawyer because he thinks that this aid will destroy his principles and his life. Of course, every person has his principles, and that does not mean that every person is mad. Can you imagine if your boss said " Would you mind getting me coffee?

Listen now. Bartleby does not like change. In fact, he prefers not to go very far at all, working, eating, sleeping all in the same place. He is unable to move out of his private world and make public aspects of himself.

Why is Bartleby depressed? Soon the narrator discovers he is living in his office. At the end of the story, Bartleby dies because he simply doesn't want to eat. It is clear that Bartleby is suffering from a mental illness that is clearly clinical depression. If we analyze the story we find many symptoms.

What do the walls symbolize in Bartleby? 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.