Bartleby I Would Prefer Not Too

Herman Melville's â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† scrutinizes the impersonal, harsh, and isolating labor conditions in America soon after the industrial revolution. Bartleby is presented as a foil to his repressed and ignorant coworkers: Turkey, Nippers, and Gingernut who participate, however dysfunctionally , in the brutal system. In contrast, Bartleby distinguishes himself to the narrator and the reader as â€Å"the strangest [scrivener] I ever saw or heard of†( ) by rejecting the mundane work of copying legal documents and proof reading them.He embodies passive resistance through the repetition of the response â€Å"l would prefer not to† when faced with a command from his employer. Through the use of key words such as â€Å"would† and â€Å"prefer†, Melville gives Bartleby the appearance of submitting to his employer's, the lawyer's, judgment and authority. This display of subordinance, however, is only an illusion. Bartleby rejects the capitalis t hierarchy on which Wall Street is built and thus also rejects the lawyer's authority. What exactly does Bartleby â€Å"prefer not to do†?He prefers not to comply with the dehumanizing reality of the American capitalist economy. As scriveners, Bartleby and his coworkers live an automaton-like existence, robotically reproducing documents written by others. Unlike Bartleby, however, his coworkers have been indoctrinated into conforming through the never-fully- satisfying reward of wages. As stated by Karl Marx, a German economic revolutionary, â€Å"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives he more, the more labor it sucks. (Marx) By â€Å"preferring not to† , Bartleby protests against alienating, mundane labor. The life- sucking effect of capitalism is also demonstrated by Bartlebys previous occupation as â€Å"a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office† ( ). This Job consisted ofa â€Å"pallid hopelessnessâ⠂¬ ( ) of â€Å"continually handling these dead letters and assorting them for the flames†( ). Both of Bartleby's jobs provide no outlet for communication, individuality, creativity or growth.The apitalistic economy has stripped him of his humanity, and he would â€Å"prefer not† to continue taking part in it. By using the phrase, â€Å"l would prefer not to†, Bartlebys also causes the lawyer â€Å"to stagger in his own plainest faith† (1 1 and to doubt the rules upon which his own society is built.