Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street recap

A cautious Wall Street lawyer hires Bartleby as a copyist. Bartleby initially works with remarkable intensity, then calmly refuses to proofread documents, perform errands, copy, or leave the office. The lawyer discovers that Bartleby lives there and alternates among pity, irritation, charity, and fear of public embarrassment. Unable to persuade or force him out, he moves his own firm, leaving Bartleby behind. The building's new occupants have the silent former scrivener arrested and sent to the Tombs. The lawyer visits and pays for better food, but Bartleby refuses to eat and dies in the prison yard. A later rumor says that he once worked with undeliverable mail in the Dead Letter Office. The narrator cannot verify that history or solve Bartleby's withdrawal, but it deepens his sense that the scrivener's fate reflects a wider human isolation.

An elderly Wall Street lawyer describes his manageable office staff: Turkey is reliable before noon and disorderly afterward, Nippers follows the opposite daily pattern, and Ginger Nut runs errands. Increased business leads him to hire Bartleby, a silent copyist who at first works with exceptional speed. Bartleby soon begins refusing requests, first declining to help compare copies and then rejecting more of the ordinary duties of the office. His calm persistence leaves the lawyer unable to command him or justify harsh treatment. The lawyer discovers that Bartleby has been living in the office and owns almost nothing. Bartleby eventually stops copying altogether but still refuses to leave. After failed payments, arguments, appeals, and offers of help, the lawyer moves his own firm rather than have Bartleby physically removed. Bartleby remains at the old building until its new occupants have him arrested as a vagrant. At the Tombs he declines food despite the lawyer's efforts and dies alone in the yard. A later rumor that he once handled undeliverable letters suggests a history of sustained contact with failed human hopes, but gives the narrator no certain explanation for his withdrawal.

After the lawyer moves his practice to escape an impossible standoff, Bartleby remains in the old building and refuses either to leave or adopt another occupation. The new occupants eventually have him arrested as a vagrant and taken to the Tombs. The lawyer visits, pays a food contractor to look after him, and tries to reassure him, but Bartleby rejects food as he rejected work and movement. On a later visit the lawyer finds him dead in the prison yard. Some time afterward, the lawyer hears an unconfirmed report that Bartleby once worked in the Dead Letter Office, handling messages that could never reach their recipients. The rumor gives him a possible image for Bartleby's desolation but no complete explanation. He closes by linking grief for this solitary man with grief for humanity more broadly.