# Bartleby — Bartleby, the Scrivener character guide

> Bartleby in Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** chapter_1

## Snapshot

A pale, forlorn scrivener who copies documents with mechanical silence until he begins answering every request with a soft, immovable 'I would prefer not to.'

## Who they are

Hired into a Wall Street law office, he works with quiet, almost ghostly diligence before gradually refusing each task assigned to him, first small ones, then all. His passive, unshakable refusals baffle his employer, who cannot provoke, persuade, or dismiss him, and who finds his own authority dissolving before such calm resistance. Bartleby's stillness and inscrutability turn a routine office into a study of will, pity, and the limits of one man's hold over another.

## Relationships

### [Turkey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/turkey)

_professional_

Turkey is a fellow scrivener who grows increasingly angry and confrontational towards Bartleby's refusal to perform his duties.

### [The Lawyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/the_lawyer)

_psychological_

The Lawyer is Bartleby's employer who is psychologically dominated and morally paralyzed by Bartleby's passive resistance.

### [Ginger Nut](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/ginger_nut)

_professional_

They are office colleagues, with Ginger Nut, the errand boy, occasionally tasked with engaging Bartleby but having little meaningful interaction.

### [Turkey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/turkey)

_professional_

Bartleby is a colleague who consistently refuses Turkey's requests and engagements, leading to Turkey's frustration.

### [Turkey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/turkey)

_professional_

Turkey is a fellow scrivener who grows increasingly angry and confrontational towards Bartleby's refusal to perform his duties.

### [The Lawyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/the_lawyer)

_psychological_

The Lawyer is Bartleby's employer who becomes psychologically entangled, obsessed, and ultimately haunted by Bartleby's passive resistance and inscrutability.

## In the story

### [Bartleby, The Scrivener](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/chapters/bartleby-the-scrivener)

Hired as a scrivener. Described as pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, and incurably forlorn. He begins work efficiently but then initiates his passive resistance, refusing to proofread and eventually all work, while secretly living in the office.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/bartleby
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters