# The Lawyer — Bartleby, the Scrivener character guide

> The Lawyer in Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** chapter_1

## Snapshot

A prudent, elderly Wall Street lawyer who prizes comfort and method above all, he narrates the strange scrivener who quietly dismantles his well-ordered chambers.

## Who they are

He runs a snug, unambitious practice among rich men's bonds and mortgages, employing copyists in a chambers whose windows look onto a blank wall. Profoundly convinced that the easiest way of life is best, he is a man of prudence and method who seldom loses his temper and never courts public applause. When he hires a pale new scrivener, his prized tranquility is tested, and his cautious, accommodating nature becomes the lens through which the story's central mystery unfolds.

## Relationships

### [Bartleby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/bartleby)

_psychological_

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

### [Bartleby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/11231/characters/bartleby)

_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)

Introduces himself as a safe, methodical man who works with rich men's bonds and mortgages. He is the narrator and employer, already showing a conflict between his desire for ease and his troubled conscience.

## Links

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