# Nippers — Short Fiction character guide

> Nippers in Short Fiction by Herman Melville.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Nippers

**First appearance:** 0000-bartleby

## Snapshot

Nippers, a whiskered young scrivener of five-and-twenty, is tormented by ambition and indigestion, grinding his teeth over other men's mistakes while scheming past his table.

## Who they are

Nippers writes a neat, swift hand and dresses like a gentleman, but he chafes at the drudgery of copying and fancies himself a lawyer with clients of his own. His nervous testiness and endless fussing with the height of his desk betray a man who does not know what he wants, only that he wants more. Alongside Turkey's afternoon blots, Nippers's morning irritability frames the office as a study in tolerated eccentricity.

## In the story

### [Bartleby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/chapters/bartleby)

Another copyist, ambitious and irritable, especially in the morning.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/characters/nipppers
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/characters