# Turkey — Short Fiction character guide

> Turkey in Short Fiction by Herman Melville.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0000-bartleby

## Snapshot

Turkey, a pursy English scrivener near sixty, is the quickest and steadiest copyist in the office until noon, when dinner turns him florid, reckless, and noisy.

## Who they are

Turkey has served the narrator loyally for years, his morning industry matched only by his afternoon chaos of blots, split pens, and muttered insolence. The narrator, fond of him and unwilling to lose his morning services, tolerates the daily transformation rather than dismiss him. Turkey's reliable unreliability sets the comic and human tone of the office just before Bartleby arrives to disturb it entirely.

## Relationships

### [The Narrator (Bartleby)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/characters/the_narrator_bartleby)

_professional_

Turkey is one of the narrator's scriveners, whose erratic behavior (productive in the morning, sloppy in the afternoon) tests the narrator's patience.

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

_professional_

Bartleby and Turkey are fellow scriveners, but their interactions are minimal and defined by the office hierarchy and Bartleby's withdrawal.

### [The Narrator (Bartleby)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/characters/the_narrator_bartleby)

_professional_

Turkey is one of the narrator's scriveners, whose erratic behavior (productive in the morning, sloppy in the afternoon) tests the narrator's patience.

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

_professional_

Bartleby and Turkey are fellow scriveners, but their interactions are minimal and defined by the office hierarchy and Bartleby's withdrawal.

## In the story

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

One of the narrator's copyists, known for his afternoon inefficiency.

### [The Happy Failure](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_28_se/chapters/the-happy-failure)

Not present in this chapter; included as placeholder due to canonical list constraints.

## Links

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