Term Paper - Bartleby, Humorous or Tragic?

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a novella by American author Herman Melville. The story first appeared, anonymously, in Putnam's Magazine in two parts.

The first part appeared in November 1853, with the conclusion published in December 1853. It was reprinted in Melville's The Piazza Tales in 1856 with minor textual alterations.

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is said to have been inspired, in part, by Melville's reading of Emerson, and some have pointed to specific parallels to Emerson's essay, "The Transcendentalist."

This essay is provides an analysis of Bartleby, Humorous or Tragic?.

Essay Text (85 words of 1,004):

"...If ever there are two opposite themes offered in the telling of one tale, it is in Herman Melville's short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener". As his perspective swings between the objective and subjective, so swings the theme from comedy to tragedy. Regardless of the two perspectives from which Herman Melville relates the story of Bartleby, the telling of a tragic story with humorous subjectivity, the story's plot and outcome determines the categorization. In fact, had Melville not peppered the story with his narrative, light-hearted, internal ..."

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