point of view in Bartleby the Scrivener
...rpetual.” This may suggest the ongoing struggle for mankind to find happiness in life and that there will always be a gap between the rich and the poor. The narrator, with his pitiful description of Bartleby forces the reader to feel sorry for him and forgive his “eccentric” behavior toward him. Though Bartleby is the focus, the story is more about the narrator trying to figure out a way to deal with Bartleby. Since the two are stark contrasts of each other (rich and poor, obedient and disobedient) they allow for two different extremes in the story. This way the reader can relate more to either one of the characters. The two characters also could represent society as a whole. On one extreme we have Bartleby; a lower class scrivener who keeps to himself and struggles to maintain a decent lifestyle, and on the other extreme we have the narrator; a lawyer who is well off and thinks only of how situations can effect himself. As the story progresses though, the narrator discovers another side of himself. He begins to get involved with Bartleby’s life (or he tries to) and through the author’s tone we can tell that he feels sorry for Bartleby. The tone in this allegory changes according to the mood the narrator is in. When the narrator is in a state of perplexity we begin to ask the same questions that he is asking; we begin to wonder and question the way people act and why they act that way. We find that everyone is dealing with their own problems and whether ...