Examples Of Transcendentalism In Bartleby The Scrivener

In Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall- Street by Herman Melville, the story can be both considered as transcendentalist and not depending on whether or not the main focus is on Bartleby or the Narrator. The Narrator continues to do his job throughout the book while Bartleby; the newly hired scrivener prefers not to do anything other than copy papers and eventually, does not do anything at all. One of the main principles of transcendentalism as described by Emerson is to embrace individuality; he states “envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse”(Emerson). In the story, Bartleby “prefers” not to do anything that the Narrator asks him to do, including checking his own work. Bartleby calmly
In addition to working on Wall Street, the Narrator also shows his liking of finer clothes in a scene where he describes himself giving Turkey a better coat. After offering Turkey his coat, the Narrator “thought Turkey would appreciate the favor, and abate his rashness and obstreperousness of afternoons. But no” (11). Instead of accepting the Narrator’s coat, Turkey seems to be just fine in his “downy and blanket-like a coat ha(ving) a pernicious effect upon him” (11). In this part of the story, the Narrator goes against one of the core principles of transcendentalism. Thoreau explains that “most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not dispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (Thoreau on Luxuries and Materialism). Turkey on one hand is content with his shabby blanket of a coat, while the Narrator is kept warm in his “highly-respectable looking coat” (11). Another key principle of transcendentalism is to become one with nature. In the last scene where the Narrator goes to visit Bartleby, one of the turnkeys leads him to the yard outside. While the Narrator finds Bartleby dead, after refusing to eat any of his meals, the grass that had sprung out of the ground surprises him. The Narrator recalls, “a soft imprisoned turf grew under foot. The heart of the eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by birds, had sprung” (244). Bartleby, who conveys some of the core principles of transcendentalism, dies in the presence in nature, even though he is in jail. Throughout the book, it can be seen that while Bartleby actions resemble those of a transcendentalist, the Narrator’s actions convey those of an anti-transcendentalist, which is why this story both embodies and