Theme Of Bartleby The Scrivener

In the middle of the nineteenth century, roughly between 1820 and 1865, a “new” literary movement arose in America, called ‘American Romanticism’. The concept was far from new: in Europe, literary Romanticism had already come up in the late eighteenth century. In America, it became an official movement a bit later. The main characteristics of American Romanticism are the desire for escape, for mystery, but most of all, for individualism and freedom. American Romantic poets and writers saw conformity as a sort of threat: people should not try to conform to the social standards, but be true to themselves and do as they please. Non-conformity is a very often recurring theme in ‘American Romanticism. Two very important works in which this theme
At first, Bartleby seems a hard-working and very devoted employee, but it soon turns out that he will not do whatever the lawyer asks him to do. No matter how mundane or simple the task is, Bartleby’s response is constantly: “I would prefer not to.” The firmness and calmness Bartleby conveys when denying to do tasks astonishes the lawyer (and his other scriveners), but the lawyer decides to let Bartleby do as he pleases. This behaviour of Bartleby shows the theme of non-conformity, and the way it is received by those who do conform is an interesting one. A scrivener, when given a task by his employer, is expected to do whatever is asked from him. This would be in agreement with the social standards of the time; Bartleby does not conform, he resists the conventional course of events and does what he wants to do himself. Bartleby’s non-conformity, however, is beheld by the narrator (the lawyer) with absolute surprise at first: “Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby (…) replied, ‘I would prefer not to.’” The narrator, as said before, is described as a working member of society, a man with an air of conformity. This conformal man predictably reacts with surprise, and does not know what to do with his subordinate employee, eventually letting it