Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville Character Analysis

Character Analysis

Narrator-elderly man, ambitious lawyer, "safe man"seldom loses temper, level headed and industrious, calm and sane until he meets Bartleby, has a soft spot for him. 

Bartleby-strange scrivener, weird, lonely doesnt try to fit in, very isolated, drives everyone else crazy because he would rather not do what everyone else does, 

Turkey-copyist, short pursy Englishman, energetic, 60 years old, right hand man who is getting old, he is a very good worker in the morning but has a bad temper by the afternoon. makes more mistakes then

Nippers-copyist, opposite person of turkey, he is younger and works best in the afternoon, usually has stomach problems in the morning and has a bit of ocd to make him always change the height of his desk

Gingernut-office-boy, doesnt really accept Bartleby but always runs to go get ginger nut cakes for the other copyists thats how he got his name 


Questions

1. His attitude towards Turkey, Nippers, and GingerNut is that he knows them very well known and knows them inside out. this affects his relationship with Bartleby by always asking the 3 for their opinion about him. 
2.  He exhibited that he would never lose important papers, and that he was very neat,respectable, and forlorn. He was very thorough and did an extraordinary quantity of writing.
4.  Bartleby is quite different than the average human being. He always distances himself and always says "Id rather not to".  The 3 other scriveners just follow what the narrator does and dont try to change any relationship between them and Bartleby.  Most of his isolation is self imposed but is imposed by the three other scriveners.
5. The other employees treated him as if they were better than him.  They didnt really care to begin a relationship with him and isolated him.  Bartleby followed by always refusing to go with them anywhere. 
6. He wrestles with his conscience by trying to decide if he should just let Bartleby do his own thing and defy him and let him create something great, or if he should take action and do something about his defiance and refusal.  IN the end he pities him and makes exceptions for him. 
7.Bartleby evokes the reader's sympathy by telling us that he is very poor, but evokes anger and frustration by telling us that Bartleby always says "hed rather not to" do whatever the other people do. 
8.Well after Bartleby refuses to change the ways of the Narrator's business, the narrator begins to accommodate to him and makes exceptions for him.  The narrator begins to like Bartleby more after getting to know him. 

Multiple Choice
1. A
2. D
3. E
4. A
5. B
6. A
7.E
8. E
9. A
10. D