"Bartleby, the Scrivener" Lesson Plan from 10 Years Ago

Sean Fitzpatrick essay

Identity Theory

Unconscious Duplicity

Bartleby the Absurd

Virginia Commonwealth University

Journal of the Short Story

Annotated Story from Slate

Lesson Plan for Bartleby 

 

Questions

Major Themes:

1. We reveal more truth about ourselves when we lie than when we’re honest.
2. We can not measure morality or love toward others; it must be boundless. The fallacy of moral minimalism.
3. For every façade we try to convey to others, we cultivate its opposite, which will sooner or later come out and bite us: McMahon and the cool factor with the Caveman Scream.
4. Even smart, morally decent people are capable of boundless self-delusions.
5. When we can’t let go of our highly-regimented routines, they become prisons and eventually coffins inside of which we begin our slow death rot.
6. We can believe our lives are full of purpose and conviction but in fact we’re just really good actors who’ve fooled not only others but ourselves.
7. Analyze the "Safe" archetype. 
8. You can be a mindless consumer, a safe worker who lives by routine and facade, not conviction; or a noble slacker. 
9. Story reads as a dream of a man seeing his reflection: a depressed ghost of his former self. 
10. The narrator is a slave to the illusion of control; in fact, he is controlled by his need to control. 
11. Food becomes a substitute for human intimacy. Indeed, the narrator is more lonely than he can fathom and his hunger for intimacy and friendship is expressed in a needy obsession with food. The critic Dillingham also says his hunger for food is a hunger for self-approval. 
12. Middle-class or white-collar work makes us a cog in the machine

One: What type of image or façade is the narrator eager to convey to the reader? See first paragraph: He’s full of braggadocio and bluster. He’ a man of control, wisdom, and experience.

See 21, the real subject of the story is himself.

See 21, a man of conviction

See 22 top, “unambitious” when in fact he loves image and success.

See 22, name-dropper

See 22 is a “safe” man means he’s afraid of risks and lives in a cocoon

See 22 “I seldom lose my temper” is a rationalization for being a coward

See 24 “I was willing to overlook Turkey’s eccentricities” means he’s cowardly to enforce discipline and high work standards. He can’t fire anyone. He’s also afraid of change.

See 30 “With any other man . . .” The narrator is too scared to assert any real authority because he has no conviction.

See 30, Having no conviction, the narrator looks for approval from other employees.

See 32 and 33 and 40 He explains compassion keeps him from firing Bartleby but it’s really curiosity; he wants to know himself.

See 38, Trinity Church is a ruse, a show of piety

See 45 His commandment to love his brother from the Bible is shallow because he betrays Bartleby when he realizes he is a detriment to his image before his clients.

See 46, 47, the threat to his image compels narrator to take more aggressive actions. “Something severe must be done.” He decides to change offices.

See 48, the narrator’s denial of Bartleby three times is suggestive of the way Peter denied Christ three times.

Two: What evidence is there that Bartleby is in fact the narrator’s alter ego or mirror image? The homunculus within.

See page 28, “I prefer not to,” is the narrator rebelling against his lifeless, routine existence. In other words, “I can’t do this crap anymore.”

See page 29, the narrator’s shock is called Heimlich or the uncanny, a person who shows up is both strange but familiar.

See page 31, the narrator begins to scrutinize Bartleby’s anti-social lifestyle, which is really his own: never going out for dinner, never going out at all.

See page 35 and 36, he’s going to church and he decides to visit Bartleby but has a vision of himself. “Both Bartleby and I were sons of Adam.” Yes, they’re brothers, the same person in fact.

See 38, by wanting to keep Bartleby employed and by wanting to help him, he really wants to heal himself.

See 39, he starts talking like Bartleby.

See 44, “Will you, or will you not, quite me?” Bartleby must stay to show the narrator the truth about himself.

See 48, “I tore myself from him whom I had so longed to be rid of.”

See 50, the narrator’s career suggestions reflect his will to expand his own horizons.

See 53, the real condition of the narrator, dead, or not even born yet, feet curled up in the fetal position.

Three: What is the role of food in the story? Hunger, love, approval.

 

See 26, the narrator is preoccupied with what his employees are eating, cake and apples, spicy treats of all kinds.

See 28, the narrator uses figurative language of gorging and consuming as a way of working.

See 28, the narrator is preoccupied with other people’s digestion in the same way I want everyone in my family to eat lots of fiber.

See page 31, he notices Bartleby, a bland man, craves spice, and only eats ginger cookies.

See what page, I don’t know, but narrator is looking for a “morsel of approval” by doing good deeds.

Four: How do we know the narrator’s office has become his coffin?

See page 22, his chambers are deficient in life.