The narrator of "Bartleby"

[Krafft, John M.]

Some of you seem to be giving the narrator of "Bartleby" a lot more slack than I do. He isn't sorry he lost his chance to do good in the world; he's angry that he lost a sinecure. Keeper of the king's conscience, indeed? Remember _Bleak House_? Isn't it more likely the narrator of "Bartleby" was getting richer by conniving at the robbing of widows and orphans? Don't get me wrong: I'm glad I don't have to figure out what to do about Bartleby. But what the narrator does is almost all wrong. Look at the rape of Bartleby's desk he rationalizes? Look at his smugness about his impoverished hirelings. Does he occasionally try to reach out to Bartleby? Maybe, but look at how he tries to buy him (and his own conscience) off, how he buttons himself up when he should open up, and how he runs away again and again. Remember when he tells Bartleby "Jail ought to be good enough for you"? Remember his regret that the lack of information about Bartleby is a great loss to _literature_? And the ending is all misdirection. if we bought it, It would let the narrator off the hook.

John