When Bartleby isolates himself through strategic spatial development, he is in fact refusing to follow the norms of Wall Street in the same way he refuses to “copy” the documents (546). Jacob Astor, America’s first millionaire, is the narrator’s hero. The narrator is a lawyer and wealthy man who believes in the US capitalist system. However, this movement away from society is not just a general estrangement from the people who surrounds him Bartleby is also isolating himself from the values of that society, which are inherently capitalist and are upheld by the narrator. His cubicle becomes more isolated and he prefers to work alone. Indeed, throughout the story, Bartleby has been systematically removing himself from society, an estrangement that is enacted in his treatment of space and setting. This is also reinforced by his refusal to converse with the narrator (544). Bartleby’s position in the prison yard, isolated from other prisoners, as stated in the passage “the yard…was not accessible to the common prisoners,” suggests that he has reached the peak of social isolation (556). The setting not only reveals Bartleby’s mental state but also his social state. The physical setting, which is characterized by isolating walls and gloom, echoes Bartleby’s mental state as the narrator perceives it, namely, as deranged. Thus there is a connection between setting and state of mind.
It is a form of confinement that the narrator interprets as an indication of madness, “I think he is a little deranged” (556). The setting in the office, which has Bartleby incrementally isolating himself from others by erecting a sense of walls, is taken to an extreme in the yard, where he reaches a form of complete isolation. When Bartleby first arrives at the office, the narrator erects a working space for him that had him facing a view of the wall from the building next door and uses a “high green folding screen… isolate Bartleby…”(536). The images of enclosure and isolation in the prison yard echo earlier images in the story. The author also uses the image of a pyramid, known as an enclosed and isolated space for burials, to describe the prison and further enhance the effect. This description provides a powerful image of being isolated. The yard of the prison is surrounded by walls of “amazing thickness, keeping off all sounds behind them,” and the “masonry weighted upon me” (556). This dismissal later results in Bartleby being arrested as a vagrant and initiates the scene in the prison yard, where the narrator goes to visit him.īartleby’s isolation and desolate mental state is illustrated by the author’s depiction of the prison. The narrator chooses to tolerate Bartleby’s preferences until they interfere with the narrator’s work the narrator is then forced to dismiss Bartleby and relocate his office. The story is about Bartleby’s encounter with the narrator, his employee.
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