ENG250Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Dead Letter Office, Charles Dickens, American Broadcasting Company
Document Summary
Bartleby poses the only challenge to the society. Bartleby embodies passive resistance, related to the passive resistance of gandhi. But off from his community, his family. Story bartleby poses challenges the rubric to individualism. How does a society deal with non conformers. How has the power to ascribe meanings, what is the meaning of bartleby"s resistance, Impact of commercialization on the artist what does he stand for. Bartleby says nothing, lawyer fills in the interpretation of bartleby. Emerson the transcendent : speaks of a lonely, withdrawn man, with whom a paternal figure pleads at length but can"t reach. Bartleby makes the lawyer question his own life. Lawyer then feels ashamed for his own life. Bartleby does not do this by conversing with the lawyer, bartleby refuses to work as a cog in the machine. Lawyer must then reflect on the nature of the machine. Lawyer is by profession believes in rational discourse. What if the other person refuses to argue.
