"Will you ell me anything about yourself?"
"I would prefer not to." Bartleby Pg. 659
This story is possibly one of the strangest stories I've read yet. Just looking at the cast of characters is enough to make you wonder how sane this could be. One character is perfectly at ease in the morning and a very diligent worker but then right at noon he begins to turn red and go insane with energy. On the flip side there is another man who has great trouble with his bowels and constipation in the morning. Then right at the time the other man begins to freak out he gets straight to work and gets the job done. These two characters seem to be a package deal throughout the story and balance one another in a weird way. Then there's Bartleby who gets as close to being a mute as one can while still talking. In fact the only sentence he seems to be capable of uttering is "I would prefer not to." What is with this guy? Why is he so strange and silent? Did he only ever learn to speak one phrase? His character is almost generally creepy and most certainly awkward. The narrator of the story might be the most frustrating though. He continues to put up with all this craziness and never does a thing about it. He is quite simply put: a push over. So here we have this eccentric cast of characters and instead of using them in some fascinating tale, they are wasted on a boring story that really doesn't go anywhere. The story has no real point or purpose from what I can see except to make the reader uncomfortable. If that was the only goal then the author succeeded.
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