“Analysis of Alienation, Writing, and Labor in ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’”

Abstract

Alienation as an important literary theme is represented almost in its totality and complexity in Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener”. Through this story Melville tries to give us a clear understanding of Man’s alienated nature and condition in modern society. The story also turns out to be an allegorical representation of Melville’s alienation from his society, his profession as a writer and himself as a man.