- description
- # Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation
## Overview
This segment of text, titled "Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation," spans lines 550-592 of the source document. It details the narrator's growing frustration and bewilderment regarding Bartleby's persistent refusal to perform tasks, culminating in the narrator's decision to tolerate Bartleby's eccentricities.
## Context
This segment is part of the short story "[Bartleby, The Scrivener](arke:01KG6YFY3GPNBP5AAFESQKDTDR)," which is included in the "[Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF)" collection, comprising the complete works of Herman Melville. The text was extracted from the file "[bartleby_the_scrivener.txt](arke:01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1)". It follows a previous segment, "[Bartleby's arrival and initial employment / Escalation of Bartleby's refusals](arke:01KG6YGAX7RK570JFG2V7914YA)," which describes Bartleby's initial refusals. It is succeeded by "[Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave](arke:01KG6YGBMBWNTXCJASG7F58WAK)," which further explores Bartleby's peculiar behavior.
## Contents
The segment describes the narrator's internal struggle with Bartleby's "I prefer not to" responses. The narrator attempts to assert authority by ordering Bartleby to fetch Nippers, only to be met with the familiar refusal. Overwhelmed by perplexity and distress, the narrator retreats home. The conclusion of this section reveals the narrator's reluctant acceptance of Bartleby's unique working conditions, where Bartleby copies documents but is exempt from examining his work or running errands. This arrangement shifts Bartleby's examination duties to Turkey and Nippers, highlighting the narrator's capitulation to Bartleby's passive resistance.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:50.777Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation
- end_line
- 592
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:25.130Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 550
- text
- I staggered to my desk, and sat there in a deep study. My blind
inveteracy returned. Was there any other thing in which I could procure
myself to be ignominiously repulsed by this lean, penniless wight?—my
hired clerk? What added thing is there, perfectly reasonable, that he
will be sure to refuse to do?
“Bartleby!”
No answer.
“Bartleby,” in a louder tone.
No answer.
“Bartleby,” I roared.
Like a very ghost, agreeably to the laws of magical invocation, at the
third summons, he appeared at the entrance of his hermitage.
“Go to the next room, and tell Nippers to come to me.”
“I prefer not to,” he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly
disappeared.
“Very good, Bartleby,” said I, in a quiet sort of serenely severe
self-possessed tone, intimating the unalterable purpose of some
terrible retribution very close at hand. At the moment I half intended
something of the kind. But upon the whole, as it was drawing towards my
dinner-hour, I thought it best to put on my hat and walk home for the
day, suffering much from perplexity and distress of mind.
Shall I acknowledge it? The conclusion of this whole business was, that
it soon became a fixed fact of my chambers, that a pale young
scrivener, by the name of Bartleby, and a desk there; that he copied
for me at the usual rate of four cents a folio (one hundred words); but
he was permanently exempt from examining the work done by him, that
duty being transferred to Turkey and Nippers, one of compliment
doubtless to their superior acuteness; moreover, said Bartleby was
never on any account to be dispatched on the most trivial errand of any
sort; and that even if entreated to take upon him such a matter, it was
generally understood that he would prefer not to—in other words, that
he would refuse pointblank.
- title
- Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation