- description
- # Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave
## Overview
This segment is an excerpt from the short story [Bartleby, The Scrivener](arke:01KG6YFY3GPNBP5AAFESQKDTDR) by Herman Melville. It describes the narrator's growing acceptance of Bartleby's eccentricities, his increasing isolation, and his famous "I prefer not to" response. The segment spans lines 593-622 of the source file [bartleby_the_scrivener.txt](arke:01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1).
## Context
This segment is part of the [Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF) collection. It follows the segment focusing on [Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation](arke:01KG6YGBM5HJYR8M98PE7MG3PV) and precedes the segment detailing [Bartleby's presence in the office on a Sunday](arke:01KG6YGBM5EB0H6XMS2NSH4A11).
## Contents
The segment details the narrator's evolving perspective on Bartleby's presence and behavior in his office. Initially, the narrator finds Bartleby's steadiness and industry valuable. However, Bartleby's persistent refusal to perform certain tasks, always answering with "I prefer not to," causes the narrator occasional frustration. The passage also describes the office's security, noting that multiple people have keys to the narrator's chambers.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:51.389Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave
- end_line
- 622
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:25.130Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 593
- text
- As days passed on, I became considerably reconciled to Bartleby. His
steadiness, his freedom from all dissipation, his incessant industry
(except when he chose to throw himself into a standing revery behind
his screen), his great stillness, his unalterableness of demeanor under
all circumstances, made him a valuable acquisition. One prime thing was
this,—_he was always there;_—first in the morning, continually through
the day, and the last at night. I had a singular confidence in his
honesty. I felt my most precious papers perfectly safe in his hands.
Sometimes to be sure I could not, for the very soul of me, avoid
falling into sudden spasmodic passions with him. For it was exceeding
difficult to bear in mind all the time those strange peculiarities,
privileges, and unheard of exemptions, forming the tacit stipulations
on Bartleby’s part under which he remained in my office. Now and then,
in the eagerness of dispatching pressing business, I would
inadvertently summon Bartleby, in a short, rapid tone, to put his
finger, say, on the incipient tie of a bit of red tape with which I was
about compressing some papers. Of course, from behind the screen the
usual answer, “I prefer not to,” was sure to come; and then, how could
a human creature with the common infirmities of our nature, refrain
from bitterly exclaiming upon such perverseness—such unreasonableness.
However, every added repulse of this sort which I received only tended
to lessen the probability of my repeating the inadvertence.
Here it must be said, that according to the custom of most legal
gentlemen occupying chambers in densely-populated law buildings, there
were several keys to my door. One was kept by a woman residing in the
attic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my
apartments. Another was kept by Turkey for convenience sake. The third
I sometimes carried in my own pocket. The fourth I knew not who had.
- title
- Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave