- description
- # Confrontation and initial attempts to resolve
## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)
This is a segment extracted from the short story [Bartleby, The Scrivener](arke:01KG8AJ8SS2R5YVRHT1BCDZZNP), part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The segment, labeled "Confrontation and initial attempts to resolve," spans lines 1267-1310 of the source text file, bartleby_the_scrivener.txt. It was extracted on January 30, 2026, by the structure-extraction-lambda process.
## Context - Background and provenance from related entities
This segment follows "Bartleby's continued refusal to leave the old premises and the narrator's denial of responsibility" ([arke:01KG8AJNQCW1RWXCBH9KETJAJ8]) and precedes "Escalation of refusals and narrator's despair" ([arke:01KG8AJQ3DP6Y4EA6XFRXJSYR4]). The text is part of a larger file, bartleby_the_scrivener.txt, which contains the complete short story.
## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details
The segment describes the narrator's encounter with the lawyer and the landlord, who are upset about Bartleby's continued presence in the building. The narrator is confronted and asked to remove Bartleby. The narrator then attempts to speak with Bartleby to resolve the situation. The segment ends with Bartleby's continued refusal to leave.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:09.340Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Confrontation and initial attempts to resolve
- end_line
- 1310
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:37.562Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1267
- text
- All is over with him, by this time, thought I at last, when through
another week no further intelligence reached me. But coming to my room
the day after, I found several persons waiting at my door in a high
state of nervous excitement.
“That’s the man—here he comes,” cried the foremost one, whom I
recognized as the lawyer who had previously called upon me alone.
“You must take him away, sir, at once,” cried a portly person among
them, advancing upon me, and whom I knew to be the landlord of
No.—Wall-street. “These gentlemen, my tenants, cannot stand it any
longer; Mr. B—” pointing to the lawyer, “has turned him out of his
room, and he now persists in haunting the building generally, sitting
upon the banisters of the stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by
night. Every body is concerned; clients are leaving the offices; some
fears are entertained of a mob; something you must do, and that without
delay.”
Aghast at this torrent, I fell back before it, and would fain have
locked myself in my new quarters. In vain I persisted that Bartleby was
nothing to me—no more than to any one else. In vain:—I was the last
person known to have any thing to do with him, and they held me to the
terrible account. Fearful then of being exposed in the papers (as one
person present obscurely threatened) I considered the matter, and at
length said, that if the lawyer would give me a confidential interview
with the scrivener, in his (the lawyer’s) own room, I would that
afternoon strive my best to rid them of the nuisance they complained
of.
Going up stairs to my old haunt, there was Bartleby silently sitting
upon the banister at the landing.
“What are you doing here, Bartleby?” said I.
“Sitting upon the banister,” he mildly replied.
I motioned him into the lawyer’s room, who then left us.
“Bartleby,” said I, “are you aware that you are the cause of great
tribulation to me, by persisting in occupying the entry after being
dismissed from the office?”
No answer.
- title
- Confrontation and initial attempts to resolve