- description
- # Escalation of refusals and narrator's despair
## Overview
This is a segment from the short story [Bartleby, The Scrivener](arke:01KG8AJ8SS2R5YVRHT1BCDZZNP) by Herman Melville, extracted from the file [bartleby_the_scrivener.txt](arke:01KG89J1CRGPEZ66W67EZPAMPE). It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. This segment, labeled "Escalation of refusals and narrator's despair," spans lines 1311 to 1365 of the source text. It captures a key moment in the story where the narrator's attempts to find an alternative occupation for Bartleby are met with repeated refusals, leading to the narrator's frustration and a final, desperate offer.
## Context
The segment is preceded by [Confrontation and initial attempts to resolve](arke:01KG8AJNQFM9RJYFFH2FR2J10X), where the narrator is pressured by the landlord and other tenants to remove Bartleby from the building. Following this segment is [Narrator's flight and Bartleby's removal](arke:01KG8AJQ3CQB4GAAKBZK59MTPQ), which describes the narrator's attempt to avoid the situation and Bartleby's subsequent removal to the Tombs as a vagrant.
## Contents
This segment contains a dialogue between the narrator and Bartleby, characterized by Bartleby's repeated use of the phrase "I would prefer not to." The narrator proposes various occupations to Bartleby, including copying, a clerkship, a bartender's job, traveling bill collector, and a companion for a young gentleman in Europe. Bartleby rejects each offer with his signature phrase. The narrator's patience wears thin, and he eventually loses his temper, threatening to leave the premises himself. In a final attempt to help Bartleby, the narrator invites him to stay at his home, but Bartleby refuses even this offer, stating, "No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all."
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:10.982Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Escalation of refusals and narrator's despair
- end_line
- 1365
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:37.562Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1311
- text
- “Now one of two things must take place. Either you must do something,
or something must be done to you. Now what sort of business would you
like to engage in? Would you like to re-engage in copying for some
one?”
“No; I would prefer not to make any change.”
“Would you like a clerkship in a dry-goods store?”
“There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like a
clerkship; but I am not particular.”
“Too much confinement,” I cried, “why you keep yourself confined all
the time!”
“I would prefer not to take a clerkship,” he rejoined, as if to settle
that little item at once.
“How would a bar-tender’s business suit you? There is no trying of the
eyesight in that.”
“I would not like it at all; though, as I said before, I am not
particular.”
His unwonted wordiness inspirited me. I returned to the charge.
“Well then, would you like to travel through the country collecting
bills for the merchants? That would improve your health.”
“No, I would prefer to be doing something else.”
“How then would going as a companion to Europe, to entertain some young
gentleman with your conversation,—how would that suit you?”
“Not at all. It does not strike me that there is any thing definite
about that. I like to be stationary. But I am not particular.”
“Stationary you shall be then,” I cried, now losing all patience, and
for the first time in all my exasperating connection with him fairly
flying into a passion. “If you do not go away from these premises
before night, I shall feel bound—indeed I _am_ bound—to—to—to quit the
premises myself!” I rather absurdly concluded, knowing not with what
possible threat to try to frighten his immobility into compliance.
Despairing of all further efforts, I was precipitately leaving him,
when a final thought occurred to me—one which had not been wholly
unindulged before.
“Bartleby,” said I, in the kindest tone I could assume under such
exciting circumstances, “will you go home with me now—not to my office,
but my dwelling—and remain there till we can conclude upon some
convenient arrangement for you at our leisure? Come, let us start now,
right away.”
“No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all.”
- title
- Escalation of refusals and narrator's despair