- description
- # Narrator's reconciliation and continued struggle with Bartleby's behavior.
## Overview
This section, titled "Narrator's reconciliation and continued struggle with Bartleby's behavior," is a segment of the chapter "Bartleby" from the collection [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). It was extracted from the file [the_piazza_tales.txt](arke:01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7). The text details the narrator's evolving feelings towards Bartleby, acknowledging his positive attributes while still grappling with his eccentricities.
## Context
This section follows the summary of Bartleby's established situation and peculiarities and precedes the section detailing Bartleby's occupation of the office. It is part of the larger narrative within the chapter "Bartleby," which itself is a component of Herman Melville's collected works.
## Contents
The text describes the narrator's growing reconciliation with Bartleby, noting his steadiness, industry, and constant presence as valuable qualities. The narrator expresses confidence in Bartleby's honesty and the security of his papers. However, the narrator also admits to experiencing "spasmodic passions" due to Bartleby's "strange peculiarities" and his consistent refusal to perform tasks, famously stating, "I prefer not to." The narrator recounts instances of inadvertently asking Bartleby to perform minor tasks, only to be met with refusal, which would lead to the narrator's frustration. The section also touches upon the office's key management, mentioning the keys held by an attic resident, Turkey, and the narrator himself, with a fourth key's whereabouts unknown.
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- description_title
- Narrator's reconciliation and continued struggle with Bartleby's behavior.
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- 1226
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:52.603Z
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- 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
- Narrator's reconciliation and continued struggle with Bartleby's behavior.