Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

I'll go over a few things that caught my attention.

My father's a criminal defense lawyer. I guess the reason that I'm mentioning this is that, of all the lawyers I know, none of them would dare go into something like contract, patent, or inheritance law... Whatever you want to call it, but basically "boring" law. My father would rather defend a child-molesting ax-murderer than sit at a desk writing out wills his entire life. That's why I found it so strange that the Narrator would be so keen to settle for something so dull, only because he considers it to be a "safe" profession. And while that very well may be true, what kind of person wants to do that?

So, I decided that I would focus primarily on what kind of character the Narrator is in Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street.

Why would someone want a job like that? Why would someone be so passive when it comes to getting rid of an employee that's unwilling to do anything? Why would someone keep employees that are only competent for a few hours a day, and then become intolerable thereafter?

Take a look at this: "I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquillity of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds."

And he's right... It is, in fact, a very good business for the lawyers that decide they wouldn't mind having a boring job since the money pays well. That sheds a little light into this character from the very beginning, showing that he would rather make steady money -- and probably good money -- doing something boring, maybe even a little depressing, than take a risk. I wonder, then, how much money means to him... I mean, he certainly makes comments on how badly Turkey dresses, but he's not very quick to shell out more money to remedy the situation.

Another one: "There are many singular coincidences I have known in the course of my life, not the least among which was the fact, that exactly when Turkey displayed his fullest beams from his red and radiant countenance, just then, too, at that critical moment, began the daily period when I considered his business capacities as seriously disturbed for the remainder of the twenty-four hours."

Not only is he boring, he might be a little stupid. It's clear that Turkey might be having a little too much fun on his lunch breaks, but the Narrator just sees it as "coincidence" -- which occur very often in his life, he notes -- that Turkey's work ethic diminishes after noon. And, he doesn't do anything about it! If I had an employee that was only good for half of his shift (or none at all, in the case of Bartleby), I would fire them immediately. But, the Narrator is either too lazy to do so or seems to know that not many people want a job like his... I'm going to go with the former, however, considering how naive this character can be at times.

I'll try to wrap this up. I just want to know the inspiration behind this character. I'm more intrigued by the Narrator than I am by Bartleby! He won't take risks, he's quick to criticize his employees but unwilling to fix the situation, he's obviously very naive, and he's horribly passive-aggressive about the whole Bartleby situation. He's always fighting within himself about what to do about Bartleby, only to come up with a resolution and then back down on it. I guess I'd just like to explore this character, and all the characters, a bit more.