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"What shall I do? I now said to myself, buttoning up my coat to the last button. What shall I do? what ought I to do? what does conscience say I should do with this man, or rather ghost. Rid myself of him, I must; go, he shall. But how? You will not thrust him, the poor, pale, passive mortal,-you will not thrust such a helpless creature out of your door? you will not dishonor yourself by such cruelty? NO, I will not, I cannot do that. Rather would I let him live and die here, and then mason up his remains in the wall. What then will you do? For all your coaxing, he will not budge. Bribes he leaves under your own paperweight on your table; in short, it is quite plain that he prefers to cling to you." (page 18).
I honestly had to read this several times. When reading this paragraph I kept thinking about a show that I watch on the Travel Channel called the Dead Files. Bartleby, in the story was more of a lost, sad soul vs. a human. A ghost who does not want to leave and attaches to a home or building. The narrator, to me was the owner who wants to know more about this sad soul and becomes attached not wanting to let go.
I admit, this story was very hard to understand. I had to read it several times. During those times, I asked myself is the character Bartleby, really there or is it just the narrators imagination? It seems like the narrator, was starting to feel Bartleby's, sadness and emotions. When Bartleby's, character was introduced I first thought wow, he finally has hired someone that he can maybe get a long with. Then it was a shock when Bartleby would refuse to work. Then, the story became gloomy and depressing. I started to feel sorry for his character and at the same time angry at the character. It's confusing to me why he attached himself to the building, he was offered money, a place to stay and he refused. Writing "Dead Letters" would be depressing but so depressing to cause Bartleby, to want to give up?
I read the biography of Herman Melville very interesting if you want to check it out here is the link:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/bb/hm_bio.html
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