Many Views of Melvilles Bartelby The Scrivener Essay -- Melville Bart

All literary works are written from a specific standpoint. This standpoint originates from the mind of the author. The author, when creating his literary work, has a specific draw/plan and vision of what the story is supposed to convey. However, not all readers pass on interpret the literary work in the way that the author him/herself has presented it. many times, in fact, the audience will perceive the literary work as having an entirely different meaning than what it was meant to behave. The short story, Bartelby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, has been reviewed by several different connoisseurs as having several different standpoints. These standpoints include Bartelby as a Psychological Double to the Narrator, an apostle of reason, having biblical ties, and as being Melville himself. A personal standpoint that proves to be different than those that have come before it is to perceive the story, Bartelby the Scrivener, as a story of family. Of all of these views and interp retations of the story Bartelby the Scrivener, none brook be perceived as correct, except by the author. Furthermore, none can be seen as incorrect because literary works, unlike ocular works of art, leave us the option to imagine. In fact, our interpretation of other critics thesis is merely a product of our views on their standpoints. I say that only to justify that we are able to grow our own opinions and form our own thesis just by class period the words on the page. Bartelby as a Psychological DoubleThe critic of this standpoint is Mordecai Marcus. He feels that Bartelby is a paralleled image or a psychological double of the narrator. In his criticism of Bartelby the Scrivener, he writesI conceptualise that the character of Bartelby is a psychological double for the storys nameless lawyer-narrator, and that the storys criticism of a sterile and impersonal society can best be clarified by investigation of this role. - Bartelby appears to be the lawyer chiefly to remind him of the inadequacies, the sterile routine, of his world.(College English, pg. 68) Marcus is trying to say that Bartelby and the narrator have a sort of inter-connection. Not as two ramify entities, tho as two separate personalities residing in one, viewing life from separate standpoints. ... ...s audience, I cannot limit myself to just these theories. Countless other theories can be formed on the actual theme of the story. I truly believe that Melville had those intentions, not only for this story, but also for all the stories that he has written. literary works are meant to be examined and interpreted by the individual rendering it. Authors produce the material. All we are required to do is produce the belief and personal understanding of what has been presented before us. Bibliography1.) College English, Vol. 23, No.5, February, 1962, pp.365&dash682.) Indian journal of American Studies, Vol.4, Nos. 1-2, June and December, 1974. Pp.66-71.3.) Meyer, Michael The Bedford Intro duction to Literature, Library of Congress Catalog Number 98-85194, right of first publication 1999 by Bedford/St. Martin.3.) Reference Guide to in brief Fiction, 1st ed., edited by Noelle Watson, St. James Press, 19944.) Short Stories for Students, Gale Research, 1997Key (as cited in the paper)(IJ of AS) Indian Journal of American Studies(BI to L) The Bedford Introduction to Literature(RG to SF) Reference Guide to Short Fiction(SS for S) Short Stories for Students