Death Comes with Clarity

I struggled to reach my conclusion because, throughout the story, the lawyer maintained his somewhat stoic character, which made me think initially that he was static. I sense that he was stoic because as he says, “[h]ence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of what sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any draws down public applause, but in the cool tranquility of a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title deeds” (Melville 158-159). From this quote, he leaves the perception that he is apathetic; he shows no outward emotions. To a certain degree, there is an inference that he also had a stoic mindset, meaning that he was in control of his choices and decisions. However, in contrast, we see a character change when he states, “[m]y first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in proportion as the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my imagination, did that same melancholy merge into fear, that pity into repulsion” (Melville 172). From this point, I started to conclude that the lawyer had a dynamic character because we start to see that the situation with Bartleby started messing around with his peace, whereas before, he mentioned, “[n]othing of what sort have I ever suffered evade my peace” (Melville 158). Another central point in the story that led to my conclusion of the lawyer character being dynamic was when he mentioned, "[w]hen I think over this rumor, hardly can I express the emotions which seize me. Dead letters! Does it not sound like dead men? Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters and assorting them for the flame?" (Melville 187). The lawyer's character was touched after he discovered the rumor of Bartleby being a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office; my image of this lawyer thoroughly changed. It changed because he spoke of emotions that he had not expressed before. Bartleby's rumor is what made the lawyer's character dynamic; he revealed a more sentimental side when discussing the despair of dying, when hope was not fulfilled, and when unrelieved calamities caused good tidings to be stifled unrelieved (Melville 187). Moreover, he saw Bartleby as a human facing challenges in life; he was not just another of his employees who was making his business easier.