The ‘Uneasy’ Lawyer: Bartleby Reveals a Dynamic Character

 In Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener,” the lawyer is a dynamic character. A dynamic character is one that changes throughout the story. Although we do not explicitly learn much about him, his ideas and the way he explains the story change. The lawyer begins the story with a simple and superficial understanding of his current employees. He doesn’t even share their real names with readers, making them seem even less important. He understands and expects their regular day-to-day routines. When Bartleby begins working for the lawyer, he is stumped by his inability to understand his personality. Bartleby stays within his routine, however he goes against expectations and refuses to do the tasks the lawyer asks of him. This causes the lawyer to take an interest in Bartleby and attempt to know him more. The lawyer describes Bartleby in an inhuman, robotic manner. This is shown when he explains that Bartleby writes “silently, palely, mechanically.” (Melville, 164) Toward the end of the story, his view of Bartleby changes and he sees him as a human being. After hearing that Bartleby had “given up copying” and that he would no longer be of use to him, the lawyer says,“Yet I was sorry for him. I speak less than truth when I say that, on his own account, he occasioned me uneasiness.” (Melville, 175) While the lawyer wishes he could easily send Bartleby away without a second thought, he is unable to. Bartleby has a different effect on the lawyer than the other employees he has had, causing him to feel sympathy. Like any normal employee, the lawyer would be able to fire him and have no worries, but the lawyer worries of what would happen to Bartleby in his strange nature, showing his compassion and his ideas that Bartleby is more than just a scrivener.