The entrance of Bartleby creates the clear divide between power and the common man. With this line drawn the true characteristic and influences of power come to light and the ugly truth of progression are brought to fruition. Thomas Mitchell correlates the lawyer and his actions, “to the selfish capitalistic society, the world of law and order, and genteel consciousness” and correlates Bartleby to, “men who will no longer conform to the standards of the capitalistic world, the stoic tragic view, the defeat of human will, and the writer-artist rebel” (2). This divide can be represented through the image of the divide the lawyer creates within his office, “a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from [his] sight, though not remove him from [his] voice” (301). This divide separates the lawyer from a true representation of the consequences this productive…show more content… Bartleby enters as an enigma to the readers and the lawyer himself. With this enigma comes the desire from the lawyer, along with the reader due to human instinct, to understand the complexities of Bartleby and the slow removal of the green divide the lawyer sets. Melville describes Bartleby through the lawyer at the first entrance as, “pallidly neat, pitiably respectablel, incurably forlorn” all of which are sarcastic comments made by the lawyer to describe Bartleby (301). The lawyer almost feels obligated to compliment him but with these comments come an adjective to negate this compliment. These comments attributed to Bartleby correlates to his eventual death which foreshadows the eventual fate of Bartleby and the decline of himself with the “charitable” acts of the lawyer. This also gives rise to the secret the lawyer eventually tells of Bartleby’s previous occupation in a dead letter
