Therefore, both characters failed to have positive reviews from their employer; yet, by compensation, they managed to remain employed. The discrepancy between the assignments they were paid to manage and the actual results in fact will weight more by comparison to the amount of work Bartleby would be able to achieve up to a certain point. Therefore, it can be said that one of the first characterizations of the main character is provided through the comparative characterization of the other two important characters. As per the narrator, "a motionless young man one morning, stood upon my office threshold, the door being open, for it was summer. I can see that figure now -- pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! It was Bartleby" (Melville, 2013). Aside from the brief description when introducing the character of Bartleby, the narrator points out that "I engaged him, glad to have among my corps of copyists a man of so singularly sedate an aspect, which I thought might operate beneficially upon the flighty temper of Turkey, and the fiery one of Nippers" which points out the need for initial characterization of the two other employees.

An important aspect to be taken into account with Bartleby's character is the relation between him and the narrator. In that period, given that the narrator was also his employer, there is a clear distinction of class between the employees and the narrator. More precisely, the fact that the narrator allowed himself to keep two employees and a twelve-year-old in the conditions of unsatisfying performance leads to the conclusion that the narrator, although a business man, did not necessarily seek profitable or good business management, but rather an environment in which to develop different characters and relations between them.

Given the difference in social...

Despite the fact that as an employee, he eventually refused to perform his duties any more, and refusing by the phrase "I would prefer not to," Bartleby benefited from a certain type of respect from the narrator. More precisely, "His steadiness, his freedom from all dissipation, his incessant industry (except when he chose to throw himself into a standing revery behind his screen), his great stillness, his unalterableness of demeanor under all circumstances, made him a valuable acquisition." (Melville, 2013) Therefore, when the housing situation worsened for Bartleby, the narrator offered to come to his own house to stay. This type of charity as well as Bartleby's obvious reply, "I prefer not to" may be considered as representative for a type of relation between two different social classes, one of the rich and one of the poor.
Bartleby's issue was not only related to his actual financial or social status but also to a more profound consideration, greater than the apparently lack of meaning actions. In this sense, the narrator's last remark, after the death of Bartleby, "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" only points out the more profound nature of Bartleby's character as well as that of the short story. His character symbolized in a way humanity, as embodied by the lower class Bartleby was an exponent of. At the same time, the discovery of his previous work place defines this differentiation of class even further and points out the futility of human presence on earth, in relation to higher powers as well as in social relations.

Overall, the short story's central character is representative for the writing as well as for the elements and symbolic nature of his personality.

Reference

Melville, Herman. "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street." 2013. Available online at http://www.bartleby.com/129/