Essay about Individual Freedom in Melvilles Bartleby,...

Individual Freedom in Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener What motivates you to go to work everyday? What motivates you to dress the way you do? What motivates you to be reasonable when it comes to normal requests? Ah, the ultimate question in need of an answer: Who determines what is reasonable and normal, and should we not determine these matters for ourselves? Chaos would result, you say, if every individual were granted that freedom. Yet, we all do have that freedom, and Herman Melville (1819-1891) through the interpretation of a man who prefers to follow his own path in Bartleby, the Scrivener, subjectively conveys the mental anguish he experienced as a writer and man when the literary world attempted to steal that freedom.†¦show more content†¦To force himself to live by the standards of normalcy set forth by society would be to kill the man who lived within. Bartleby did choose physical death over conformity at the end of the story. Melville chose a different path than Bartleby, not a physical death, but a death all the same . Through Bartleby, Melville describes the deadness he feels within when having to conform his writings to the reasonable standards and common usage of literature. For Melville, the doorway that would lead to acceptance in the literary world was barred shut to his entry, the hinge held firmly in place by his own creativity, sparred by his own internal sense of reason. To walk across the threshold would require the loosening of the hinge. With the axis of his soul sliding downward, Melville stepped through the doorway. Melville quickly realized it was the doorway to hell. He had stepped into a world of mental torment; mental torment that even the good Reverend Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) whose sermons of fiery damnation could not measure up to (503). He had sold into slavery his mind and soul to the bidders of the celebrated literary world. Melvilles gains were minimal when weighed against his losses. He shared with Nathaniel Hawthorne his inner turmoil, What I feel most moved to write , that is banned, - it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot.Show MoreRelatedBartleby, the Scrivener the Lady with the Dog Essay1399 Words   |  6 Pagesand social norms. Anna and Gurov in ‘The Lady with the Dog’ are restrained by the socially expected conventions in their marriages, inhibiting their ability to express their inner compulsion of desire. Chekov reveals their yearning to escape their individual lives as they cope with personal troubles by distancing themselves from marriage through a sexual relationship with each other. 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Modern life has provocations that surround us as we rely heavily on them to inform us how to place and categorize individuals in the world. The characters in Herman Melville’s short stories, through their dialogue, direct characterization, and physical appearances, forces us to use human perception to understand them and to slowly unfold the truth about them. Perception is the act of employing