Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bartleby &Schizophrenia
Author(s): Morris Beja
Source: The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 555-568
Published by: The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25088886 .
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& Criticism
Biography
sexes
the
nervous
the
so
In
doing,
footing.
trust
and
dependency?for
equal
for mutual
perennial
of
a more
on
the way
opened
complaints?a
was
compensation
offered
emotional
that
society
and
of
History
Development
in Chartered
tice
Accountancy,
could
initial
carrying
at home.
. . .When
at
street
a mother
a young
patient,
in
to hospital
The
Symptoms.
was
admitted
slowing
activities,
at
17 he
appren
January
embarked
with
accountancy
re
was
beyond
up and impairment
at work
both
in
in
the
. . .
out
aimlessly
later, he stopped
of one year,
he
women?but
Beja
a general
change was
out all his usual
setting
corners,
from
provide
... On
at the age of 23 years.
school
leaving
1958,
on a career
of his own
that of chartered
choosing,
five years
firm.
For
the first
his performance
City
in
the
& schizophrenia
Morris
efficiency
office
and
it
suggest,
truce
in
exacted
traditionally
BARTLEBY
....
proach
. . .The
should
may
price
A
clear.
going
remained
...
for work
he
about
looking
to work
altogether,
at home
and
to stop
began
for 5-10
min.
and
not
did
and
A
stand
few
a
for
thereafter,
leave
the
still
weeks
period
house
except
. . .
only.
....
to stay up very
He
In general
late at nights
he pre
preferred
to remain
ferred
same
and
each
stand
in
would
the
upright
day
rigidly
....
1 to 3 hours
from
spot for periods
varying
. . .Movement
was
with
visual
associated
by the patient
perceptual
as
distortion
of the environment
at various
which
he described
times
on
one
for
occasion
a few
hours
"a flatness,"
"a flat streak of colour,"
"a painting,"
...
"I can do something
I see. For
about what
round
and
sounds
. . . ."
look
phrenia?The
1British
Dulany,
Oxford
Jr.,
at
[James
this
blank
et
Chapman,
Psychotherapeutic
Journal of Medical
et
University
al.,
eds.,
Press,
But
wall.
al.,
....
"Clinical
1
Research
turn
about
in Schizo
Approach"]
Psychology,
32
to Modern
Contributions
1963),
"a wall"
I could
example
can't
do
anything
pp.
(1959),
rpt. in Don
Psychology
391-97.
555
(New
E.
York:
The Massachusetts
Review
we are twice
told what the patient described in this
Althoughcase history "preferred" to do, readers familiar with Herman Mel
ville's "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall
Street" will probably
be most struck by all that he would prefer not to. Yet while few readers
would
of them, indeed, almost uncanny
deny the similarities?some
the
?between
and
schizophrenic described above, many critics
Bartleby
nevertheless
resist
as
facts
any
of
application
times
even
But
"people."
readers
terms
"clinical"
do
who
to
not
Some
Bartleby.
for treating
distaste
arti
imaginative
the
recognize
legitimacy
realize,
if
reductive;
are
Bartlebys
are
texts
of
common.
an
is Other,
the
from
awareness
of
or
one,
one,
schizoid,
personality
probably
disorder
aloofness,
difficulty
key
or
in recognizing
is to take an
study, or it is
to
to
one,
or
non-psychotic
introversion,
withdrawal,
relating
that
con
psychological
existential
refers
are
traits
schizophrenic
assumption
probably
"Schizoid"
schizophrenic.
in which
an
or
one,
metaphysical
so on.
and
be
we
than
the world
can
terms
clinical
in
autobiographical
of
application
common
if we
Yet
schizophrenia
socio-economic
an
more
should
either/or
a
so
an
easy
much
it is not merely
usually acknowledge,
symptoms
the victim
too
that
case,
and
"reality,"
an
acute
ably
to most
people
to
err
on
the
side
of
understatement.
We
learn little about Bartleby's "case history"?though
enough to
feel that his parallels with the patient described in the passages quoted
at the start of this essay are not gratuitous. If there is any doubt, let me
indulge
in a citation
After
did
not
leaving
hold
school
any
2
Selected Writings
1952),
p.
of
3. Hereafter,
one
another
case
. . . the
patient
job
longer
of Herman
references
study,
that
obtained
than
in the
"A.
odd
many
several
Melville
of
weeks;
J.":
jobs.
neither
. . .He
was
he
are
to
this
edition.
556
& Criticism
Biography
He
several
occupations.
stayed home.
and he gradually
withdrew
behavior
seclusive
His
run
he would
the house
visited
life. When
community
people
his head
sit with
and hide
the bed. He would
under
the room
regular
in performing
became
altogether
most
of
the
family
he
occasions
made
wait
rather
to get
out
him
refuse
were
they
remarks
to dine
with
from
out
of
bowed
rest
the
. .
through.
to his mother;
. On
of
some
"I
e.g.,
am
car
himself
seated
to bring A.
to
some
time
the mother
finally
persuaded
It
clinic
for an examination.
the worker's
of
He
building.
him
and
persuade
stairs
the
under
near
took
to enter
the
clinic
the waiting
room,
. . .3
the wall.
facing
he would
until
strange
social worker
visiting
local mental
hygiene
the
finally
....
automatic"
A
would
the
and
Sometimes
time.
and
the
in
duties
his
unemployable
more
became
of the
plays
type,
silent,
yet
4
to
given
others,
depressed,
of ordinary
or
acts
repetitive
least
phrases
possibly
("I
would
I. Rabin,
"Schizophrenia,
E. Harris,
eds., Case Histories
York: Harper
and Brothers,
(New
4
Although
a number
to
phrenic"
Bartleby,
143;
Henry
Annual
prefer
not
have
been
make
refraining
and compulsively
not
A. Murray,
"Bartleby
A Symfosium:
1965,
the
prone
the
Psychology
term
"schizo
or have
that
See,
1950),
York:
(New
I," in Howard
and
Burton
than
Sloane,
Bartleby
to
all
to").
p. 26.
have
applied
more
much
specific
sense.
in its clinical
Study
and
excessively
sense
from
in Arthur
Form,"
Simple
in Clinical
and Abnormal
the implications
of the term
pursued
Herman
Melville
Arvin,
(New York: William
ard Chase,
Herman
A Critical
Melville:
p.
1949),
ed., Melville
immobile,
do
1947),
commentators
of
few
autistic,
catatonic
"schizophrenia,
and
apathetic
outwardly
emotion,
3
Albert
Robert
of
patterns
He
is detached,
withdrawn,
or associations
that
remarks
at
display
to
behavior
and
symptoms
withdrawn."
e.g.,
p.
Newton
243;
Rich
Macmillan,
P. Vincent,
Scrivener
(Kent,
California
clinical
State
category":
statement
Colleges,
I hope
1970),
my
557
The Massachusetts
trait
The
that
one
leads
to
"In
says:
lawyer
Review
"catatonic
specify
answer
to my
course
is of
type"
one
characteristics:
a motionless
advertisement,
young
man
one morning
stood upon my office threshold, the door being open,
for it was summer" (p. 11). Melville
has carefully arranged this ap
so
pearance
that
we
are
not
that
told
walked
Bartleby
or
into,
even
so much
an
act
as a
form
of
From
inaction.
that
point
on
"he
never
went
end
by
perverting
our
type,
withdrawn,"
to
response
the
may
story?and
even
become
accurate,
do
little
more
than
"come
identify symptoms. To understand Bartleby in any real way?to
to terms" with him in any but a
would have to
superficial sense?we
go beyond them and attempt to get at what a therapist, again, would
. . . "incurable disorder." That
call the etiology of Bartleby's
is not
course:
"it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not
easy, of
reach" (p. 25).
Recent psychological
like to
thought may help; specifically, I would
explore Bartleby's plight in light of the work of R. D. Laing. Probably
the most forceful aspect of
Laing's approach has been his refusal to re
558
& Criticism
Biography
for
schizophrenics,
gard
our context,
In
manner
the
reinforces
the
normal
critical
interpretations
lawyer
which
the
and
rest
the
and
see
the
as "us."
us
of
to distinguish
the temptation
resisting
between
as "them,"
example,
in any
schizophrenic
two men
facile
Bartleby
as "doubles"
to us
reveal
the
about
not
lawyer,
we
what
learn
about
Bartleby.
my
with
friends,
and
colleagues,
most
students?for
peo
we
ple, the center of interest remains Bartleby. And if that is so, then
want to know how he may have come to his present pass?and
indeed
where he is.We want to know what
is "wrong" with him, and not
just what his being the lawyer's double reveals about the lawyer.
the lawyer
In Laing's
terms?indeed
his most famous ones?both
and Bartleby are men with divided selves: cut off from others and from
the world,
but also self-divided, dissociated.6 Laing believes (and is of
course far from alone in doing so) that "no one can begin to think, feel
or
act
now
the
from
except
starting
or her
of his
point
own
alienation."
In their different ways both Bartleby and the lawyer try to avoid the
necessity to "begin to think, feel or act." Bartleby's mode of avoidance
to call him "luny";
leads the world
the lawyer's mode?he
is, after
an
to
the
the
him
man"
world
all,
give
"eminently safe
(p. 4)?leads
are
title of Master
vast
in Chancery.
there
differences
then,
Clearly,
in the
success
outward
5
See,
for
example:
of
their
Mordecai
two
but
situations,
"Melville's
Marcus,
essen
it is nevertheless
Bartleby
as
Psycho
Double
in Literature
C. F. Keppler,
67?70;
of Arizona
Press,
versity
pp.
6
R. D.
Madness
1972),
State
(Detroit:
Wayne
The
Literature
pp.
the
University
Second
Self
Press,
(Tucson:
1970),
Uni
115-20.
Self: An Existential
rpt. Harmondsworth:
7
The Politics of Exferience
of
Penguin,
(1967;
Study
in Sanity and
1965).
1968),
to
in textual
hereafter
In a study
abbr.
references.
[12],
Exferience
on
re
for students,
Daniel
R. Buerger
designed
guide
"Bartleby"
astutely
some excerpts
Politics
from The
he does not
of Exferience,
prints
although
see Melville's
their relevance:
the Scrivener"
discuss
and
the Prob
"Bartleby
p.
lem of Perceftion
and Row,
559
Review
The Massachusetts
rial to recognize
For
world.
experience
come
tempt
of being-in-the
in their modes
is a product
'normal'
estranged
fundamental
denial,
repression,
forms of destructive
and other
is radically
of
from
structure
the
action
of
being"
p. 27).
to
sense
may
look
to make
that we
It
as we
Insofar
call
introjection
....
{Experiencey
may
we
projection,
splitting,
on
"what
upon
Bartleby's
encounter
in
of
is a gross
'patients'
puts
a
travesty,
that
as a
adaptation
himself
in
accuracy
mode
we
view,
at
pathetic
mockery,
grotesque
general,
passage reminiscent
the
degree
touch"
with
we?those
inner
of
us who
time
and
space
more
Bartleby;
of
are
is a
specific
of Plato's Allegory
to which
"the
to
in regard
suggestive
surely
is discussing
"out
"normal"?are
of
consciousness":
we
as though
almost
all had
is precisely
suggesting
we
call the outer world.
whatever
of what
knowledge
to see, hear,
if some
What
of us then
started
would
touch,
happen
more
taste
than
the per
be
We
confused
would
smell,
things?
hardly
son who
inner
first has vague
intimations
into,
of, and then moves
space
The
I am
situation
total
and
lack
of
time.
This
is not
He
any
is where
at all here:
has
the
he
labeled
catatonic
person
is all there.
(P.
127)
often
gone.
and
proper,
schizophrenia
to avoid
"preferable"?indeed
a
refuge?the
becomes
insanity.
In
other
words,
For
inevitable.
awful
it
is a
what
him,
a
desperate
result
of
tactic.
According
to
are
seen
Bartleby
as
are
simply
desperate
"trying
ones,
to get
resorted
the
attention":
to at
great
devices
of
people
cost.
The
fact that such behavior seems the only rational choice to people
even by profes
in Bartleby's sort of plight is too often unrecognized,
sional therapists. Of the patient described at the start of this essay, the
writers of the case study remark that "he had no insight," as shown by
his persistence "in the view that his behaviour was justifiable and could
560
& Criticism
Biography
a layman,
be logically explained"
p. 393). To
("Clinical Research,"
such terminology seems to lend support to Laing's attacks on the myopia
of so many psychiatrists in their relationship to their patients. Of course
this patient views his behavior as justifiable, and to be sure that behavior
could "be logically explained";
in effect he asks, like Bartleby, "Do
see
reason
not
the
for
you
question
("Bartleby," p. 28)?a
yourself?"
we
integral
an
ple
from
expect
might
as having
described
thing,
are
there
amputated
therapist
"no
leg.
insight"
certain
You
can
as
as much
things
remove
you
some
from
is quoted:
patient.
"Although
can
The
do without.
of
part
patient
are one
you
For
you
and
exam
you
still
remain yourself. My body is not quite separate but not quite integral
either" ("Clinical Research," p. 398). Laing, in discussing the anxieties
of dissociation from one's own body?the
fears of the "unembodied
self"?also
that
recognizes
"there
is a sense
of
course,
in which
such
an
attitude
is a volitional
vocatively?made.
priate
cannot
response,
comprehend
To
whether
response
to his
situation,
moreover,
Bartleby,
or
"reasonable"
"such
it
not.
perverseness?such
consciously?even
is the preferable,
The
lawyer
unreasonableness"
pro
of
appro
course
(p.
Inevitably?for
the
questions
are
irrelevant.
From
Bartleby's
per
spective, his right to remain is not earthly. It lies not in taxes and prop
erty, but in something other, or something internal: in mind, or in soul.
I hope my comments do not make it seem as if I am embracing some
sort of sentimental or excessively "romantic" view of either
Bartleby
or schizophrenic patients. I am
especially wary of this danger because
I am not certain that it is one that Laing himself always avoids, in his
desire to convey the ways in which what we call mental disease may
be health, and the ways in which "breakdowns" may in fact be or be
come "breakthroughs." As Robert Coles put it
during a panel discussion
561
The Massachusetts
on
it is
Laing,
to overlook
misleading
Review
the
"terror
. . . that
some
people
on this earth feel": "I suspect there is a difference between us and the
mad patients and I suspect that we don't know it quite as well as the
8
mad patients do." Or as Bartleby replies to the lawyer's attempts to
"I know where I am" (p. 43). We may
comfort him in the Tombs,
be tempted to romanticize Bartleby as an existential hero (certainly
many critics are), a prophet better off in his sane madness than the rest
of us in our mad sanity; but Bartleby knows where he is.
refrain of "I would prefer not to" is a sign of
Still, if Bartleby's
mental
illness, it is also his forceful psychic response to exis
anguished
tence on this earth. As Laing
(like of course other psychologists before
to
has
been
wise
perceive, the enigmatic statements of
him)
enough
"are
patients
psychotic,
not
because
not
may
they
be
but
'true'
because
the
they are cryptic: they are often quite impossible to fathom without
But
for
them
us"
patient decoding
Bartleby
{Dwided Selfy p. 192).
would prefer not to. So when we ask, with the perplexed lawyer, "what
is the
have
for
reason"
"Do
seen,
Bartleby's
see
not
you
the scrivener
and
behavior,
the reason
for
yourself?"
replies,
of
few
as we
us
will
safe,
calls
and
faced with
?we
9
We
other."
resort
may
are
always
"between
being
and
non-being,"
measures
of
security
we
and
of the former
can
find.
Laing
quotes a patient, not his own: "The only thing I was sure of was being
a 'catatonic, paranoid and schizophrenic.'
on
I had seen that written
me
at
an
and
had
chart.
and
That
least
substance
my
gave
identity
remark is reminiscent of
personality"
{Divided Selfy p. 173). That
man:
the underground
paranoia,
Dostoevsky's
study in existential
What
A
is
he?
how
Answer:
"Question:
very pleasant it
sluggard;
would have been to hear that of oneself! It would mean that I was
8
D.
"R.
Robert
eds.,
and Anti-Psychiatry:
and
R. D. Laing
Symposium,"
Anti-Psychiatry
in Robert
(New
York:
and
Boyers
Perennial
Library,
9R.
Laing
Orrill,
D.
Laing,
Self
and
Others,
2nd
ed.
(Harmondsworth:
1969), p. 51.
562
Penguin,
& Criticism
Biography
of
aspect
peculiar
was
had
tion
from
no
that
and
had
earlier
did
not
he would
presence
want
to have
the
central
enterprise
his
physically
and underwent
his
felt
one would
to make
that
been
warm,
kept
during
parents
as though
treated
he
his
was
childhood
his
sistently
that to make
came
his
. . . He
ignored.
largely
been well
fed
anything
of his
that
he
separa
physical
con
had been
he
exist.
'really'
have
in
for
no
Yet
years.
the world
in
presence
cared
. . . He
believed
to
extremes
to go
such
to do with
and thus he
him,
to be
{Self and
nobody.
life
is no help at all?though
a Peter
of
perspectives
and
seem
Bartleby,
from
reasonable
perfectly
who
an
to share
aware
ness of what
It
an
to
attempt
from
escape
non-being.
to me
seems
that Bartleby
is especially relevant to the last of
in
Laing's "three forms of anxiety encountered by the ontologically
secure person: engulfment,
implosion, petrification"
(Divided Selfy p.
43).
a retreat
entails
Petrification
into
of self-preservation
our
One
self-destruction.
stasis
so dread
may
or
even
by which we
being
catatonia
which
are accomplices
"petrified,"
"turning,
is
in
or
being turned, from a live person into a dead thing, into a stone" (p.
46), that the terror brings about what is feared. Laing tells of a young
woman who dreamed that her parents had turned into stone, and who
afterward herself fell "into a state which was
remarkably similar to the
of
her
that
she
had
dreamt about"; and
physical petrification
family
then
an
he makes
suggestive
10
Notes
important
observation
which
strikes
me
as
extremely
in regard to Bartleby:
from
the
trans.
Underground,
Constance
Garnett,
rev.
Avrahm
Haven:
Yale
University
Press,
1952),
p.
66.
563
The Massachusetts
It seems
to be
dreaded
can
rence.
to
Thus,
one's
preserving
a
of
way
or
not
one
being
that
is
stone
one
regards
as
Laing
as
used
universally
into
into
or who
sonalized"?and,
at some
that
encompassed
turned
is turned
autonomy,
law
be
those very
point
to forestall
their
a stone
else.
who
ignores
it"
someone
by
as
observes,
a means
by
of
of
secretly
a means
of
a stone
into
"an
"thing,"
becomes
(P.
51)
one's
one
is a
"depersonalization
with
dealing
the
occur
actual
becomes
someone
most
dangers
the means
one's
becomes
forgo
autonomy
to play
to feign
death,
possum,
....
turn oneself
aliveness
To
it;
safeguarding
When
a general
themselves
Review
other
identity
is "deper
technique
he
when
becomes
Had
there
in his
about
from
the
turning
last
least
pale
as
But
of
it was,
some
bust
plaster-of-paris
had
words,
I
doubtless
him,
premises.
my
or
anger,
impatience
impertinence
there
been
ordinarily
anything
him
have
should
dismissed
violently
uneasiness,
in other
manner;
human
He
the
been
should
of
out
temple"
(p.
30),
of
soon
thought
of
(P.
13)
doors.
ruined
as
have
Cicero
and
him
describes
as
"a
at
that
least
he
in my
one
has
of
been
the
sources
looked
upon
for
Bartleby's
and
treated
having
as one.
become
"thing"
is
But Laing provides still further hints indicating the sources behind
have already touched upon the paradoxical
Bartleby's petrification. We
that
has
possibility
adopted petrification as a form of self-pro
Bartleby
tection. Unfortunately,
like so many psychological defenses, petrification
than what
is not merely
futile but more destructive
it is supposed to
a
the
defense
the
whole of the
"If
world:
provide
against?notably,
the individual retracts his lines
individual's being cannot be defended,
of defence until he withdraws within a central citadel. He is prepared
to write off everything he is, except his 'self.' But the tragic paradox is
that the more the self is defended in this way, the more it is destroyed"
{Divided Selfy p. 77).
564
& Criticism
Biography
this
The
"false
which
be
will
seen,
is the
self"
relates with
divorced
from
on
observations
and is observed
in
the
of
self."
outer
world,
but which
by others,
In
self.
false-self
"the
of its
"false
the
"unembodied"
"inner,"
development
by means
of
repudiation
one
has
that
"personality"
"true,"
the
as
however,
that world
one's
or defended
be protected
Alternatively,
denial:
system,"
is
Laing's
we
may
This
facade,
however,
more
becomes
usually
more
and
stereo
(D'wided
typed, and in the stereotype bizarre characteristics develop"
"if the individual delegates all transactions be
Selfy p. 99). Finally,
tween himself and the other to a system within his
is not
being which
then
the
as
world
is
and
all
that
'him,'
unreal,
experienced
belongs to
this system is felt to be false, futile, and meaningless"
(p. 80). While
the
false-self
also
"becomes
that
'harassed'
to
belongs
more
becomes
system
by compulsive
more
and more
it becomes
and
"extensive"
behaviour
dead,
it
"autonomous,"
and
fragments,"
unreal,
"all
mechani
false,
cal"
In
the
repudiating
however
"falsely"?one
others.
others,
Bartleby
others
of
But
self?the
self
all
repudiates
after
all
contact
that
with
form
that
an
reveals
surely
appeal
to
tries,
cannot
the
to
relates
other
people.
takes
mode
false
for
lawyer
from
some
contact.
the
however
lawyer,
he
sincerely
seem
sufficiently
to help
Bartleby, whose increasingly disconcerting behavior seems to be
a way of
getting back at him in some awful manner. Indeed, this attack
apparently takes the form, as it often does in mental patients, of imita
tion
of
the
seen
person
as
the
persecutor
or
aggressor.
At
the
start
of
story we
Melville's
proverbially
and
energetic
even
nervous,
nothing
us
he
that
is "one
of
those
unambitious
to
at
turbulence,
to invade my
lawyers
who
times,
peace." He
never
565
address
yet
tells
a
The Massachusetts
Review
There
characteristics
The
tion
The
same
hatred
of
to
begins
of
the
the
for
the
person
to assume
false
self
upon
whom
of
the
with
by the false
of the other,
other
the will
and more
compliance
evident
when
becomes
impersonation
turn
into a caricature.
impersonation
as its
compliance
more
its
the
is not
self
it may
for
the
of
is based.
. . .
impersona
the
entirely
be directly
?how
the
we
of us have
many
who
students
more
than
appear
generous,
are:
responded
in our
and
if,
say,
more
we
so admirably
offices
and
reveal
self-aware
are
than
most
I
teachers?as
and so personally
in obscure
ways
am
to
that
they are, or potentially are, Bartlebys?) Yet even the lawyer fails.
An indictment of the lawyer is a mode of accusation against the
world he represents, just as withdrawing
from others entails withdraw
12 or an
other
ing from that world. People trapped in a "double bind"
12
This
schizo
of
the etiology
explore
a
of Schizophrenia,"
Theory
state that a per
1 (October
the authors
251?64;
Science,
1956),
son in a double
the
to detach
interest
from
his
bind may,
for example,
"try
on his own
external
internal
world
and concentrate
therefore,
and,
processes
a withdrawn,
individual"?which
the appearance
of being
mute,
give
perhaps
...
himself
in ways
which
that
defend
"is another
he may
of saying
way
or catatonic"
as
have
been
described
(p. 256).
paranoid,
hebephrenic,
phrenia:
Behavioral
term
see
originated
Gregory
Bateson,
in an
et
to
attempt
"Toward
al.,
566
& Criticism
Biography
wise
impossible, unlivable
in
prisoners
in the notable
situation may?as
concentration
the
camps?abandon
world
of
instance
the
and
aspects
of one's supposed self that are most "in" the world. In the brutal par
lance of everyday life, Bartleby dissociates himself from the outer world
The
seems
can
he
because
no
all
along
longer
take
it.
form of withdrawal
ultimate
to desire
death?in
is death. Bartleby
to be
terms,
non
choosing
non-being
he
Peter?whom
by avoiding
as
quotes
being"
once
having
Selfy p.
(Divided
111).
sort
been
"I've
said,
of
Of
dead
sure
it refers
becomes
more
to
merely
proofreading,
and more
encompassing
but
as time
until
in
goes
the
end
on
its refer
it becomes
all-inclusive?until,
indeed, it refers to all of life and living. For poor
would
prefer not to.
Bartleby
the
dilemma of the person "in an alienated untenable posi
Discussing
tion,"
says
Laing
that
as
soon
as he
"realizes
that
he
is in a box,
he
can
try to get out of it. But since to them [others] the box is the whole
to stepping off the end of
worldy to get out of the box is tantamount
the world, a thing that no one who loves him could sit
by and let hap
or
pen" (Self and Othersy p. 41). Good intentions can be murderous,
simply ineffective: when on the second occasion of Bartleby's refusal to
read
copy
and
his
statement
that
he
"would
prefer
not
to,"
the
lawyer
finds himself "not only strangely disarmed" but "in a wonderful man
he tells us: "I began to reason with
ner, touched and disconcerted,"
him" ("Bartleby,"
p. 14).
is all well and good, but not likely to work. Later, the
That
lawyer
is wiser, and he recognizes that it is Bartleby's "soul that suffered, and
his soul I could not reach" (p. 25). Indeed, the first task in
helping
a person with
Bartleby's problems is no doubt to reach that person. The
"sense of identity requires the existence of another by whom
one is
567
The Massachusetts
Review
known"
is not enough,
that, however,
{Divided Self, p. 139). Even
as the lawyer realizes still later,
the
divine
"recalling
injunction: 'A new
commandment
give
unto
that
you,
ye
one
love
"
another'
("Bar
who,
as we
ordinarily human"
if ever
it rarely
have
seen,
has
in his employee.
can
attain?the
earlier
felt
the
absence
absolute
totality
of
"anything
attains?perhaps
demanded
apparently
or needed
may
in regard
in mind
keep
to the
danger
Laing's
of the
quotation?in
"tendency
the
to become
context
of
what
one
warning
perceives"
for
a young
man,
too.
568