---
title: Bartleby
url: 'https://tsulacus.com/bartleby'
markdown: 'https://tsulacus.com/bartleby.md'
date: '2026-09-21'
description: 'A Wall Street lawyer hires Bartleby, an initially quiet and exceptionally industrious copyist. Soon, the clerk baffles his employer by calmly declining basic duties: "I would prefer not to." This passive resistance escalates until Bartleby stops working altogether and refuses to leave the premises.…'
---

# Bartleby

A Wall Street lawyer hires **Bartleby**, an initially quiet and exceptionally industrious copyist. Soon, the clerk baffles his employer by calmly declining basic duties: "I would prefer not to."

This passive resistance escalates until Bartleby stops working altogether and refuses to leave the premises.

Incapable of expelling him out of pity, the narrator ultimately relocates his law offices to escape him. Evicted by the building's new tenants and imprisoned as a vagrant, the scrivener retreats into silence.

He finally refuses all nourishment and starves **to death**, leaving behind an unsettling portrait of total detachment.

![](https://tsulacus.com/images/1/a/2/a/7/1a2a78c66d5cb5154e5beb0040c4819215ef81ca.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/c/1/b/3/d/c1b3dd44fca3553cc93dea51147e82263f839184.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/1/b/d/2/7/1bd27d3d83f01a2108e65c30f0148d2bcf01c32e.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/a/8/6/8/2/a86829ba158bb789119c54e3c55b25a955c1b7ac.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/c/3/f/c/4/c3fc413f92ee4657eb2e3e4ec2c9804b419d1cb1.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/2/e/1/5/1/2e1511aaae18424ddb925b2ea4fbf98465563d7e.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/1/8/f/1/5/18f15a1156bffdbc9a46812f0dd6fd53a06ec5b3.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/8/3/f/a/5/83fa5ca94a52b070ac00a820fc8f914a0ccdf734.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/5/b/5/4/c/5b54cd648cf17c0da518d9b3a0b4d903b3ff8cf0.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/f/6/9/9/2/f6992fbbee67ecf9ada26a0937201e0fd5f0f843.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/7/7/4/5/b/7745bfa3b31eb60467a7f5c8092f7c161c0341f0.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/8/d/e/0/1/8de0171d607a2354c88215f6a7a1122568e879f0.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/4/3/7/d/2/437d2797bb70826a15e6ee526b448640b1af7ed8.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/2/a/9/b/5/2a9b526109577e8c2b7fb32e8054ea6d3cc5d183.jpg)![](https://tsulacus.com/images/3/0/3/c/2/303c25e1844143b0a301b5c566de46d73f717b7d.jpg)

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