English 1022E Study Guide - Midterm Guide: The Yellow Wallpaper, Maud Gonne, Biographia Literaria
12 Feb 2015
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Document Summary
Bartleby renounces the world and refuses to give away his secrets and yet, there may be no secrets (what if he is an empty vessel?) It is a story about the problem of attempting to understand. Bartleby used to work at the dead letter office (idea of communication not working, leaving but not arriving, symbol of the end and death of communication). Bartleby is initially very familiar (a man, does his work, and functions as expected) the moment that he stops, he turns into something else, becoming strange and unfamiliar to the narrator (this produces anxiety) There is something about bartleby that the narrator recognizes in himself. Anxiety arises when you encounter someone, some event, which is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar to you (aka the uncanny) Perhaps the narrator trying to interpret bartleby into sense to put himself at ease and restore familiarity- all of which is an attempt to get rid of anxiety.
