Thanks for the comment. It looks like your father had a long acting career. I'm glad you enjoyed the movie.

tiffstoe Interesting to see your comment. I remember him from when I was a boy but I couldn't recall much of his work but I knew he had been around for quite some time. The only thing I have stuck in my head beside this is a commercial he did. Something with him walking on a beach with a chicken. Does that ring a bell at all? Anyhow, I saw this in an English class in high school back in the 1970s.

Bubba Gump Hi Bubba Gump. Take a look at my KZfaq uploads and you'll see why you remember him with a chicken. He was the Aames Home Loan guy, aka"The Chicken Man." I have uploaded a few of his commercials. Thank you for remembering him and happy watching!

+Craig Campbell Interesting how your name (I presume, a coincidence) is Campbell. If I were to become involved in a profession concerning film, I'd have my eye dead-set on an adaptation of this puzzling and melancholy story. Thank you for sharing.

+tiffstoe He's such a great actor!

She must have liked you very much.

same here

I'm largely the same. I believe the story is all about the traps of the modern economic system, and quite possibly *any* economic system, and thus life as a whole. What's clear is that Bartleby represents a sense of resignation and futility created by his wage-slavery, the loss of any sense of personal agency or autonomy other that to be a pure cog in a machine he is powerless to influence in any meaningful way But almost as importantly, his boss is also trapped because he is on the same treadmill, forced to do whatever the "logic of the system" compels him to do. But the boss has an additional trap: being the boss, and the one who benefits from Bartleby's labor, his conscience forces him to take note of Bartleby's plight as his subordinate, since the boss knows he has power over Bartleby and gets enriched by his labor and by his trapped predicament: in a word, the system essentially forces him to exploit Bartleby, whether the boss wants to or not. So he tries to buy out of this responsibility with cash, to the meal provider at the prison, to alleviate his conscience. In the end, Bartelby dies from his refusal to participate in any of this, from the employment system to the lawyer's attempt to buy his way out of responsibility, his guilty conscience. Everyone is trapped. The lawyer tries to opt out through cash; Bartleby just by disengaging from life which offers nothing tolerable to him. Most of us who feel Bartleby-like don't go to the extreme of not eating, self-starvation to death, but in depression that behavior (or maybe more accurately, non-behavior) is fairly common. For most of us in such a situation, the response is just pure passive resignation, going through the motions with as little exertion as possible, getting sustained by life's simple pleasures of eating, sleeping, breathing (sex if there is access), but otherwise mostly sleepwalking through life, doing as little as possible to stay alive and functioning, with or without some form of a job. @@DSAK55

@@AnonYmous-ry2jn very well said. I found your comment very interesting

Too young to leave.

I would prefer not to reply

I would prefer to view neither comment nor replies to comments.

I would prefer not to understand you and Bartleby.

I would prefer not to

i think some of the details they left our were important

Thanks George. The actor is my father and it’s nice to see your comment about a good job done on the adaptation

Also watched this in 9th grade. Paul J Gelinas junior high school 1976. It’s never left my consciousness. Also “ Occurence at owl 🦉 creek “ Which I loved 🥰 still to this Day 😂

Excellent points! Why so many psychiatrists get suicidal, too?

Bartelby's anti-social behavior is hurtful to him, thusly, insane.

Well done. I pictured Crispin Glover.

Thank you. You saved me from trying to find the cast and rack my brain. This film brings back so many memories of "school days".

Agreed. It is a gem. Tell us what it is about the book that you find so compelling. And what do you think it is trying to say?

Bartleby didn't need help, he wasn't depressed. He just would prefer not to be part of a relentless machine. I see him as an activist more than a victim.

I think the story is up to interpretation, which allows people from different perspectives to relate.

@@rrzellner so true (great reply). I’m a great fan of Bartleby, and I see it as a high level. Something to aspire to. No matter what, to simply be. To simply trust. To be ever observant, and non reactive. Utterly the highest level of both spiritual and psychological achievement. Perhaps im being a little tongue and cheek. But im also being quite serious. And that is part of the achievement of Bartleby. To no longer be in a state of ambivalence. But to truly let go. It’s as far from depression as you could get. It’s sublime ambition. To transcend into an undifferentiated plentitude of being in itself.

@@Dennifer1 It's possible that both are true. You could see this as the passive-aggressiveness taken to the full extreme (death).

May you explain more in simple words, please?

Waed Abbadi because the point of the story is that bartleby is crushed by the capitalistic society. He cannot handle being set to the lowest point and the pressure cracks him. Because of this all he is able to do is state that he would prefer not to, something that you can typically say to your employer rather than no

I would prefer not to argue about preferences.

+Bernie MacKinnon Thank you for your comments. I especially appreciate them because for the most part, my father was a comedy actor. He had very few serious roles. I was wondering if you remember why you watched it in English. Was it because you were assigned to read the book? I am asking because the film was also used in psychology classes for students to analyze the behavior of Bartleby.

+tiffstoe I can see why it would be used in psychology classes. But in the senior-year high school English class where I encountered the story and the film, the focus was on Melville's literary skill--kind of ahead of its time, given its refusal to preach or explain. And there was the more spiritual question of how much we owe each other as fellow humans--very much in the province of literature, and bound to trigger a lot of class discussion.

Glad you like it.

Both.

It might also be that Bartleby is just tired of life, but since he is also a very meek man, he simply can't bring himself to suicide.

Those are some interesting pieces of history! I do have a few problems applying them to the text, and might also offer a look at other literary movements at the time. Writers of the transcendentalism movement were active at the same time as Melville. Walt Whitman the "defining American poet" (Emerson) published his Leaves of Grass in 1855, and his poems feature a study of how studying oneself can lead to self-fulfillment. Melville was especially skeptical of this movement as his character's motivations were often opaque, and their internal emotions often led them to tragedy. The generation before Melville were enlightenment thinkers. These thinkers emphasized a study of the material world, these studies had been beaten to death by enlightenment thinkers, and literature in the mid-19th century took a shift away from a focus on the material world to the internal world. In Bartleby, the world plays little impact and instead focuses on human motivations, which happen to also be unlearnable due to Bartleby simply not desiring to share. It would be a mistake to look at Bartleby as a handbook for resisting oppression considering how lenient his boss is, and how Bartleby concludes by perishing in prison despite resisting society.

+david snyder I'm the daughter of the actor who portrays Bartleby (Patrick Campbell). In our house it was a long standing joke to say, "I prefer not to'" when asked to do chores. Did it for years, much to our amusement, it seemed to never get old.

tiffstoe That's fantastic! XD

@@tiffstoe ...LOL...classic...

​@@tiffstoe Lol! That's hilarious​

at least he wouldn't say anything incriminating

I would prefer not to.

I would prefer not to.

what are you talking about most defense lawyers are exactly like Bartleby

@@GRasputin91 In the US, if people are poor? I have had very good lawyers here in Sweden, and the state paid for almost everything.

Nice, i knew i recognized that person, would have never figured out who it was.

Not relly, based on the assessment of kriekergard from the effect of losing meaning in life, he has to find that meaning. It is not purposeless if kriekergard is right, only if nitzche or camus are.

@@Aceshot-uu7yx It's Schopenhauer that is right. In fact, Bartleby acts pretty much like Schopenhauer's 'will-denier' would do.

@@francisdec1615 kriekergard is the one mentioned in the description, not Schopenhauer. Also does schopenhauer believe all things are ultimately meaningless, because if do congratulations for on being ahead but if not, then he would be right alongside kriekergard.

@@Aceshot-uu7yx Kierkegaard has nothing to do with this. Craig Campbell is mistaken. Yes, Schopenhauer's whole philosophy is about everything being meaningless.

@@francisdec1615 what does schopenhauer have to do with this? Is it him that is mistaken or you?

+I. Fischer-tree I think the story was about Soren Kierkegaard or more likely Johann Goethe.

+I. Fischer-tree The story is an early, per-Kierkegaard, example of existentialism. The story encapsulates many of K's themes. I could expand on this explanation, but I prefer not to.

+I. Fischer-tree There's more to Kierkegaard than I care to say. Read Either/Or, the first part. A's similarities to Bartleby are startling. Look too at Repetition, Bartleby's theme is a constant recurrence to Kierkegaard's writings and I have recently wondered whether or not Melville himself was inspired by reading Kierkegaard since they both belong to their same period. But Kierkegaard wrote in Danish so there was no way but it's eerie the connections you can make. Take my word on this one or message me if you wish to know more details.

+I. Fischer-tree There's more to Kierkegaard than I care to say. Read Either/Or, the first part. A's similarities to Bartleby are startling. Look too at Repetition, Bartleby's theme is a constant recurrence to Kierkegaard's writings and I have recently wondered whether or not Melville himself was inspired by reading Kierkegaard since they both belong to their same period. But Kierkegaard wrote in Danish so there was no way but it's eerie the connections you can make. Take my word on this one or message me if you wish to know more details.

+George Olivas Kierkegaard was translated into German and French early and many Americans read German and French.

Is this book about Kierkegaard? Or Goethe?

@@skwbtm1 neither. It’s about Melville’s disappointing career as a writer. His books (including his Opus, “Moby Dick”) we’re commercial failures

It should be shareable.

i dont think it's that pivotal to his character. honestly it just seemed like a bit of gallows humor

Peter Davis I believe without the revealing of his previous job at the dead letter dept the story makes no sense. Hence all the confused comments here. I can't believe that's not in this

I agree, I wish they would have made a short bit of a flashback of Bartleby working at the Dead Letter office. I think they left it out because of the way the narration changes at the end of the original story as he reveals Bartleby's previous job which immensely helps the reader understand why he is the way he is. After reading the story, I thought to myself "That explains a lot" and it shed more light on Bartleby's character. The ending information is, in my opinion crucial to the story, in regards to background and addition to the plot. Without it, the reader would have little-to-no inclinations as to what was wrong with him. I very much so enjoyed this story. Watching this short film made the story easier for me to understand and also less bland through the second reading.

No, he's just tired of life. The dead letter office is just a bit additional gallows humour.

Yep.

yes, that's barry williams as ginger nut.

What was his analysis?

Bartleby, says King, is the first existential character in American fiction: a man virtually adrift, with no family, no ties to anyone. He's tied to life only by his work. In this respect, he's a 20th century American type - King compares him with Michael Corleone in The Godfather and Sloan Wilson's Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. But then, Bartleby begins to lose faith in this work, King refers to this as the God of middle class American males. That's why he starts saying "I prefer not to". King asks the listener to think of Bartleby as a hot air balloon, tethered to the earth by one rope: his work, and we can measure the rot in that rope by the steadily increasing number of things Bartleby would prefer not to do. At last the rope breaks and away he floats. (You'll float too ;-)) When you read reviews of Bag of Bones, you'll see that a lot of people say that Bartleby was the inspiration for Bag of Bones, and that the true theme of the book is writer's block. I don't know about that: you can certainly see the analysis of Bartleby in the book placed very close to the description of the narrator's writer's block. What resonated with me is the description of work as being a God. King understands that your God is whatever rules your thoughts at any given time. If you are a young mother and you spend all of your time thinking about your child, your baby is your god; if you are a teenage boy in love for the first time, the object of your love is your god; if you are a nun in a convent and spend hours every day meditating on the trinity, that is your god. But for an increasing number of people work has become the main thing that gives their lives meaning and purpose. There's a thin line between worship and addiction: you can work idolatrously. You can treat your job as though it were your higher power, allowing it to make choices for you - where you go, how you spend your time, how you speak and think, what you think about most of the time - the choices that a God makes for you. Bartleby who is a monotheist, loses his faith in his god, and has nothing left to hold him to existence. End of essay.

Thanks for the great reply. I think it was Goethe he was referring to.

@@tomsdottir Seems like a bit of stretch to me. He is simply a man who laid down. Happens to a lot of people really.

@@scottrc5391 Yes, he doesn't want to live anymore, so he doesn't want to work either. King is only trying to sound smarter than he is as usual.

He's a good man. Most successful lawyers wouldn't have that patience and tolerance, neither today nor in 1853.

Thanks for your story (~:)

I would prefer not

Or the lowest. Or both simultaneously.

Bartleby is everything to everyone at all times.

Some scholars said that Bartleby was an angel sent down to show the lawyer his own humanity which separated the lawyer from his own peers who appeared to be more heartless and cold. There's a scene in the film in which Bartleby turned his back to the lawyer only to see the lawyer's shocked face. Perhaps Bartleby took his shirt off to expose his wings. Melville often had a way of being subliminal in his writings, such as "Moby Dick". So the supernatural element cannot be ruled out in this story. Bartleby is definitely a type of messenger foretelling the truth of what is right and what is corrupt, and perhaps we are corrupting ourselves? A perfect social commentary of the ages.

Yes

There was no untreated clinical depression in 1840?

+Celeste Sanchez yes!

No he was more of a rebel against the capitalist society

No

Certainly fits the story. The main story is the boss and how he is affected and tries to convince himself Bartleby is not his problem. The movie with David Paymer does a great job and is very entertaining at the same time! And the crucial last sentence of the story is included.