The Eccentricites of Bartleby

"I might give alms to his body, but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach" pg 658, paragraph 93
Bartleby the Scrivener
Herman Melville


The narrator has a very complex attitude towards Bartleby.  On one hand, the lawyer cannot stand Bartleby for his passiveness and refusal to do anything which can be rather irritating and irksome.  On the other hand, the narrator feels sorry for Bartleby and he feels as though no one else would hire Bartleby or care for him better than he does at his workplace.  The narrator also accepts Bartleby because he could "eventually prove a sweet morsel for [his] conscience." The narrator is in fact, being a good Christian and acting as a good person by caring for someone that others would merely cast aside as "loony."

When Bartleby is asked to do a task, the lawyer usually receives the response, "I would prefer not to," in a very calm tone, instead of an angry tone of refusal.  This mysterious manner of Bartleby causes the narrator to want to know more about Bartleby and why he acts the way he does. Why does this man think he can choose when he wants to work? And what is causing this man to only want to work at certain times?  The narrator starts to spend all of his time pondering Bartleby and why he acts so eccentric and odd.  At one point, the narrator concludes that his eccentricities are involuntary, and that he has some sort of disorder. He decides that his soul is suffering and this causes him to be so solitary, quiet, and "free from dissipation."
At the end of the story it appears that the narrator's own selfishness and fear that Bartleby may "claim possession of office by right of his perpetual occupancy" cause him to decide that he must get rid of Bartleby by basically whatever way possible.  The other lawyers were already concerned as to why the lawyer allowed a strange man to stand around looking out the windows for extended amounts of time, so in an attempt to save his own reputation, the narrator decided to move the office so that he could rid of Bartleby forever.

My theory as to why Bartleby is so mysterious and strange is that something may have happened during his childhood that caused him to be rather timid and nervous around other people.  I'm not sure what exactly might have happened, but it seems like Bartleby doesn't trust anyone.  Maybe it's not important as to why he acts the way he does, but I feel bad for him because there must be something that went wrong  at some point in his life that causes him to act in a such a way.