SOURCE: " 'Bartleby the Scrivener': A Simple Reading," in Arizona Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 2, Summer, 1985, pp. 143-51.

In the following essay, Murphy contends that "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a metaphorical story about the inner life of one individual, the lawyer.

It is a fact not generally acknowledged that "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a story with only one character—the lawyer who tells it. Bartleby is simply an aspect of The Lawyer's character, long suppressed. Ginger Nut, Nippers, and Turkey are other facets of his personality or stages in his career. Even personages with "walk-on" parts like The Grubman, The Turnkey, and The Landlord are not separate characters, but parts of The Lawyer.

The lawyer is a lawyer, of course, but it might be possible to see him as The Writer or The Successful Popular Writer. Certainly some critics have seen him as that, and Bartleby as the serious but less...