Bartleby is a pale young man of slight stature and nearly no personality who appears in the eponymously named short work "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street". Bartleby moves into his employer's workplace—literally living there round the clock—and gradually comes to refuse to perform any work whatsoever. The business owner fails to eject Bartleby, and eventually relocates to get rid of Bartleby. Subsequently, the new tenant sends Bartleby to the poor house where he languishes and dies. Bartleby is often interpreted as a personification of Melville's writing work—at first Bartleby writes copious amounts of text that is very well received by the narrator, his employer. Later, Bartleby's output diminishes and then ceases altogether. Bartleby thereafter is not appreciated by anyone. This mirrors Melville's own popular reception during his early great successes and later falling out of favor with the public.
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