In the following excerpt, Gupta concludes that it was Melville's intention in "Bartleby the Scrivener " to show the limits of reason and to emphasize the importance of imagination and intuition.

"Say now, that in a day or two you will begin to be a little reasonable' - say so, Bartleby "

"At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable," was his mildly cadaverous reply.

The unnamed narrator of "Bartleby" is an apostle of reason. His outlook on life is clear, unambiguous, and uncluttered by mysticism or imagination. Reason and common sense are his deities, and he looks upon them as infallible guides to human conduct.

All goes well with the narrator until he decides to engage as his new scrivener an inscrutable and "motionless" young man named Bartleby. For two days, Bartleby diligently does "an extraordinary quantity of writing." But on the third day, when...