Herman Melville's “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is both intriguing and complex. This short story written in the first person by Herman Melville introduces the character of an unnamed lawyer who serves as the story's narrator. This lawyer is perplexed by a clerk scribe who works in his office called Bartleby. It is interesting to observe the relationship the lawyer has with Bartleby both psychologically and emotionally. Although the narrator seems to fail to understand the importance of different aspects of his other employees' lives, he seems to connect with Bartleby on some levels and manages to accurately convey the setting, emotions, and actions throughout his story. This over time leads to several notable similarities between the lawyer and the scribe Bartleby. On the surface you may not realize the similarities of the characters in this story, but it is those similarities that the main characters have with each other that make the story interesting. Furthermore, it can be hypothesized that the lawyer Melville has as narrator of the story is in the character of Melville himself. The characters of Nippers and Turkey were similar in that they worked in the same office and had similar traits that the narrator did not admire. Comparisons between Nippers and Turkey can be seen in the fact that their productivity is basically a mirror image of each other, with Turkey being productive in the morning and Nippers being useless. In the afternoon it is said that while Nippers is productive, Turkey is drunk. The narrator thought they were lazy and unmotivated. However, it is the new employee Bartleby's relationship with his lawyer employer that we will compare. On his first coming to work for the lawyer, Bartleby ...... middle of paper ... with a tinge of melancholy seized me” (Mellville 2662). Here the reader begins to see the changes the lawyer is going through, experiencing feelings of sadness that he had never admitted to himself before. The lawyer avoided the confrontation and arguments that are often associated with lawyers, just as Bartleby avoided any confrontation with his colleagues. They would make disrespectful comments and he would simply respond without saying anything, revealing his passive nature. By the end of the story it is evident that Bartleby serves not only as a stand-in for the narrator but also for humanity. Works Cited n.d. Bovatasan, C. "Literary Devices." nd. http://literarydevices.net/doppelganger/. web. April 11, 2014.Mellville, Herman. "Bartleby, the scribe." Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, volume B. California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 2651.