Bartleby and Gregor Samsa are outcasts but in different ways because they cannot deal with th societies they belong to. The alienate themselves from the role which they are supposed to play. It becomes too much for them to hande which is why they give up on participating in life. There are both similarities and differences between the ways they cope with the pathology that affected their lives and they cannot put up with what they are unable to change.
Both Bartleby and Gregor change themselves because they cannot change the society. Bartleby alienates himself from the world, while Gregor choses to become an insect. Bartleby is a person who gets a job of doing copying because he is good at doing that. However, one day, when he is asked to do his job he says: “I would prefer not to” (Melville). In this way, the lawyer for whom he works cannot punish him. Bartleby is distant and he sticks with his decision not to do what he does not want to. He chooses the verb “prefer” because it means that he has the right to choose and a right of preference of doing something instead of something else.
Bartleby represents a symbol of being rebellious and being an individual in the society which makes each person assume a role which is needed for the functioning of that society. Bartleby becomes more and more miserable, but he succeeds in keeping his attitude. What is interesting about Bartleby is the fact that his previous job was to burn letters whose recipients died in the meanwhile which is why he might be driven to insanity as well. His behavior is open for interpretation, but he remains stubborn and critical of the world he lives in. However, he does not resign from his job and he keeps saying that he would prefer not to perform a task he is supposed to, which is what his job is consisted of. The narrator of the story is Bartleby’s employer, the lawyer and it is a good thing that he has two scriveners more apart from Bartleby. However, he hires him to help in his office and because he is good at what he does.
The first time, Bartleby says “I would prefer not to” (Melville), the lawyer is very surprised with hi, but this situation happens over and over. The lawyer does not fire him because Bartleby intrigues him. Bartleby also eats only snacks and does not have proper meals. He is consistent in his decision not to work anymore and keeps pointing out his preference. Finally, it turns out that Bartleby lives in the office and the lawyer feels sorry for him. He wants to fire him, but Bartleby stays in a corner of the office. In the end, Bartleby is arrested after refusing any kind of help from the lawyer and he ends up dying in prison. Bartleby is no longer a person in the same way as Gregor Samsa is no longer human after he becomes an insect.
The difference between Gregor Samsa and Bartleby is that Gregor goes through a transformation and is no longer human. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (Kafka 1). Gregor endures the struggles in life as an insect as well as when he was human. He is never complaining and he accepts his role in life although the transformation is the way through which his body makes complaints instead of him expressing himself with words. Gregor tries to adapt to the life of being a bug more than he could adapt to the life of a salesman who travel. Gregor wants to keep working and be the provider of the family, but he realizes that his physical condition prevents him from doing so.
The difference between Gregor and Bartleby is that Gregor wants to keep his job. However, as time goes by, he gets comfortable being an insect. He still recollects his old life when he was a human, but his family is disgusted and ashamed. Therefore he dies because he believes that it is for the best. His death is similar to Bartleby’s death and both of the characters find escape in death because they could no longer fight for life.
References
Kafka, F. (2009). The Metamorphosis. New York: Classix Press.
Melville, H. (2005). BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER. N.p.: The Project Gutenberg. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11231/pg11231-images.html
