Lovely Literature

I think there must be more to Bartleby than meets the eye. He is a peculiar character and he is static throughout the entire story. His behavior is motivated by the fact that he was fired from his previous job at the Dead Letter Office. Apparently something huge must have happened that put the thought into his head that he was to copy down and copy down only because he never "preferred" to do anything else. He must have been either coddled at his old job or the other extreme, terribly put down so that he was not confident in what he could do. Then again, he could just simply be lazy and literal, like those Amelia Bedelia books I used to read when I was younger.

I believe the information about the Dead Letter Office is withheld until the end so that the reader can identify whatever they believe with Bartleby. It would kill the story and give the reader a preconceived notion about Bartleby if he added that fact in earlier in the story. This background though is not near enough to describe Bartleby. He had to have gone through some kind of traumatic time to make him so passive aggressive and complacent. It's weird how a character can be so interesting and compelling even though he does not change throughout the entire story and he seems to be very flat.

Brett is a very interesting character with multiple levels to her personality. She is a static character in this story because she starts out as an independent, slightly crazy woman who refuses to be with who she actually loves, and she manages to not change throughout the entire story.

When she is described, it is very ironic to me because I believe she is the opposite of how every man sees her. I feel as if Jake is the only one who truly sees her for who she is and that is why he can love her for so long without her love in return.

"There's a certain quality about her, a certain fineness. She seems to be absolutely fine and straight." [page 46]

I cannot see Brett as fine and straight as Cohn describes her, because she acts just the opposite.

The Count then says, "Mr. Barnes, she is the only lady I have ever known who was as charming when she was drunk as when she was sober." [page 66].

I'm not a fan of her alcohol problem and the fact that she kind of gets rewarded because of it. Well, Brett is a difficult character to handle I suppose. I think she irritates me the most because everyone puts up with her because of her looks and her charm so it is difficult for her to change because no one is forcing her to.