SOURCE: "The Problem of Symbolist Form in Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener'," in Modern Language Quarterly, Vol. 31, 1970, pp. 345-58.

Bigelow is an American critic and educator. In the following essay, he proposes that the symbolism in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is too rich to be reduced to a single, definitive meaning.

One proffers another critique of Melville's "Bartleby" with some diffidence, feeling overawed by a recent bibliography of criticism of the story which contains 117 items and includes the names of the most formidable Melville scholars [Donald M. Fiene, "A Bibliography of Criticism of 'Bartleby the Scrivener,' " in Melville Annual 1965. A Symposium: "Bartleby the Scrivener, " edited by Howard P. Vincent, 1966]. The diversity of critical reaction to the story is striking. Some critics focus upon Bartleby, some upon the unnamed lawyer-narrator, some upon both. Some read the story as a parable of the thwarted artist, as Melville's non serviam to a...