Silence and Noise: The Unreliable Narration of “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street”

Abstract

This paper calls attention to the disturbing narrative effects issuing from both silence and noises by tackling the issue of the narrator’s unreliability in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street.” In the story, the narrator’s ostensibly trustworthy and harmonious telling has been damaged by the silence and noises in his former premises. By listening carefully to the implied Melville, readers recognize that the narrator has deviated from the implied Melville’s account and must, therefore, question the narrator’s credibility. In addition to these two acoustic textual clues, another important signal (friendship) is embedded to indicate the narrator’s unreliability. These three textual clues integrally influence readers’ ethical judgment of the narrator. Indeed, the implied Melville intends to conceal that behind the narrator’s unreliability hides his flawed value system.