Mar 05 2010
Finally, a reliable narrator
Besides having a completely different subject, I found that Bartleby the Scrivener also differed from Moby Dick in its narration style. Ishmael is very present at the beginning of Moby Dick, but his voice becomes increasingly disembodied as the novel continues. The unnamed lawyer narrator remains present throughout Bartleby, and readers follow him through all his various interactions with other characters.
Ishmael does not interact much with other characters after he arrives on the Pequod. While his voice continues to inform the reader of what is happening on the ship, we rarely get an actual glimpse of him. He appears briefly in such chapters as The Monkey-Rope and A Squeeze of the Hand. Yet he still does not enter into dialogue with anyone aboard the ship. The most dialogue that Ishmael engages in during the part of the book that he is on the ship happens when he is having a flash forward to later describing the Town-Ho’s story to friends in Lima. Ishmael as a body aboard the ship seems to disappear from the story entirely until the Epilogue. He does not even alert the reader that he was one of the men on Ahab’s boat until after the ship has sunk.
The narrator of Bartleby has conversations with numerous other people in the text, and often uses the pronoun “I” to describe his personal thoughts and feelings. His constant flow of opinions and theories regarding Bartleby’s condition contrasts sharply with the reader’s lack of insight into Bartleby’s mind.
I enjoyed reading a piece by Melville where the narrator remained consistent for the duration of the plot. The narrator was as reliable as Bartleby was unreliable as an employee.
One Response to “Finally, a reliable narrator”
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I definitely felt the same way about Ishmael as an unreliable narrator. If anything, I found myself agreeing with the critics of Melville’s time that found his narration very jumbled and inexplicable. On one hand we are supposed to be following around this one sailor in first person, but the shift to omnipresent view left me very confused and actually frustrated in the novel. I guess I just prefer a set structure in a novel, a set series of rules that makes sense to me as a reader. As in if my view through this world that Melville has created is in the eyes of this sailor Ishmael, it bothers me that he has a God-like ability to be everywhere important at once and know everyone’s backstories and what they’re thinking as well. Well that’s enough venting for now about that.
I did like the story about Bartleby for a similar reason as well. When dealing with unrealiable narrators you always have to be in a habbit to check everyone’s reactions around him and be much more aware while reading. It was good to take a break from that for me.