{"id":"01KG6YGBMBWNTXCJASG7F58WAK","cid":"bafkreigeyz5utiasocudmzsidmgm32km3cadlkac52it6crehuaqh7oaki","type":"segment","properties":{"description":"# Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave\n## Overview\nThis segment is an excerpt from the short story [Bartleby, The Scrivener](arke:01KG6YFY3GPNBP5AAFESQKDTDR) by Herman Melville. It describes the narrator's growing acceptance of Bartleby's eccentricities, his increasing isolation, and his famous \"I prefer not to\" response. The segment spans lines 593-622 of the source file [bartleby_the_scrivener.txt](arke:01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1).\n\n## Context\nThis segment is part of the [Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF) collection. It follows the segment focusing on [Narrator's internal conflict and attempts to resolve the situation](arke:01KG6YGBM5HJYR8M98PE7MG3PV) and precedes the segment detailing [Bartleby's presence in the office on a Sunday](arke:01KG6YGBM5EB0H6XMS2NSH4A11).\n\n## Contents\nThe segment details the narrator's evolving perspective on Bartleby's presence and behavior in his office. Initially, the narrator finds Bartleby's steadiness and industry valuable. However, Bartleby's persistent refusal to perform certain tasks, always answering with \"I prefer not to,\" causes the narrator occasional frustration. The passage also describes the office's security, noting that multiple people have keys to the narrator's chambers.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:51.389Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave","end_line":622,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:25.130Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave","source_file":"01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1","start_line":593,"text":"As days passed on, I became considerably reconciled to Bartleby. His\r\nsteadiness, his freedom from all dissipation, his incessant industry\r\n(except when he chose to throw himself into a standing revery behind\r\nhis screen), his great stillness, his unalterableness of demeanor under\r\nall circumstances, made him a valuable acquisition. One prime thing was\r\nthis,—_he was always there;_—first in the morning, continually through\r\nthe day, and the last at night. I had a singular confidence in his\r\nhonesty. I felt my most precious papers perfectly safe in his hands.\r\nSometimes to be sure I could not, for the very soul of me, avoid\r\nfalling into sudden spasmodic passions with him. For it was exceeding\r\ndifficult to bear in mind all the time those strange peculiarities,\r\nprivileges, and unheard of exemptions, forming the tacit stipulations\r\non Bartleby’s part under which he remained in my office. Now and then,\r\nin the eagerness of dispatching pressing business, I would\r\ninadvertently summon Bartleby, in a short, rapid tone, to put his\r\nfinger, say, on the incipient tie of a bit of red tape with which I was\r\nabout compressing some papers. Of course, from behind the screen the\r\nusual answer, “I prefer not to,” was sure to come; and then, how could\r\na human creature with the common infirmities of our nature, refrain\r\nfrom bitterly exclaiming upon such perverseness—such unreasonableness.\r\nHowever, every added repulse of this sort which I received only tended\r\nto lessen the probability of my repeating the inadvertence.\r\n\r\nHere it must be said, that according to the custom of most legal\r\ngentlemen occupying chambers in densely-populated law buildings, there\r\nwere several keys to my door. One was kept by a woman residing in the\r\nattic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my\r\napartments. Another was kept by Turkey for convenience sake. The third\r\nI sometimes carried in my own pocket. The fourth I knew not who had.\r\n\r","title":"Bartleby's increasing isolation and refusal to leave"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YFY3GPNBP5AAFESQKDTDR","peer_type":"short_story","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGBM5HJYR8M98PE7MG3PV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YGBM5EB0H6XMS2NSH4A11","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:26.027Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:51.541Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}