{"id":"01KG8AK41AFXWCHTEC4294TF8W","cid":"bafkreigya24wy5x56fhhjgz4or7giq4rocd6hgwxvrntxxlxiyozbikdce","type":"section","properties":{"description":"# Narrator's Attempt to Persuade Bartleby\n\n## Overview\nThis section, titled \"Narrator's Attempt to Persuade Bartleby,\" is an extracted portion of text from the chapter [Bartleby](arke:01KG8AJK1PKEBJJCANV911N8JS). It spans lines 1898 to 1984 of its source file.\n\n## Context\nThis section is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It was extracted from the plain text file [the_piazza_tales.txt](arke:01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7). Preceded by [Bartleby's Continued Presence and Consequences](arke:01KG8AK4196PCDZ2AG6ZRPHRVV), this section details the narrator's escalating efforts to deal with Bartleby's refusal to leave the premises. It is followed by the section [Bartleby's arrest and imprisonment](arke:01KG8AK4195N29EGMN0JHCTP0N).\n\n## Contents\nThe content describes the narrator's increasingly desperate attempts to persuade Bartleby to leave the office premises after his dismissal. The narrator confronts Bartleby, who is found sitting on the banister, and tries to reason with him, offering various alternative employments such as a clerkship in a dry-goods store, a bar-tender's business, a bill collector, or a companion for travel to Europe. Bartleby consistently responds with variations of \"I would prefer not to,\" frustrating the narrator to the point of losing his temper. The section concludes with the narrator's final, failed attempt to invite Bartleby to his home and his subsequent flight from the building to escape the situation and the demands of the landlord and tenants.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:55.778Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Narrator's Attempt to Persuade Bartleby","end_line":1984,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:52.603Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Narrator's Attempt to Persuade Bartleby","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":1898,"text":"Going up stairs to my old haunt, there was Bartleby silently sitting\r\nupon the banister at the landing.\r\n\r\n“What are you doing here, Bartleby?” said I.\r\n\r\n“Sitting upon the banister,” he mildly replied.\r\n\r\nI motioned him into the lawyer’s room, who then left us.\r\n\r\n“Bartleby” said I, “are you aware that you are the cause of great\r\ntribulation to me, by persisting in occupying the entry after being\r\ndismissed from the office?”\r\n\r\nNo answer.\r\n\r\n“Now one of two things must take place. Either you must do something,\r\nor something must be done to you. Now what sort of business would you\r\nlike to engage in? Would you like to re-engage in copying for some\r\none?”\r\n\r\n“No; I would prefer not to make any change.”\r\n\r\n“Would you like a clerkship in a dry-goods store?”\r\n\r\n“There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like a\r\nclerkship; but I am not particular.”\r\n\r\n“Too much confinement,” I cried, “why you keep yourself confined all\r\nthe time!”\r\n\r\n“I would prefer not to take a clerkship,” he rejoined, as if to settle\r\nthat little item at once.\r\n\r\n“How would a bar-tender’s business suit you? There is no trying of the\r\neye-sight in that.”\r\n\r\n“I would not like it at all; though, as I said before, I am not\r\nparticular.”\r\n\r\nHis unwonted wordiness inspirited me. I returned to the charge.\r\n\r\n“Well, then, would you like to travel through the country collecting\r\nbills for the merchants? That would improve your health.”\r\n\r\n“No, I would prefer to be doing something else.”\r\n\r\n“How, then, would going as a companion to Europe, to entertain some\r\nyoung gentleman with your conversation—how would that suit you?”\r\n\r\n“Not at all. It does not strike me that there is anything definite\r\nabout that. I like to be stationary. But I am not particular.”\r\n\r\n“Stationary you shall be, then,” I cried, now losing all patience, and,\r\nfor the first time in all my exasperating connection with him, fairly\r\nflying into a passion. “If you do not go away from these premises\r\nbefore night, I shall feel bound—indeed, I _am_ bound—to—to—to quit the\r\npremises myself!” I rather absurdly concluded, knowing not with what\r\npossible threat to try to frighten his immobility into compliance.\r\nDespairing of all further efforts, I was precipitately leaving him,\r\nwhen a final thought occurred to me—one which had not been wholly\r\nunindulged before.\r\n\r\n“Bartleby,” said I, in the kindest tone I could assume under such\r\nexciting circumstances, “will you go home with me now—not to my office,\r\nbut my dwelling—and remain there till we can conclude upon some\r\nconvenient arrangement for you at our leisure? Come, let us start now,\r\nright away.”\r\n\r\n“No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all.”\r\n\r\nI answered nothing; but, effectually dodging every one by the\r\nsuddenness and rapidity of my flight, rushed from the building, ran up\r\nWall street towards Broadway, and, jumping into the first omnibus, was\r\nsoon removed from pursuit. As soon as tranquillity returned, I\r\ndistinctly perceived that I had now done all that I possibly could,\r\nboth in respect to the demands of the landlord and his tenants, and\r\nwith regard to my own desire and sense of duty, to benefit Bartleby,\r\nand shield him from rude persecution, I now strove to be entirely\r\ncare-free and quiescent; and my conscience justified me in the attempt;\r\nthough, indeed, it was not so successful as I could have wished. So\r\nfearful was I of being again hunted out by the incensed landlord and\r\nhis exasperated tenants, that, surrendering my business to Nippers, for\r\na few days, I drove about the upper part of the town and through the\r\nsuburbs, in my rockaway; crossed over to Jersey City and Hoboken, and\r\npaid fugitive visits to Manhattanville and Astoria. In fact, I almost\r\nlived in my rockaway for the time.\r\n\r","title":"Narrator's Attempt to Persuade Bartleby"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJK1PKEBJJCANV911N8JS","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK4196PCDZ2AG6ZRPHRVV","peer_type":"section","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK4195N29EGMN0JHCTP0N","peer_type":"section","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:53.898Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.393Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}