In "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, the author uses imagery to create meaning and emotion. Imagery can be defined as the use of figurative language or visual representation of ideas, usually those that appeal to our senses, in order to create meaning. One of the first descriptions of the building where the scriveners work, is a good example of the use of "imagery":

"This view might have been considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape painters call “life.” But if so, the view from the other end of my chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if nothing more. In that direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required no spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but for the benefit of all near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my window panes."

This image represents the "obstructed" and "lifeless" view, which also conveys an impossibility to look beyond the brick wall. This uniform, old structure, describes the confined spacial dimensions of the office buildings. This kind of "dead" modern urban life that does not allow for a bigger picture, and tends to standardize all forms of life. In this sense, Bartleby and the scriveners, are not only brick wall-like themselves, but are also living in rigid uniform spatial structures. Another part of the text where the image of the brick wall appears, describes the process in which Bartleby starts to become ever more silent and pale, he becomes like a brick wall himself:

"I remembered that he never spoke but to answer; that though at intervals he had considerable time to himself, yet I had never seen him reading—no, not even a newspaper; that for long periods he would stand looking out, at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall;..."

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3 years ago