Bartleby the Scrivener, by Herman Melville is a story about an unnamed lawyer who employs a scribe named Bartleby. Bartleby, throughout the novella, has several periods of work. At first he writes without reproach or hesitation, but as the story progresses his attitude towards the work changes dramatically. Mordecai Marcus's critical essay on the novella makes some positive points, such as that Bartleby is a psychological double for the lawyer, represents a subliminal death drive within himself, and the conflict between absolutism and free will. All three of these points are attributed to Bartleby because he represents them respectively. In Mordecai Marcus's critical essay on Bartleby the Scribe, he argues that Bartleby is a psychological double for the nameless lawyer. As the story progresses, Bartleby begins to slow down and eventually stops working altogether. The lawyer doesn't know what to do mainly because "Bartleby's power over the lawyer grows rapidly as the story progresses." (Mark 1) When the lawyer first hired Bartleby, he was a tenacious young worker: “There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sunlight and candlelight. (Melville 16) This is at the beginning of the story right after the lawyer hired him. Bartleby, to the lawyer, seems to have no other ambitions than to write for him. But all that begins to change when Bartleby begins to not want to do some of the tasks the lawyer asks him to do. The first example of this is when he is asked to proofread one of the copies he has just completed, "... quickly stating what I wanted him to do - namely, examine a small paper with me... Bartleb... half of sheet ......ast. But once again obeying that wonderful ascendancy which the inscrutable scribe had over me...” (Melville 44) Once again, the lawyer is amazed by the amount of “power” that Bartleby has on him. Bartleby, without doing anything, has taken away much of the lawyers' free will thus fueling his own absolutism. The story is set in New York City in a Wall Street law firm; represent characters from New York. Bartleby represents a type of person who is excited to come to a new city but then adapts to the daily routine of the city and begins to lose the desire to work. lawyer, on the other hand, represents the quintessential New Yorker, owning his own business and trying to succeed in a city famous for overwhelming alcohol. Both Bartleby and the lawyer represent real characters within the fabric of New York City.