Narrative Strategies in Bleak House and ‘Bartleby the Scrivener”: On the Significant Affinity between Dickens and Melville

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Title:	Narrative Strategies in Bleak House and ‘Bartleby the Scrivener”: On the Significant Affinity between Dickens and Melville
Authors:	An-chi Wang
Keywords:	荒屋;巴特比;敘事策略;狄更斯;梅爾維爾;Charles Dickens;Bleak House;Herman Melville;Barleby the Scrivener;Narrative strategy
Date:	2004-05
Issue Date:	2010-05-05 02:09:03 (UTC+0)
Publisher:	Asia University
Abstract:	英國狄更斯的長篇鉅著《荒屋》與美國梅爾維爾的短篇小說〈巴特比〉之間有著饒富意義的密切關連，有助於導引學術界更中肯的詮釋一篇眾說紛紜的美國小說，並且重新審視當年英國與美國文學的互動關係。兩部作品在人物塑造、情節、敘事模式等方面有諸多相似之處：都有律師、警察局、法律文件抄寫員等人物；都有一位法律文件抄寫員神秘死亡的悲慘故事；都有豐富的機智與幽默。〈巴特比〉的寫作和刊登時間緊緊跟在《荒屋》連載之後，顯示兩位知名作家之間的密切關連性。抄寫員神秘死亡的故事在《荒屋》只有輕描淡寫一筆帶過，而〈巴特比〉則是全篇都在講一個故事，後者好像是前者超大格局浩瀚人海裡擷取出來片段篇章的小人物加以放大詳述。本文援用比較文學影響研究理論，藉著分析兩部作品的敘事策略，來詮釋兩位文學大師之間密切關係的涵義。梅爾維爾並未企圖與狄更斯相庭抗禮，也沒有瑜亮情結，而是出自仰慕大師的動機，引發靈感也來暢談他所熟悉無獨有偶的抄寫員故事，主要目的是模擬其精湛的說故事技巧與引人入勝的幽默風趣。為了把故事說得更傳神，兩位小說家都希望突破傳統敘事模式。狄更斯在《荒屋》首度實驗了「雙重敘事觀點」的寫作技巧，第一人稱與第三人稱輪番陳述相輔相成，在陳述抄寫員尼默的苦難故事時，沿用慣常的第三人稱歷盡滄桑的世故語氣，嘲弄命運多違，默默無聞抑鬱以終的抄寫員竟然是女主角的父親。梅爾維爾的〈巴特比〉則專注於敘事者的單一觀點，出自滿腔熱忱人道關懷的律師，煞費苦心也無法拯救巴特比悲愴的靈魂。然而，不論是狄更斯的第三人稱，或〈巴特比〉的第一人稱，兩部作品都難於傳達故事的真相，因為任何觀點都是主觀，都無法圓滿呈現永遠難解的人生之謎，抄寫員之死的神秘依舊深不可測難以捉摸。兩部作品都質疑呈現真相的方式，強調無力重整人間經驗為真實意義。梅爾維爾的巴特比是針對重建狄更斯的尼默而寫，但他也是默默無聞憂鬱寡歡的無名小子，「寧可不」存活於這個世界，他也是人類生命中永遠無法完整呈現的現實。 The affinity between Dickens’ Bleak House and Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” is significant in that it gives a direction in interpreting more relevantly an American literary work and in re-evaluating the British-American literary correlation. There are identifiable similarities in many aspects, in characterization, plot, and narrative modes: characters of lawyers, law-stationers, law-copyists or scriveners; plot of the mysterious death of a deplorable law-copyist; and narrative modes abundant in brilliant wit and intriguing humor. Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” was composed and published immediately after Bleak House finished its serialization, thus suggestive of close connection. “Bartleby the Scrivener” looks very much like an elaborate magnified version of a single scene taken deliberately from Dickens’ panorama in Bleak House. This paper employs theories of influence study in comparative literature to interpret the significant affinity between Dickens and Melville. Melville never intends to write “Bartleby the Scrivener” out of the anxiety of influence or rivalry. He is more likely to be inspired by Dickens to tell the story of a miserable law-copyist he also knows, especially motivated out of admiration for a great master specializing in story-telling skills and intriguing humor. Both Dickens and Melville endeavor to make breakthroughs in narrative strategies. Dickens in Bleak House experiments with an innovated technique of the dual or double narrative, in which the first and the third points-of-view alternate to tell the story, to complement each other so as to achieve a multiplying effect. The story of Nemo is told as usual in Dickens’ sophisticated cynical tone of the third-person, yet in a rather disinterested way as to be undeserved for his position in Bleak House as the heroine’s father who died unknown and unrecognized. Melville in “Bartleby the Scrivener” concentrates on telling the story of the deplorable Bartleby from the lawyer’s single first-person perspective. No matter how earnest the lawyer tries to help Bartleby and how sincere his humanitarian concern is, he is still unable to save Bartleby’s wretched soul from collapse and self-destruction. Yet, neither the third-person of Dickens’ narrator, nor the first-person of Melville’s lawyer, is capable of telling us a true story. Both works reveal a difficulty in portraying reality, because any point of view on reality is subjective. The problem of human mystery remains an unsolved enigma. Both works question their own methods of representation, emphasizing their incapacity to shape materials and to bestow a truthful meaning on human experiences. Melville’s Bartleby is a focused revision of Dickens’ Nemo; he is “No One,” no body, a black-humored and gloomy protagonist who “prefers not to” live in this world. He is an un-representable reality in human life.
Relation:	逢甲人文社會學報,8：241-271.
Appears in Collections:	[Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures] Journal Article

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