The Role of the Dead Letter Office Essay Example for Free

The Role of the Dead Letter Office Essay While Melville only mentions the Dead Letter Office in the last paragraph, he portrays its significance throughout the story. Melville reveals Bartleby previously worked in a Dead Letter Office, where he handled the monotonous task of burning undeliverable mail. Because the narrator views Bartleby as a mirthless man, he feels pity for Bartleby working at a place devoid of happiness. By employing a theme of lost hope, Melville describes the dead letters as mail, which fails to reach its destination with its encouraging message or item of value. Melville associates the melancholy present in Dead Letter Office with the strife evident in Bartlebys life. In Melvilles short story, the Dead Letter Office serves as an influence upon Bartlebys fastidious nature. Throughout the story, Bartleby expresses his preferences in regard to his work, which primarily result from the dissatisfaction he felt in his previous profession. Perhaps Bartlebys refusal in performing his duties signifies his dismissal of authority, which indicates Bartlebys desire to control his own life. By characterizing Bartleby as an isolated man, Melville demonstrates how Bartlebys environment separates him from nature and the company of others. Working in the narrators office, Bartleby occupies a secluded area near a window, where he constantly stares at a wall. Bartleby exhibits the behavior of a loner as he stays at the office even at night, when no one occupies the streets. When Melville states On errands of life, these letters speed to death, he refers to the Dead Letter Office as a symbol of mortality (Melville 52). In describing Bartlebys former occupation, the narrator even acquaints the dead letters of the mail center with dead men (51). Melville portrays the final depressing image of death through Bartlebys former workplace, the Dead Letter Office.