The purpose of the article is to analyze the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853) by the American writer H. Melville. This work appears relevant today. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that the author considers the “Bartleby’s phenomenon” not only the perspective of psychological science, but also in the ethical, socio-moral aspect and context. The loss of life purpose can be a long process of struggle with Nothingness and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” becomes an example of life philosophy loss due to the presence of an invisible wall between society and individual, individual and individual. As a result, the author draws conclusions about the parallel disclosure of the narrator’s and the protagonist’s characters in the text by means of moral categories, as well as about the depth of moral collisions caused by the simple desire to remain human in rather unusual circumstances.
Oleg S. Pugachev (Wed,) studied this question.