How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
If he would but have named a single relative or friend, I would instantly have written and urged their taking the poor fellow away to some convenient retreat. But he seemed alone, absolutely alone in the universe. A bit of wreck in the mid-Atlantic. (74)
Bartleby's state of total isolation inspires an odd combination of emotions in the Narrator; while he's understandably exasperated by the scrivener's behavior, this sense of loneliness plays upon his basic sense of human compassion – it seems unnatural for anyone to be that alone in the world.
Quote #5
It was the circumstance of being alone in a solitary office, upstairs, of a building entirely unhallowed by humanizing domestic associations – an uncarpeted office, doubtless, of a dusty, haggard sort of appearance – this it must have been which greatly helped to enhance the irritable desperation of the helpless Colt. (92)
The Narrator's description of the setting of the infamous Colt-Adams murder case puts a great deal of blame on the office itself – there's something completely isolated from regular human life about the office. We have to wonder what effect it has upon Bartleby and upon the Narrator himself.
Quote #6
Dead letters! Does it not sound like dead men? Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters, and assorting them for the flames? (130)
The profound alienation and hopelessness of Bartleby's previous occupation overwhelms the Narrator, leading us to wonder how much of Bartleby's condition relates to this idea of the Dead Letter Office.