How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was touched. I said something in condolence with him. I hinted that of course he did wisely in abstaining from writing for a while… (2.133)
The narrator feels badly for Bartleby because Bartleby's eyes are strained. Though, are Bartleby's eyes really strained? The narrator just assumes they are; Bartleby doesn't say so. The narrator makes up a sad, strained Bartleby to feel sorry with, just like how in "The Piazza", that narrator made up Marianna for us to feel sorry for. All these narrators make up stories just so we can say, "awwww, poor thing."
Quote #2
But when this old Adam of resentment rose in me and tempted me concerning Bartleby, I grappled him and threw him. How? Why, simply by recalling the divine injunction: "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another." Yes, this it was that saved me. Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle—a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy. (2.167)
The lawyer quotes the Bible's injunction to love one another. But the argument for love here isn't really on moral grounds, but on the grounds that you'll get into trouble if you're not compassionate. And is it really compassion if you decide to be compassionate out of selfishness? It seems like a very business-oriented, profit-maximizing kind of charity. Maybe that's why Bartleby doesn't respond so well to it.
Quote #3
Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! (2.252)
Sympathy for Bartleby creates compassion for the sad, isolated fate of all people. But…doesn't it seem a little excessive? Is the narrator really sorry for Bartleby, or does he just enjoy playing with Bartleby as a symbol for all suffering folks? Compassion for all humanity seems like it supersedes compassion for poor Bartleby.
Quote #4
He is like one flayed alive, thought Captain Delano; where may one touch him without causing a shrink? (3.332)
Delano sees Benito Cereno's pain, and feels bad for it. But he doesn't understand it, which is why he keeps touching him in such a way that he shrinks. Compassion without knowledge doesn't necessarily make anyone better off. If you're as oblivious as Captain Delano, you're likely to make the objects of your compassion wish you'd leave them alone.
Quote #5
He smote Babo's hand down, but his heart smote him harder. (3.370)
Captain Delano feels horrible for Benito Cereno, whom he has falsely accused. No sympathy to spare for Babo, though, who after all has been unjustly stolen from his home, imprisoned, and enslaved. Delano is a racist, which means in part that he reserves his compassion for white people.
Quote #6
"I could not look at you, thinking of what both on board this ship and your own, hung, from other hands, over my kind benefactor. And as God lives, Don Amasa, I know not whether desire for my own safety alone could have nerved me to that leap into your boat." (3.418)
While Delano was feeling sorry for Benito, Benito was feeling sorry for Delano. Compassion here gave Don Benito the power and ability to escape and take a leap of faith. Don Benito has super-compassion—which seems ironic since he's a slave trader. If only he'd felt some compassion for the people he'd captured, maybe he wouldn't have kidnapped them, and then everyone could have avoided a lot of death and misery.
Quote #7
Poor fish of Rodondo! In your victimized confidence, you are of the number of those who inconsiderately trust, while they do not understand, human nature. (5.48)
The narrator of "The Encantadas" feels sorry even for the fish, who are too dumb to stay away from the hooks. The elaborate compassion (with exclamation marks!) is similar to the lawyer's cry in Bartleby. (Ah fish! Ah humanity!) Which again, makes you wonder how much the lawyer actually felt for Bartleby. Did he feel sorry for him? Or is it just fun and funny to express elaborate compassion for some dumb fish?
Quote #8
Still, strange as it may seem, I must also abide by the more charitable thought; namely, that among these adventurers were some gentlemanly, companionable souls, capable of genuine tranquility and virtue. (5.90)
The narrator here is expressing compassion for pirates, thugs, and robbers. Poor guys, they were just forced to rob and murder people by circumstances; aren't they gentlemanly? Lots of folks saw pirates as romantic and exciting at the time and since; they made for good stories. Compare, though, the treatment of the black former slaves in "Benito Cereno." Surely if anyone had reason by circumstances to be violent it's Babo. But he's black, so instead of sympathy, he gets his head stuck on a pike. (Note that pirates were sometimes black or of African descent, though the gentlemanly pirates Melville is talking about seem to be white.)
Quote #9
All hearts bled that grief should be so brave. (5.123)
The narrator is talking about the sadness of Hunilla, who's lost her brother and husband. The sailors feel compassion for her because her suffering is stoic and noble. Lots of stoic, noble suffering in The Piazza Tales. Nobody just breaks down and weeps and throws a tantrum. Too messy, maybe; Melville prefers his suffering to have some decorum.
Quote #10
By the charitable that deed was but imputed to sudden transports of esthetic passion, not to any flagitious quality. (6.16)
Bannadonna murders someone, but the charitable say, well, he just did it because he's an artist. "Charity" here means letting the powerful guy get away with murdering the less powerful guy. Which isn't really charity, Melville suggests, so much as a lazy acquiescence to thuggish jerkitude. (Though how is this different than Delano's compassion in "Benito Cereno," which extends only to the slavers, not to the slaves?)