Melville is an adventure writer who likes to talk about just sitting there. "The Piazza" and "Bartleby" are both about nothing happening…but even "Benito Cereno", which has swashing and buckling in copious quantities, spends a lot of time on telling you how Benito Cereno is passive and filled with lassitude, and on how Delano is going back and forth and thinking the same things over and over without doing anything about them. Even when he describes excitement and murder and bloodshed, you get the feeling that Melville would prefer not to. He'd rather sit on his porch and dream.
Questions About Passivity
- How is the narrator of "The Piazza" similar to Bartleby?
- Who is more passive, Bartleby, or the lawyer who narrates "Bartleby"?
- Is Benito Cereno passive? Explain your answer.
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Bartleby is utterly passive.
Bartleby is extremely aggressive.