Bartleby, the Scrivener

Narrator

An elderly, unnamed lawyer who employs Bartleby and tells the story from his own experience. He tries to accommodate and help Bartleby, and later finds him dead in the prison yard.

John Jacob Astor

A wealthy man who once employed the narrator and praised his prudence and method.

Turkey

An older English copyist in the narrator’s office. He works quickly in the morning but becomes flushed, reckless, and sometimes insolent in the afternoon.

Nippers

A young copyist in the narrator’s office, ambitious to do legal work beyond copying and often irritable in the morning. His mood usually settles in the afternoon.

Ginger Nut

A twelve-year-old office boy and law student employed by the narrator. He runs errands and brings cakes to Turkey and Nippers; the clerks gave him his nickname.

Ginger Nut’s father

An unnamed carman who sent his son to the narrator’s office, hoping he would become a lawyer rather than a carman.

Bartleby

A pale, quiet scrivener employed by the narrator who repeatedly refuses requests with “I would prefer not to,” eventually stops copying, and remains in the office after being dismissed. The narrator later finds him dead in the Tombs yard; a rumor says he had worked in Washington’s Dead Letter Office before being removed in an administrative change.

Lord Byron

Also known as Byron

A poet mentioned by the narrator as an example of someone unlikely to tolerate the tedious task of checking a long legal document.

Woman in the attic

An unnamed resident who holds a key to the narrator’s chambers and cleans them.

Cicero

A Roman orator whose bust stands in the narrator’s office; Bartleby fixes his gaze on it during one conversation.

Adams

A man mentioned in the narrator’s account of a fatal altercation with Colt.

Colt

A man who fatally acted against Adams during an altercation in Colt’s solitary office, as recalled by the narrator.

Broadway and Canal Street election crowd

An unnamed group discussing the prospects of a candidate for mayor; the narrator briefly mistakes their conversation for a discussion about Bartleby.

Landlord of No.—Wall-street

An unnamed landlord who has Bartleby removed to the Tombs as a vagrant and asks the narrator to help resolve the disruption in the building.

Lawyer in the former chambers

Also known as Mr. B—

An unnamed lawyer who takes over the narrator’s former rooms, complains that Bartleby will neither work nor leave, and later joins the landlord in confronting the narrator.

Mr. Cutlets

Also known as the grub-man

A prison food provider who offers to bring Bartleby meals at the narrator’s request. He notices Bartleby’s death in the yard and asks whether he has been dining.

Mrs. Cutlets

Mr. Cutlets’s wife, mentioned when he invites Bartleby to dine in her private room.

Monroe Edwards

A forger known to the grub-man, who says Edwards died of consumption at Sing-Sing.

Constable escorting Bartleby

An unnamed constable who accompanies Bartleby to the Tombs after he is taken into custody as a vagrant.

Turnkey who reports Bartleby’s whereabouts

An unnamed prison officer who tells the narrator that Bartleby may be loitering in the yard.

Turnkey in the yard

An unnamed prison officer who tells the narrator where Bartleby is lying.