Melville tales: Paradise/Tartarus and Bartleby

Please give these questions some thought as you read for tomorrow. We'll address them together in class.

1) Like many other stories we've encountered so far, these tales take as their subject "bachelors" and "maids." Think about why these single men and women--unattached, unencumbered by certain social ties--might be resonant characters for these writers? What are some of the common characteristics between, say, Bartleby and Ichabod Crane? The narrator in House of Usher and the narrator in Bartleby? The maids of Melville's "Tartarus" and the Beatrice in Rappaccini's Daughter?

2) These stories are about the world of work rather than the domestic sphere. What kind of work do we see being done? What is the relationship between work and home, or between public life and private life? What sense do we get of the private/domestic lives of Melville's characters? And how is it significant that Bartleby makes work into a domestic space?

3) All of these tales include images of reproduction and copying. In "Tartarus of Maids" Melville makes an explicit link between images of female reproduction and the great paper-making machine; the main activity in "Bartleby" is copying legal documents. How do you think copying functions symbolically for Melville? Is anyone doing "original" work?

4) There are subtle regional dichotomies set up in "Paradise" and "Tartarus." What can we make of the relationship between England and the U.S. that is implicitly set up in the pairing between the two tales? What about the relationship between North and South in "Paradise"?

5) Why are the "bachelors" matched with the "maids", and what connection do they have with one another? They're not part of the same industry or even on the same continent, so why would Melville pair these tales?