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Herman MelvilleA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Melville grew up steeped in Calvinism, a theology that denies the existence of free will. Has Melville written a story that refutes this deterministic view, which was based on the theory that human nature is “totally depraved? Does Bartleby have free will? Why or why not?
The narrator spends his last interaction with Bartleby attempting to convince the scrivener that the narrator is not responsible for Bartleby’s imprisonment. Who do you think is responsible for Bartleby’s fate, if anybody? Why? Explain using evidence from the text.
By Herman Melville