For instance, Gogols tragicomedy, The Overcoat also referred to as The Cloak published in 1842, and taking place in St. Petersburg, during the 1830s. In this story, Gogol takes an almost satirical look at corrupt, bureaucratic, pre revolutionary, 19th Century czarist Russia. The main character, Akakiy Akakievitch Bashmatchkin, whose name either means shit, son of shit, or harmless or lacking evil, and shoe depending on the translation, (Johnson, 1986 1746 ) is a lowly copy clerk in some office of an unnamed bureaucratic department. As Gogol begins the story, In the department of but it is better not to mention the departmentin order to avoid all unpleasantness, it will be better to describe the department in question only as a certain department.
Described as about fifty years old and of short of stature, somewhat pocked marked, red-haired and shortsighted with a bald forehead, wrinkled cheeks and a sanguine complexion his official status being a perpetual titular councillor. One whom none could remember when and how he entered the department, and who appointed him. He was always seen in the same place, with the same attitude, the same occupation. Shown no respect, he was laughed at and made fun of and was treated by his superiors in a coolly despotic fashion. In addition, he often he had the misfortune of walking under windows when trash was being thrown out so that he always bore on his hat scraps of melon rinds and other such articles.
An industrious and faithful worker, he lived entirely for his duties, laboring with love. He did not socialize with his colleagues, nor did he engage in any social activities after work, instead he went home and did even more copying. For, outside copying, it appeared that nothing existed for him. A peaceful man, content with his lot in life, he desired nothing else., even when a kindly superior offered to give him something more important than copying, he declined, and after that, he was left him to copy on forever. In these ways, he represents the commonordinary man, working in the bureaucratic order of 19th Century Russia.
To afford a new coat, a necessity in winter in Northern Russia, he resolves to give up his candles and evening tea, to walk lightly to not wear his heels down and wear only his dressing gown at home to save on his laundry bills. In doing so, with the anticipation of having a brand new cloak, gives his life a new sense of hope. He became livelier, his character grew firmerfrom his face, gait and indecision, all hesitating and wavering traits disappeared. Fire even gleamed in his eyes. He is excited for the first time as he plans his new cloak with the one eyed, often drunken tailor, Petrovitch. So much so, that he is troubled that the time would come when the cloak would be made, ending the fun. However, when he does get his new cloak, it is the most glorious day of his life. .
When a sub-chief at work, offers to hold a party to christen the new coat, Akakiy, unaccustomed to social gatherings, and socializing in general, find himself bewildered, overwhelmed, feels awkward and doesnt know what to do, nor where to stand, what to say . At long last, he slips out and walks home late, only to be accosted by thieves who steal his new and treasured coat. Upon telling the sentry of his plight, he is told to visit the police in the morning. Akakiys housekeeper suggests he visit the district chief of police and when he does finally get the chance to meet with him, it is only to be grilled, as if he was the guilty party, questioning him as to why he was out so late, and if the cloak was truly his in the first place. Then, a colleague tells him to apply to a certain prominent personage.
What he doesnt know is that this certain prominent personage, has only just recently achieved his position and though generally a very good and kind person, strove to make himself appear important by adhering to a sense of importance and hierarchy, and be condescending to his inferiors. Thus, when Akakiy sets to meet with him, it is disastrous and deadly. For, the Prominent Personage uses Akakiy to represent his own power to his friend, making Akakiy wait an unreasonably long time, and when he does meet with him, treats him in such a harsh manner that Akakiy is rendered insensible and has to be carried out. It is as he stumbles home from this insulting debacle that he gets the fatal quinsy.
Soon after his death, a ghost is sighted who steals cloaks from passersby, including that of the prominent personage, whom the ghost declares, Ah, here you are at lastI need your cloak you took no trouble about mine, but reprimanded me so now give up on your own. Then, the ghost disappeared never to be seen again. Cloakless, the prominent personage returns home and changes his ways, accusing his under officials, only after he heard their full story.
While Akakiy can be seen as the common, perhaps forgotten man of 19th Century czarist Russia, his supporting cast, his co-workers, employers, police and the prominent personage, represent society, who neglects, if not outright ignores the common man. They make fun of him, dismiss him, ignore him and refuse to help him.
One theme of The Overcoat is Mans inhumanity against his fellow man, as well as the inhumanity of the organized bureaucracy, which pays no heed to the hard worker, or their needs, such as a warm cloak in the colder parts of Russia. It is not until he dies and becomes a ghost that Akakiy gains any real power. Because of the circumstances of modern life in czarist, corrupt, bureaucratic culture, this theme of inhumanity is a common one in 19th Century Russian literature. Much of which was inspired by Gogol, who writing during Czar Nicholas corrupt reign, often satirized Russian bureaucracy, and was eventually exiled for it. As Johnson writes, In the character of Akakiy Akakievitch, Gogol gave the world its first modern common man, a man who is overwhelmed by the complex bureaucracy of which he is part (1747).
Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener A Story of Wall Street, first published anonymously in 1853, also tells of mans inhumanity, as well as isolation, in the modern world. In this tale, the narrator, an elderly lawyer, who is a prudent, methodical, seldom loses his temper, an eminently safe man of peace who believes the easiest way of life is best, describes his time with Bartleby, the strangest scrivener he ever saw or heard of.
The story begins in the lawyers office, as he explains who he is, and what he does. Here, we get an image of a man who does quite well but is content leaving things as is, does not hold much ambition, nor does he want to change anything. This is apparent as he describes his employees, and their eccentricities, which frustrate him but he finds it easier to deal with them, rather than hire new and perhaps less temperamental and more responsible clerks.
The clerk, nicknamed Turkey, period slang for drunkenness (Bergmann, 161) is about 60 years old, short, of flighty temper who works fine in the mornings, the quickest, steadiest creature, accomplishing a great deal of work, but after lunch, after he imbibes a few is reckless, noisy and clumsy, given to making blots. .
The second clerk, Nippers, slang for thief, pickpocket and handcuffs (162) is whiskered ,sallow, piratical looking, victim of ambition and indigestion with a fiery temper who knew no t what he wanted and was occasionally seen with seedy looking fellows, doing business at the Justices courts and on the steps of the Tombs. Though irritable and nervous in the morning in the afternoon, he was comparatively mild. With all his failings and annoyances, was very useful, wrote a neat, swift hand, was temperate and held a gentlemanly deportment. Ginger Nut, the 12-year-old lad, student at law, and errand boy helps around the office sweeping and cleaning and goes out to get apples and ginger nuts, spicy, small, flat, round ginger cakes, for the clerks.
It is into this rather chaotic, yet well-balanced world that the silent, mysterious, pallidly neat, pitiably respectable and incurably forlorn figure Bartleby enters. Needing another scrivener to attend to his increasing business, the lawyer hires him on the spot and makes a work area for him in his own office. We first find Bartleby to be though quiet, he diligently does an extraordinary quantity of writingsilently, palely and mechanically. However, when the lawyer requests he perform other work besides mere copying, Bartleby replies I prefer not, which as we find out becomes in end all and be all catch phrase, so much so that he soon prefers not to do any work at all, and the rest of the office begin to use the phrase themselves.
In time, Bartleby decides not to do any work and just stands there, looking at the office wall, day after day. Yet, the lawyer, with his passive nature and avoidance of conflict, still cannot bring himself to fire Bartleby. Instead, he chooses to move himself and his office to another location, away from Bartleby, who remained in the building until the property owner sent him to prison for vagrancy. Upon his death, we find that Bartleby had previously lost his job as a sub-clerk in a dead letter office, which the lawyer believes could explain his strange behavior, leading him to exclaim, Ah Bartleby, ah the humanity
Within Bartleby the Scrivener, we find characters devoted to their existence, whether misery or indigestion or passivity, intent on the daily routine, not looking to change or improve their lot. As Bartleby himself states, At present, I would prefer not to make any change at all. Actually, overall, he prefers not to do anything - not to proof, or even copy, or once in prison to eat. In fact, he prefers not to live, as he dies in a fetal position in the prison courtyard.
Bartleby represents the isolation, hopelessness and inhumanity of the modern 19th Century world. He is described as a ghost, pale, pallid, wraith like, cadaverous. He does not eat except for a few ginger nuts, barely speaks, does not socialize, does not go outside, and does not have any friends or family. In the end he does not work, and finally does not even live. He is seemingly not human, nor alive. He is just a worker bee of the office building, staying there until he is in an actual prison.
This sense of hopelessness or rather resignation to the system is seen in the narrator, and his employees, none who actively seek to change their situation, just suffer through it. While Nippers threatens to kick Bartleby out of the office and Turkey threatens to black him in the eye, neither man does, and just accept the fact their co-worker, hired to help with the workload sits and does nothing. The narrator, not only puts up with Nippers and Turkeys eccentricities day after day, but also allows Bartleby to do nothing all day. Instead, he philosophically muses about his situation and accepts it as a mysterious purpose of an all wise Providence which was not for a mere mortal like me to fathom. Indeed, it is only Bartleby who decides his fate by preferring not to.
In these ways, Melville comments upon and satirizes his times. Attacking its smug morality, its pomposity, sentimental , patronizing, attitude toward individual citizens, its simplistic view of the complex and the ambiguous, persistent ignorance of its responsibilities (164). He could also be commenting upon the literary world of the time, and his own waning popularity.
Some say the Melville wrote Bartleby in response to the recent criticisms of his work, which in effect ruined his career, particularly that of Fitz James OBriens severe criticism of his most recent, Pierre (Bergmann 139). Bartleby may represent Melville himself, and the dead letters, the perception of his own writings. In this way, Bartleby becomes about the isolation of an artist in a materialistic society which not only is indifferent to its writers, but also bent on their destruction (Adams, 163).
Some also posit that since Melville often wrote of his own experiences, that the characters were based on real life figures, from his literary life. Namely, Cornelius Mathews with his histrionic language and posturing as Turkey, Edgar Allen Poe with his testiness and frustrated ambition as Nippers, and Melvilles patron, mentor and friend, editor of The Literary World Everet Duycknick as the narrator (Wells). Accordingly, as Duycknick and many other literary men of the time held law degrees prior to becoming critics, Melville may be telling us that one of the problems of the free-thinking artist in nineteenth-century America was to win acceptance by the narrow, legalistic minds of so many critics trained in law (Wells).
In Thurbers The Catbird Seat, published about a century later, in 1942, again we find the mild mannered, neat, quiet, polite, keeps to himself common man who lives his life with routine and not much socializing. He is described by his co workers as infallible, the most efficient worker, and praised for his temperate habits and exemplary manner. He is content with his life the way it is, orderly and methodical, and has worked at the same company for twenty-two years.
Martins challenge is not the organizational bureaucracy per se, but its downfall, at least to him, in the form of a blowsy, strong, flamboyant female, Mrs. Ulgine Barrows, who meets the President of the firm, Mr. Fitweiler at a party and persuaded him with her monstrous magic to make her his special advisor. Coming aboard, two years prior, she changes up the place, disrupts systems and departments, and fires some employees, while others resign.
Overall, her personality, mannerisms and actions, described as quacking voice, braying laugh, romping like a circus horse, asking silly questions, and her colorful, nonsensical , phrases inspired from baseball announcer Red Barber , such as are you lifting the oxcart out of the ditch Are you tearing up the pea patch Hollering down the rain barrel Scraping around the bottom of the pickle barrel Are you sitting in the catbird seat and frustrate the sedate Martin and upset his world, driving him to distraction. He is certain that she with willful, blatant and persistent attempts is destroying the efficiency and system of his company. More so, as she had recently asked if his filing cabinets were necessary, and tells him he has lot of fine scrap in here, he is convinced his department is the next to go, and thus she is threatening his very existence. So, for the sake of his own survival, he must, in clinical and bureaucratic terms, rub her out.
This being out of character for him, plotting a murder, shows an entirely different side of Martin that one would not expect that of a cunning and imaginative spirit. For, when finding that there is no murder weapon in the house, he uses his own reputation as an exemplary, tee-totaller to achieve her demise. While visiting her, he drinks scotch and smokes, stating that he does so all the time, and declares that he uses heroin and is in the process of making a bomb to blow up Mr. Fitweiler. He also uses one of her phrases, saying that he is sitting in the catbird seat. Shocked she tells him to go.
When she tells Mr. Fitweiler of Martins behavior, no one can believe it because it is so completely out of character, and thus she must be mad. Even the psychiatrist substantiates that she must be suffering from a severe breakdown, resulting in a persecution complex accompanied by distressing hallucinations. Thus, her usefulness at the company came to an end and she was forced out of the building.
Martin has achieved his goal by eliminating her and restoring order without the use of violence, but by his wits. As Canfield-Reisman writes, The silent self-control which makes Martin a good file clerk ensures his victory for hes too disciplined to tell anyone what he has done, ever to reveal his secret self (338). Accordingly, in The Catbird Seat, it is the common man who is in control, and does so by the stability of his own reputation. Though faced with chaos and insecurity, it is not the bureaucratized social order that affects Martin it is women.
The Catbird Seat does however also involve the isolation of the modern world. This is demonstrated in that no one sees him when he buys cigarettes, even though it was the most crowded store on Broadway. No one notices him sharpening his pencils and polishing his glasses. He eats alone with the financial pages every night, and then takes a solitary walk through the city streets. Yet, it is this isolation and the invisibility of modern, city life that is Martins salvation, not his downfall, as it is for Bartleby and Akaiky. For, Martin knows that no one is looking closely at him or his actions, and thus he can carry out his plan, without being seen.
This theme of isolation is perhaps rendered more poignant as Thurber had written it just after a final, unsuccessful eye operation. This, with the realization that he would never really see, left him withdrawn and depressed - in isolation and practically blind (Bily, 2000). It is out of this experience that the quiet, mild mannered and perhaps lonely Martin was born.
In all three stories, we find the common man faced with a modern existence of systems, offices and bureaucracies. Moreover, we also find the inefficiency of these systems. For, in all, the employers, officials and the higher ups are completely ineffectual to solve any of the problems. In The Overcoat, the sentry guard, chief of police, the prominent personage or any of his bosses, or even the doctor offer to help Akakiy. In Bartleby, the lawyer is resolved to his chaotic and perhaps inefficient work environment, blaming it on his employees foibles, without any sense of his own responsibility. He has no authority over Bartleby, and lets him completely do his own thing, even to the point of not working and just staring at a wall all day. In The Catbird Seat, the head of the company, Mr. Fitweiler, lets Ulgine Barrows, who he has utmost faith in, do whatever she likes, though it did require his approval.
That these stories, though written by different authors, in different cultures and at different times, involve very similar themes and characters, demonstrates that the modern world is an entity, as is the human condition, known to all. However one may feel about bureaucracy, and the modern, material world, it can be said that systematic routines and isolation are not conducive to a vibrant life. This is true, especially for an artistic personality, of which these authors possessed.
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