Bartleby
Bartleby is the title character of Herman Melville's 1853 story "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a clerk who responds to every request with "I would prefer not to." The name has become shorthand for passive refusal or quiet noncooperation: He pulled a Bartleby and just stopped answering emails.
To go Bartleby is to disengage without confrontation.
Professional penman for hire
- copyistDocument duplicator by hand
- Wall StreetAmerican finance hub
- clerkOffice record-keeper
- HermanTraditional masculine name
Melville · novella · dead letters · passive resistance · law office · nineteenth century · American literature · short story
Act of declining
- passivityState of non-resistance
- noncomplianceFailure to follow requirements
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
- withdrawalAct of taking away
protest · inaction · defiance · nonparticipation · obstinacy · stubbornness · immovable · apathy
One excluded from group
- misfitOne who doesn't fit in
- alienatedMade distant or hostile
- existentialRelating to existence itself
- absurdistBeliever in cosmic meaninglessness
antiwork · dropout · recluse · hermit · nonconformist · isolate · anomie · detachment
scrivener
Professional penman for hire
- copyistDocument duplicator by hand
- Wall StreetAmerican finance hub
- clerkOffice record-keeper
Melville · Herman · novella · dead letters · passive resistance · law office · nineteenth century · American literature · short story · narrator
refusal
Act of declining
- passivityState of non-resistance
- noncomplianceFailure to follow requirements
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
withdrawal · protest · inaction · defiance · nonparticipation · obstinacy · stubbornness · immovable · apathy · resignation
outsider
One excluded from group
- misfitOne who doesn't fit in
- alienatedMade distant or hostile
- existentialRelating to existence itself
absurdist · antiwork · dropout · recluse · hermit · nonconformist · isolate · anomie · detachment · disaffection
Bartlebyyes-man
Uncritical agreeable subordinate
eager beaver · go-getter · company man · team player · sycophant
BartlebyZorba the Greek
Falstaff · Don Quixote · bon vivant · vitalist · Whitman
Bartlebystriver
One who works diligently
climber · careerist · workaholic · hustler · self-made man