Bartleby, the Scrivener
E145048
"Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a classic 1853 short story that explores passive resistance and modern alienation through the enigmatic law-copyist Bartleby, famous for his refrain, "I would prefer not to."
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Bartleby, the Scrivener canonical | 3 |
| Bartleby | 2 |
| Bartleby (2001 film) | 1 |
| Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1268953 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: Bartleby, the Scrivener Context triple: [Herman Melville, notableWork, Bartleby, the Scrivener]
-
A.
The Overcoat
The Overcoat is a classic short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol that follows a poor government clerk whose life briefly changes after acquiring a new overcoat, often seen as a foundational work of Russian literary realism and social critique.
-
B.
The Ghost in the Mill
"The Ghost in the Mill" is a short ghost story by Harriet Beecher Stowe that blends New England folklore with moral and religious themes.
-
C.
The Desperate Man
The Desperate Man is a famous early self-portrait by French Realist painter Gustave Courbet, known for its intense, wide-eyed expression and dramatic depiction of psychological turmoil.
-
D.
The Rise of Silas Lapham
The Rise of Silas Lapham is an 1885 realist novel by William Dean Howells that explores social class, moral integrity, and the American business ethic through the story of a self-made paint manufacturer in post–Civil War Boston.
-
E.
The Minister’s Black Veil
The Minister’s Black Veil is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of sin, guilt, and isolation through the mysterious decision of a New England minister to permanently cover his face with a black veil.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: Bartleby, the Scrivener Target entity description: "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a classic 1853 short story that explores passive resistance and modern alienation through the enigmatic law-copyist Bartleby, famous for his refrain, "I would prefer not to."
-
A.
The Overcoat
The Overcoat is a classic short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol that follows a poor government clerk whose life briefly changes after acquiring a new overcoat, often seen as a foundational work of Russian literary realism and social critique.
-
B.
The Ghost in the Mill
"The Ghost in the Mill" is a short ghost story by Harriet Beecher Stowe that blends New England folklore with moral and religious themes.
-
C.
The Desperate Man
The Desperate Man is a famous early self-portrait by French Realist painter Gustave Courbet, known for its intense, wide-eyed expression and dramatic depiction of psychological turmoil.
-
D.
The Rise of Silas Lapham
The Rise of Silas Lapham is an 1885 realist novel by William Dean Howells that explores social class, moral integrity, and the American business ethic through the story of a self-made paint manufacturer in post–Civil War Boston.
-
E.
The Minister’s Black Veil
The Minister’s Black Veil is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of sin, guilt, and isolation through the mysterious decision of a New England minister to permanently cover his face with a black veil.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
short story
ⓘ
work of fiction ⓘ |
| adaptedAs |
films
ⓘ
stage plays ⓘ television productions ⓘ |
| author | Herman Melville ⓘ |
| centralConflict | Bartleby vs. workplace expectations ⓘ |
| centralMotif | repetition of refusal ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticalReception | considered a classic of American literature ⓘ |
| famousLine | I would prefer not to. ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn |
Putnam’s Magazine
ⓘ
surface form:
Putnam's Magazine
|
| genre |
literary fiction
ⓘ
psychological fiction ⓘ short story ⓘ |
| influenceOn |
existentialist literature
ⓘ
modernist literature ⓘ |
| literaryForm | prose ⓘ |
| literaryMovement |
American Romanticism
ⓘ
Gothic literature ⓘ
surface form:
Dark Romanticism
|
| mainCharacter |
Bartleby, the Scrivener
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Bartleby
|
| narrativePerspective | first-person ⓘ |
| narrator | unnamed lawyer ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
Bartleby, the Scrivener
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street
|
| protagonistOccupation |
law-copyist
ⓘ
scrivener ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1853 ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
bureaucratic dehumanization
ⓘ
civil disobedience ⓘ passive resistance ⓘ |
| settingCity | New York City ⓘ |
| settingCountry |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| settingEnvironment | law office ⓘ |
| settingPeriod |
19th century
ⓘ
pre-Civil War America ⓘ |
| settingPlace | Wall Street ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
law and humanities courses
ⓘ
literature courses ⓘ philosophy courses ⓘ |
| symbol |
Wall Street as symbol of capitalism
ⓘ
office walls as symbol of isolation ⓘ |
| theme |
bureaucracy
ⓘ
free will ⓘ individualism ⓘ isolation ⓘ modern alienation ⓘ passive resistance ⓘ work and capitalism ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: Bartleby, the Scrivener Description of subject: "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a classic 1853 short story that explores passive resistance and modern alienation through the enigmatic law-copyist Bartleby, famous for his refrain, "I would prefer not to."
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.