22 Aug 2022

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The choice of first person narration in "Bartleby, the Scrivener", "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and "The Raven"

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The use of literature in advancing discourse cannot be overemphasised . This essay highlights three of the most popular works. In Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street the copyist starts to express possibilities of mental inequity. For instance, h e refuses to proofread his work and instead opts to stare out of the windowpane at an empty wall. On the other hand, the lawyer discovers Bartleby from different perspectives through imagery. In Poe’s The Raven , imagery is used when the narrator hears a tap on the door and talks to himself about being a visitor. Lastly, i n Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider imagery comes out when the speaker sees the spider and react s to it. In the three works, s ymbolis m goes parallel with imagery as portrayed in various instances. 

Realism as an act of attribute and acceptance of truth is brought out by Melville’s Scrivener in different instances. First, the employee is fired after the truth is discovered . However, there is no realism in Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider . In Poe’s The Raven , vivid knocks on the door are heard, and there is no sure to whether they are real or not . As an element of accepting the truth, realism is not practical in the stories and poems written by the three authors. In Poe’s poem, the narrator assumes that it’s probably the wind blowing in the fields. This exemplifies the lack of realism as a style in the poem . Melville, Whitman, and Poe have used different poetic styles t o pass their message in their works. The three authors seem to be highly attracte d to imagery as a style to convey their literal ideas to the readers. Melville’s setting is, in fact, his childhood neighborhood a s well as the all-purpose scene of the Custom House, where he did the last years of community service up to the time he retired. In Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider , the narrator sees a quiet, patient spider on a rock outcropping in the ocean. It thus leaves a spot on its huge environs by weaving its web. In the subsequent stanza, the narrator evaluates the spider to his soul. His soul is constantly trying to make links in the world, and thus he speaks to his soul, encouraging it to go on spinning.

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Under the nature of human experience, Poe’s The Raven submits to an anxious central character’s memories of a dead woman. By use of poetry, Lenore's premature death is unreservedly made visual, and the speaker is not able to free himself from his dependence leading to her recollection. In Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Stree t , the nature of human experience is expressed after taking Bartleby into service. The speaker maintains him in his area of a glass folding door. Th is aspect separates hi m f rom the other three other workers. Bartleby's corner fails to observe an empty wall that is three feet from the adjacent window. Whitman, the spider, and the speaker's soul both face comparable troubles. They have to use their ability to put up links and search relevant and valuable bonds. In the first verse, Whitman's description of the spider reads as rather doomed to fail hence expressing the different perceptions of the nature of human experience.

The three authors have different opinions of religion as compared to the individual freedoms. The Raven's black feather has conventionally been well thought-out as a supernatural symbol of sick premonition, and Poe may indeed be referring to Norse mythology. In this mythology the supernatural being, Odin had two Ravens named Munin and Hugin, that respectively meant "reflection" and "reminiscence." The speaker is a learner and thus pursues Hugin, but Munin repeatedly stops his feelings therefore in this instance lands on the bust of Pallas and takes a physical form, that alludes to Athena, the Greek goddess of learning. Religion is thus openly reflected including individual freedom. The Greek goddess also portrays good and evil from different perspectives. On the other hand, in Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider , science and progress come out with knowledge that creates confusion in the mind of the reader.

The three works of literatur  are all written in the first person. In Hawthorne’s work Rappaccini’s Daughter, Giovanni Guasconti, a young man from southern Italy comes to Padua to practice a professional course. His house, a high and dark compartment is empt y except for a window and overlooks a beautiful garden that belongs to Signor Giacomo Rappaccini, a prominent doctor who cleanses the plants from his garden into medicines. At the center of the magnificent garden, there is a particularly attractive plant, a large shrub with purple blossoms set in a marble vase. In Poe’s The Raven the recurrence of "nevermore" provides more intellect to the poem as it contributes to what Poe refers to the unity of effect. As a first person narration, each utterance and line adds to the broader message of the entire poem. Melville cultivated a more religious language to articulate the darker, mysterious side of the soul in the literal world through the use of the first person. Like his collection of letters, Melville's style turned out to be much more winding and challenging. Consequently, his themes questioned the natural world of both good and evil and what he professed as turmoil in worldwide order. The choice of first person narration influences the readers’ feelings by attracting him or her to the topic. The reader also enjoys more and appreciates the perception of the characters because of the direct connection. While the reader goes through the works, h e or she unearths various messages from the authors . Nevertheless , the authors endeavor to pass different messages to the audience in a bid to further discourse. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 15). The choice of first person narration in "Bartleby, the Scrivener", "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and "The Raven".
https://studybounty.com/the-choice-of-first-person-narration-in-bartleby-the-scrivener-a-noiseless-patient-spider-and-the-raven-essay

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