Wall Street, or The Economics of Personality: Question Number 1

George Simmel’s “The Metropolis and Mental Life” has to do with the reduction of individuality in metropolitan areas, an idea that pertains to the character Bartleby in “Bartleby the Scrivener.” Bartleby is described by the narrator as “ a man of so singularly sedate an aspect,” one who focuses primarily on the task he’s working on without any form of complaint or deviation (Bartleby). As a worker in a very uniform office surrounded by walls, Bartleby is driven primarily to finish the task at hand. Devoid of any personal interaction, Bartleby is a model for workers on Wall Street “indifferent to all things personal […] which are not to be completely understood by purely rational methods […]” (Simmel 53). Bartleby—and his office-working brethren—exist in lives devoid of superfluity. Bartleby, when faced with personal interaction, chooses to remain idle because “the lack of the most exact punctuality […] would cause the whole to break down into an inextricable chaos” (Simmel 54). This “sphere of indifference” to all things interpersonal causes Bartleby to have a negative nature towards life (55 Simmel). Bartleby’s “incessant industry” distracts him from the happiness of life outside of the workplace (Bartleby).