Q 01/05

Which polite reply does Bartleby give whenever the Wall Street lawyer asks him to do a task?

A) That it demeans him

B) That he would prefer not to

C) That his duties exclude it

D) That he cannot oblige

Answer · why

B) That he would prefer not to

That he would prefer not to is Bartleby's mild answer as he gives up one duty after another, and the gentleness of it leaves his employer too baffled ...

Q 02/05

Where is Bartleby rumoured to have clerked until a change of administration cost him the job?

A) Patent Office

B) New York Custom House

C) Dead Letter Office

D) Treasury Department

Answer · why

C) Dead Letter Office

Dead Letter Office clerks sorted mail that could never be delivered, and the lawyer wonders whether feeding those hopeless messages to the flames by t...

Q 03/05

Which New York jail is Bartleby taken to after he refuses to leave the lawyer's old building?

A) The Tombs

B) Sing Sing

C) Blackwell's Island

D) Bridewell

Answer · why

A) The Tombs

The Tombs was the popular nickname of Manhattan's Halls of Justice, built in 1838; in its yard Bartleby keeps his face to a high wall and tells the vi...

Q 04/05

What kills Bartleby in the prison yard, days after the lawyer's first visit there?

A) Consumption

B) Typhus

C) Starvation

D) Cholera

Answer · why

C) Starvation

Starvation ends Bartleby's life because he will not dine, even though the lawyer has slipped silver to the prison's grub-man to bring him the best din...

Q 05/05

What does Bartleby spend hours staring at through the window beside his desk in the lawyer's New York office?

A) A busy wharf

B) A brick wall

C) A coal yard

D) A bank's clock

Answer · why

B) A brick wall

A brick wall stands three feet from Bartleby's panes, a blank view that suits a tale Melville subtitled A Story of Wall-Street.