“Bartleby, the Scrivener” belongs to the short story genre or, more specifically, the novella genre. Though the distinctions are somewhat blurry, many scholars consider a classic short story to be a work of fiction between 1,000 to 10,000 words and a novella (still within the category of short story) to be between 10,000 to 40,000 words. In other words, a novella is a longer version of a short story.
In terms of literary genre, “Bartleby” is often considered to be a work of Dark Romanticism. Dark Romanticism is a type of literature that focuses on the irrational or the grotesque, raising questions about human fallibility, sinfulness, and self-destruction. Authors of general Romantic literature were often inspired by emotionality, poetic language, and their imagination rather than rationality or the facts of real life. Dark Romantic authors took up this sort of romantic emotionality and imagination, while adding “darker” concerns (rather than, say, telling stories of exciting adventures).
With “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Melville tells an eerie, Dark Romantic tale of a man completely isolated from everyone around him and who slowly self-destructs. On the surface, Melville is engaging with questions about workplace culture and capitalist ethics, while beneath that he is encouraging readers to consider that the real issue may be existence or the human condition itself that is the problem. The unsettling ending—in which Bartleby dies, and the Lawyer laments his death (and life) with the final words, “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”—is intentionally ambiguous. What, exactly, has the Lawyer learned from this experience with Bartleby in regards to "humanity"? What have readers learned? This type of unresolved and eerie ending is typical of a work of Dark Romanticism.
