A Rose for Emily remarks on the tale of a woman idolized as the embodiment of the past. She is a living testament of times past, engraved into the lives and memory of all those living in Jefferson. Throughout the story, we learn of the idolization, yet also the disdain the townsfolk have of her. As her life passes her bye and things change, modernize, and advance, she often is out of control of the world around her. She has no say in getting a husband in her younger years so she’s left loveless well into her thirties. She Denies any advancement; even to have her metal house numbers attached to her home is too much. Not to mention her refusal to recognize her father’s death of the old mayor. Things are out of Emily’s control, yet what little control she does get, she’s ostracized for her choices. In a sense, Emily is a paradox within and of herself. Having been characterized as a “weak” woman controlled in her youth and her stature, she was also strong in her convictions, especially in the eventual murdering of her love, Homer.

The second story Bartleby, the Scrivener, I found a bit more difficult to read through as is the case with most of Herman Melville’s work. Bartleby, the Scrivener, tells the story of Bartelby, a copyist the Lawyer hires to work under him. Although internally except optional at his job for the first two days, Bartleby quickly regresses in the most mundane and passive manner he can: by simply and politely refusing to do his job. He does so in a manner that is so surprising and so difficult to combat that he’s initially able to do so with little resistance from the Lawyer. There is something to be said about passive resistance, as it can her the enemy of gene the most patient of people. Similarly, Passive aggressiveness is somewhat a paradox within its right. There is something so subtle in outright refusing someone in a manner that is so polite it can simply not be rebuked.

Similar to A Rose for Emily, there is little retribution for these characters. One could argue that Emily is her redemption in death. Having little control in her own life, Her last act of Power is taking the lives of both her and the own she loved. Comparable to Bartleby who also dies at the end of the story, however, I would theorize that his redemption comes at the hands of the Lawyer. The Lawyer finally feels as though Bartleby is humanized in his death, that he is not insane, but a depressed man fed up with the mundane and the corporatist rule of life. Also, in less of redemption and more of a release, the Lawyer is no longer consumed by the mystery that was Bartleby. Instead, he was able to label him, and end the passive-aggressive cycle that took a hold on him in the beginning.