Spots 
An elderly master in chancery runs a comfortable legal practice copying documents on Wall Street. His existing clerks maintain a steady, divided rhythm: Turkey works reliably before noon, while Nippers settles down only in the afternoon. To handle an increasing workload, the lawyer hires Bartleby, a quiet and pallid young man who initially writes with silent, furious speed.
When requested to proofread a copied document alongside his colleagues, Bartleby calmly replies that he would prefer not to. This mild statement of preference leaves his employer disarmed, unable to produce anger against such passive resistance. As Bartleby repeatedly refuses every task beyond basic copying, the lawyer struggles to assert authority without provoking an open conflict.
Bartleby eventually ceases copying entirely and takes up permanent residence behind a green folding screen in the office, staring endlessly at a blank brick wall outside the window. Incapable of dismissing a clerk who offers no violence or hostility, the lawyer finds his professional reputation threatened by professional associates. Desperate to sever the tie, the employer relocates his entire practice to a new building, leaving Bartleby sitting alone on the landlord's stairs.
Expelled from the building by the new tenants, Bartleby is arrested as a vagrant and transferred to the Tombs prison. The lawyer visits him in the jail's courtyard, offering money and assistance that are quietly declined. Bartleby chooses to starve beside the prison wall, his ultimate apathy perhaps rooted in his former job sorting dead letters destined for destruction.
A quiet legal clerk dismantles corporate authority and social obligation through absolute, passive refusal.