`The eternal feeding of the implacable machine in The Tartarus of Maids is Herman Melville’s most vivid allusion to the concept of social structure as a rigid, all-consuming, self-propelling device, created by those who also serve as its functionaries. However, it is certainly not his only foray into the notion of such a mechanism or the fatalistic tendencies of the humans who feed it. Similar references are scattered throughout Melville’s other texts, particularly Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street; and Billy Budd, Sailor. This recurring motif may reflect, in some part, Melville’s bitterness toward the public which popularized some of his literary works while soundly rejecting those which he considered most worthy of admiration.`