My friend James almost always brings up The Remains of the Day when we talk about literature. He’s a huge fan of Kazuo Ishiguro and rather thought the book would be my cup of tea. Well, at long last I’ve read the book and I have to admit that he was right. The Remains of the Day is a fascinating and sad story about the passage of time, and what we can salvage from the end of our lives, when it might seem that so much has passed us by. At my advanced age of twenty-two, it seems perfectly suited for me.
It tells the story of the life of a butler, Mr Stevens, who works in a great English country house, Darlington Hall, and the challenges he faces when he comes to look back on his past in his twilight years. For me the book is particularly poignant because of my own experience of the topics dealt within it, as my grandmother lives in a castle that is still served by staff (though they don’t live on site). Although it was published in 1989 and the action takes place in 1956, the questions and concerns of The Remains of the Day all remain vital and interesting now, and stretch far beyond the secret world of British upper classes it takes as its setting.
The Story
Mr Stevens, the aging butler of Darlington Hall, is presented with his greatest challenge yet when his new American employer suggests he goes for a car ride to get himself out of the house. The American is returning for a few weeks to his homeland and thinks that Stevens could use the fresh air. Stevens himself is not altogether for the idea, but he manages to convince himself. He has begun to notice certain mistakes in the running of the household, which he attributes to a lack of staff employed since Lord Darlington, the original owner, left. The trip can therefore be justified as a business one, for Stevens has recently received a letter from a former housekeeper, Miss Kenton, and he decides to end his trip with a visit to her home, hoping she will rejoin the household.
Though Stevens travels around the countryside, most of TheRemains of the Day comes as memories Stevens reconsiders with age. Thecentral tension in Remains of the Day becomes the one between whatStevens is willing to admit to himself, and what out of fear, or cowardice, orpride, he does not accept. The decline and death of his own father, the rise offascism, and Stevens’ relations with Miss Kenton and Lord Darlington are all replayedto the reader, but only by looking at what is not said can we appreciate theirsignificance.
The Style and Form of The Remains of the Day
The first-person narration of The Remains of the Day isdeceptively simple. It certainly is deceptive. Stevens has been pluckedperfectly from his upper-class milieu, and like the English upper-class, herarely says what he means. It is only thanks to the vividness of his memories,in particular through remembered dialogue, that we come to see what is reallygoing on in the past and in the present. To take one example, when Stevensfinds that his father has died, he decides to continue working at an importantinternational conference instead of taking a break. In the narration there isno hint that Stevens is suffering. The recollection is explained by Stevens asthe apotheosis of his career as a butler, his ultimate mastery of dignity. Butthen we reach the dialogue of his waiting, and his desired impression comesunder attack.
“Stevens, are you all right?”
“Yes, sir. Perfectly.”
“You look as though you’re crying.” I laughed and taking out a handkerchief, quickly wiped my face.
“I’m very sorry, sir. The strains of a hard day.”
Without narration to interrupt and reinterpret this exchange,we are presented with a direct glimpse of Stevens’ pain. But when the chapterends he tries once more to control our interpretation of the recollection. “Forall its sad associations, whenever I recall that evening today, I find I do sowith a large sense of triumph.” Language is a tool for the expression of our selves,for communication. But it can just as easily be used for creating a falsepicture of the world. Stevens, as if to save himself from the truth of thatday, from the rejection of his father on his death bed, uses language tojustify his cold-heartedness, to turn defeat into a kind of triumph. “You see,I know my father would have wishes me to carry on just now.” He says. But wearen’t so easily fooled.
Love and Deceit
The language of The Remains of the Day, instead of revealing,conceals the true nature of what has passed. Through verbiage and excessivereasoning Stevens tries to fool himself and the reader. Miss Kenton and herattempts to flirt with Stevens are concealed in the narration by Stevens’ refusalto ascribe any kind of romantic meaning to them. They appear only as words, andwe need to divine their hidden depths for ourselves. Likewise, Stevensstructures his trip to Miss Kenton – he initially “forgets” that she’s marriedand now Mrs Benn – as a business trip. But to the reader it’s clear enough thatthere is a romantic interest involved too.
We would be forgiven for thinking that Stevens does not realisewhat he is doing, that he is deceiving himself. The truth is much more sad. Asthe book draws to a close we find Stevens, at the end of the day, sitting bythe beach. As he talks with a stranger it becomes clear that he knows that hislife has been filled with mistakes, and that he’s trying desperately to findsomething good in all of them. The ending at least gives us a glimmer of hope,that though Stevens is old, still he might yet change, and find joy in whatremains to him, and what has passed him by.
The Great Butler and the Stiff Upper Lip
We English tend not to talk about our feelings, not even amongfriends. Stevens, one can tell, has never confided a thing to anybody. But thoughhe has survived, The Remains of the Day raises the question of how far ourEnglish taciturnity is cause for celebration. Stevens is preoccupied with thequestion of “what is a great butler”, a question he explores with almost academicrigour. A large part of it is the stiff upper lip, what Stevens terms dignity.It is the decision never to let one’s feelings either show or affect one’swork. Stevens, in his own description of himself, asks the reader to considerwhether he himself might be such a butler. For anybody who has been reading,his loyalty to Lord Darlington and his dignity in the face of his father’s death,are all compelling evidence of his “greatness”.
But Stevens never asks us at what cost this greatness hasbeen attained. The Remains of the Day doesn’t just undermine Stevens’ narrative,it also challenges the very values he holds dear. What we see, even if he doesn’t,is that being a great butler attacks Stevens’ own humanity. The coldness, thededication to one’s craft that Stevens practices, dehumanises him. He is unableto “banter”, to engage in the world and form non-professional relationships withother people. He suffers especially harshly at the hands of his new Americanemployer, Mr Farraday, for whom bantering is second nature.
But Stevens also doesn’t appreciate beauty either. Althoughhe claims to live in one of the most magical places in England, he rarely showsit. Whether the portraits on the wall or silver on the table, the beauty inobjects simply becomes part of Stevens’ job – he must keep things clean andshiny. It is only extremely infrequently, and often in the company of MissKenton, that Stevens’ narration is forced, for a moment, to acknowledge thebeauty of the sun setting or the grounds of the manor house. Stevens is a greatbutler, but for all that he’s lost his friends, he’s failed to find love, andhe cannot even appreciate the beauty that lies in front of him. Truth be told,the cost of his excellence seems far too high.
The Glory of the Past
The common note in The Remains of the Day, evenbefore Stevens’ personal failures are explored, is melancholy and decline. Itis the gentle melancholy of Chekhov, seeing the world fall apart but not wishingto intervene. In Ishiguro’s novel this decline is primarily a decline of the worldviewand corresponding world of the British upper class. We see this immediately atthe novel’s beginning. Stevens has remained in the employ of the owners ofDarlington Hall, but the Darlingtons are nowhere to be seen. Instead, an outsider– and American – has arrived, and most of the original staff have left. Americansin The Remains of the Day represent the future. Lord Darlington,dismayed by the cruel treatment of Germany with the Treaty of Versailles, hopesto change the treaty’s contents.
To this end, Darlington eventually organises a conferencewith major figures from all across Europe. The goal is to pressure their respectivegovernments to ease the reparations demanded of Germany. It is a noble goal,motivated by honour and respect for the First World War’s defeated countries. However,it is a goal from a bygone age. An American in attendance stands and gives aspeech where he attacks all of the Europeans for their foolish idealism, fortheir useless values and amateurism. What they need to succeed is cunning andprofessionalism. He is booed out of the conference. But Hitler succeedsprecisely because he knew how to manipulate this idealism, how to appeal to thevalues of the British classes when encouraging appeasem*nt. In the end, of course,the American is proved right.
The glorious past that Stevens loves is revealed, over thecourse of The Remains of the Day, to be ultimately an illusion. Darlington,with his conference a failure, dabbles in fascism and dies a disgrace.Antisemitism leads to the unfair dismissal of two maids, and Stevens – ever theprofessional – refuses even to comfort them as he removes them from their positions.Stevens is also a terrible elitist and snob without ever, really, justifyingthese views. As easy as it is to begin The Remains of the Day with asense of nostalgia, it’s equally hard not to end the book with a feeling ofdisappointment in the world that lies behind us. Of course, there was a lot tovalue in some of the old British values – but there was far more that reallyisn’t worth our time.
Conclusion
It was interesting as I read The Remains of the Day tosee how my attitude to Stevens himself changed. At first I thought of him assomething of a buffoon. But then as time went on that bemusem*nt morphed intosadness, disappointment, and finally a kind of anger. I was angry that Stevenswas so obsessed about being a great butler that he came to neglect everythingelse in the world. I was angry that he spends the entire book lying to himself.It’s only at the very end that there’s a brief hint that all that might change.But I was glad of it, just as I was glad for Stevens. In truth, I pitied him.
The Remains of the Day is a lovely book. Its story ofdecline hidden under the façade of class glory rings true with my ownexperience of the declining position of old elites. It is wonderfully written –it is not beautiful, but it is the perfect blend of form and content. Stevensfeels incredibly real, and his self-delusion seems strikingly real too. Thereare many of us who go through life trying to tell ourselves that our own courseis the right one. But sooner or later the time comes when we must face thetruth of our error. Even if we are already in the remains of our own days uponthis earth, there is still great value in taking the step towardsself-knowledge. In that sense, for all its melancholy, the message of TheRemains of the Day remains an uplifting one. Check it out.
For more delicate treatment of the past, consider Salvatore Satta’s tale of the coming of modernity in Sardinia, The Day of Judgement, reviewed here; and also Svetlana Alexievich’s Second-hand Time, presenting in an interview format the collapse of the Soviet Union from those who experienced it, reviewed here.
