joi, 24 decembrie 2009

Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day [ Study Guide ]

Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day

Study Guide

1. Kazuo Ishiguro [ 1954 – ] : Biography

2. The Remains of the Day – Short Summary

3. The Remains of the Day [ about the novel ]

4. The Remains of the Day – Characters’ List

5. The Remains of the Day - Glossary of Terms

6. The Remains of the Day – Major Themes

7. The Remains of the Day – Chapters’ Summaries and Analyses

A. Summary and Analysis of Prologue.

B. Summary and Analysis of Day 1.

C. Summary and Analysis of Day 2 [ a ].

D. Summary and Analysis of Day 2 [ b ].

E. Summary and Analysis of Day 2 [ c ].

F. Summary and Analysis of Day 3.

G. Summary and Analysis of Day 4.

8. Background on the Treaty of Versailles

9. The Remains of the Day – Suggested Essay Questions

10. The Remains of the Day – Essays Topics

11. The Remains of the Day – Quiz [ 25 Questions ]

12. The Remains of the Day – Quiz Answers

I. Kazuo Ishiguro – Biography (1954- )

Kazuo Ishiguro, born in Japan, now a British citizen, won the Man Booker Prize in 1989 for his acclaimed novel The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro was bron on November 8, 1954 and currently resides in London with his wife and daughter.
Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, before he moved to England in 1960 when his father took a position at the National Institute of Oceanography. At the age of six, then, Ishiguro enrolled in the grammar school for boys in Surrey. Later, he obtained his B.A. from the University of Kent in 1978 and subsequently his Master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Among the odd jobs that Ishiguro held between his years of education, he was employed as a community worker in Glasgow, worked as a social worker in London, and even as a grouse-beater for the Queen Mother at Blamoral, where he likely learned many of the facets of aristocratic life he'd bring to his 1989 masterpiece. As a result of his writing prowess, however, Ishiguro came under the mentorship of famed writer Angela Carter, and then began writing full-time in 1982.
In 1981, Ishiguro published a collection of short stories, followed by his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, in 1982 about a Japanese widow in England who reflects on the destruction of Nagasaki in WW II. Ishiguro's second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, also explored Japanese reactions to World War II through a first-person narrator, in this case a Japanese artist.
What Ishiguro's novels share in common are first-person narrators who exhibit frailties or flaws that are exposed in their reminiscing or account of events. His novels are at once character studies and moral inventories that also serve to illuminate the context of given political events. In the course of a story, then, we not only see a character struggling with their own feelings in reaction to interpersonal situations, but also a political environment.
Remains of the Day, his third novel, was published in 1989 and won not only the Booker Prize, but also became an acclaimed film as well as radio broadcast on the BBC. Ishiguro followed up The Remains of the Day with The Unconsoled in 1995 about a concert pianist and then When We Were Orphans in 2000 about a private detective in Shanghai investigating his parents' disappearance. In 2005, he published Never Let me Go, and even dabbled in screenplays, writing the full-length film The Saddest Music in the World, directed by Guy Maddin and starring Isabella Rossellini.

II. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Short Summary

The Remains of the Day, the third novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, was published in 1989 to great acclaim, winning the Man Booker Prize for Literature. The book tells the story of Stevens, an English butler working at Darlington Hall. At the start of the novel, he is encouraged to take a vacation by his employer, Mr. Farraday, an American gentleman who believes Stevens needs a break from his duties. Stevens believes the suggestion dovetails nicely with his desire to visit a former colleague at Darlington Hall - Miss Kenton, now Mrs. Benn, residing in West England. Twenty years ago, Miss Kenton and he worked at Darlington Hall together, he as butler, she as maid, but she left upon her marriage, and now twenty years later, she is divorced, and Stevens looks forward to bringing her back to Darlington Hall to help with his increasing staff problems. Specifically, Stevens has had trouble since the end of the second World War finding a large enough staff to handle the work at the estate. An act of Parliament in England severely limited the power of the aristocracy and ultimately began to break up these huge estates - Darlington Hall is one of the last few.
The book spans his one week trip to visit Miss Kenton and involves a mainly stream-of-consciousness 'moral inventory' of Stevens' life. It's as if he's creating a mental diary of his life over this trip, aiming to come to terms with his life choices and his ultimate direction. He first reflects upon what makes a butler a 'great' one, something he clearly has aspirations to achieve. In his eyes, a great butler is what the Hayes Society describes as a man of a distinguished household and a man of dignity. It is this definition of dignity that most concerns Stevens - and he believes it reflects a man who maintains his professionalism no matter what the circumstances. Much of the book, then, is dedicated to providing accounts of Stevens' exhibiting this professionalism at the expense of his human feelings.
For instance, during a great convention at Lord Darlington's house in 1923, Stevens had to handle his dying father in an upstairs room all the while managing the guests of the convention. Ultimately he forgoes his father to focus on the guests, and ultimately misses his father's passing. Stevens looks back on this moment with pride. At the same time, he looks back on the fact that he resisted his attraction to Miss Kenton and stayed faithful to Darlington Hall, even after she left. In his eyes, there is triumph in sacrifice for the sake of one's own employer. Even small anecdotes reveal this - like when Stevens fires two Jewish maids at the behest of Lord Darlington even though he doesn't agree with his employer's politics.
But the majority of the novel is dedicated to Stevens and his relationship with Miss Kenton over the course of their 20 years at Darlington Hall. Miss Kenton arrived at a time when Stevens and his father both worked at the estate. It is Miss Kenton who informs Stevens that his father no longer can do the work required and must be stripped of his major duties. And indeed, though Stevens is offended, it is Miss Kenton who ultimately stays with Stevens' father as he lays dying. Upon Stevens' father's death, Miss Kenton becomes almost a substitute for him in Stevens' life - the only person who seems like family, the only person who can provide him love. When the novel begins, then, she's been gone nearly twenty years, but Stevens seizes upon the fact that her marriage might be crumbling as a reason to visit her. Twenty years before, however, Miss Kenton had given Stevens an opportunity to stop her marriage and take her for himself - an opportunity he let go.
Stevens finds his car runs aground in Moscombe and spends the night with the Taylors. They have a dinner there, where Stevens speaks of his past meetings with dignitaries, never once revealing that he is, in fact, a butler. When Dr. Carlisle drives him back to his car the next day, the doctor pokes a hole in the facade and Stevens finally admits that he is, in fact, the butler at Darlington Hall. With this revelation, Stevens finally makes the last part of his journey to meet Miss Kenton.
But when Stevens finally does meet her, with full plans to bring her back to Darlington Hall and perhaps confess his love, he finds that the spirit has gone out of her. She reveals that she is going back to her husband. Even though she may not love him, he has always been there for her. Stevens realizes he's too late and sends her off with well-wishes and returns to Darlington Hall to fulfill the 'remains of his day.'

III. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : About It

Remains of the Day, published in 1989 is the third novel by Kazuo Ishiguro after A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World. Remains of the Day has since become a modern classic after it won not only the Man Booker Prize in 1989, but also was turned into an 1993 film by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, which went on to win a slew of major international awards.
Ishiguro had already developed a penchant for first-person narration, which Remains of the Day epitomizes through its stream-of-conscious writing. Indeed, Remains of the Day seems similar to epistolary novels, comprised of letters, in that it renders clearly the thoughts of a hero with no objective reporting from the outside world to verify or disprove given assumptions. Though Remains of the Day was faithful to this first-person trend in Ishiguro's work, it departed in that it was not based in Japan or involved a Japanese main character.
Historical context is a key aspect of Remains of the Day, and in this case, the novel takes place during the years leading up to World War II. Indeed, major sections of the novel consider Lord Darlington's response to various climaxes of the war - specifically the Treaty of Versailles, which he felt unfairly punished Germany and set out to ruin the country economically. The purpose of this historical context is to suggest that the main character had a front seat to major goings-on during this crisis in international affairs, while also symbolizing the deterioration of 'old Britain.' Most crucially, it is important to note that Stevens' employer - Lord Darlington - seems to be a sympathizer of Hitler, adding more burdens to Stevens as an employee who must cast off his boss' political allegiances. At the same time, the novel's title - The Remains of the Day - serves to highlight the decline of British aristocracy, linked specifically to an act of parliament in the early 20th century which levied large inheritance taxes to break up the manorial estates which had become a major source of accumulated wealth.
Ultimately, Remains of the Day doesn't necessarily reflect Ishiguro casting negative aspersions or nostalgia upon a time in Britain's history when the aristocracy ruled so dominantly. That said, Stevens' deep examination of the aristocracy's place in England suggests that the novel is less a critique of imperialism and more a struggle to evaluate its legacy.

IV. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Character List

1. Stevens

Stevens is one of the most beloved characters in modern literature because his emotional arc is so clear. At the beginning of the novel, he is hopeful and anticipatory of a new adventure - one that he hopes will bring him personal fulfillment. By the end, he finds his dream quashed, and limps back to his old life to bear out the 'remains of his day.' Stevens very much owns every cell of Ishiguro's creation. He is the sole narrator and has full domain over every assumption, assertion, and thought. At no point can we question Stevens' veracity or retelling of events because there is no arbiter of truth in the novel, aside from his own recollections and comprehension of his own memories. Indeed, Stevens is so self-aware and clear about his own shortcomings and mistakes that we fully trust his rendition of events. At the same time, we're also clearly aware of Stevens' shortcomings in self-analysis. He is terribly blind to his own repression and inability to let go of work and pursue his own human desire. As the novel progresses, Stevens becomes a prisoner of his own fear, ultimately destroying his chance for true love. By the time he finally comes to terms with his own weaknesses, it is, in fact, far too late.

2. Miss Kenton

Miss Kenton is Stevens' object of desire, despite his inability to truly confess it. Miss Kenton, when the novel opens, has long left Darlington Hall. Indeed, the book begins nearly twenty years after her departure, which came before the start of World War II. The book, then, is Stevens' recollection of his time working alongside her as he begins his journey to go meet her. Miss Kenton clearly harbored her own affections for Stevens and tried deeply to get him to admit his affections for her. And yet, Stevens never could. As a result, Miss Kenton ends up marrying a man that she does not even love, it seems. The pivotal moment of her own personal journey comes when she tells Stevens of her engagement, hoping it seems that he might stop her. He doesn't, and as a result, twenty years later, when he arrives at her door, it's too late. She's already committed to a loveless marriage - one that she's grown accustomed to and settled for.

3. Lord Darlington

Lord Darlington is Stevens' and Miss Kenton's employer in the years leading up to WOrld War II. Darlington, himself, appears to be a German-sympathizer - specifically a Hitler sympathizer, as he seeks to keep Germany from falling apart in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles. That said, Darlington is a gentle man and treats Stevens and his staff delicately - except for one moment when he does fire two Jewish maids because of his German sympathies. Ultimately, Darlington is considered honorable by Stevens and a man worthy of deep respect.

4. Stevens' Father (William Stevens)

Stevens' father works at Darlington Hall with Stevens and Miss Kenton up until his death. Stevens' father is even more dutiful and devoted to his profession than Stevens. Indeed, Stevens refers to him as a great butler because of his prodigious skill and commitment. But his relationship with his son suffers greatly because of this devout dedication to work.

5. Mr. Farraday

Mr. Farraday is an American aristocrat who takes over from Lord Darlington upon his death, and thus becomes Steves' employer. Compared to Lord Darlington, Mr. Farraday is nowhere near as formal -- and teases Stevens at his inability to be more casual and relaxed.

6. Sir David Cardinal

Sir David Cardinal is a friend of Lord Darlington's who shares his pro-German sympathies. SPecifically, David Cardinal believes that Germany should not have to pay reparations or suffer tremendously as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. He also asks Lord Darlington, who in turn asks Stevens, to teach his son Reginald about the birds and the bees.

7. Sir Reginald Cardinald

Reginald Cardinal is quite different from his father in that he is anti-fascist and anti-Nazi. Indeed, Sir Cardinal tells Stevens that Lord Darlington is being unduly influenced by his father to take pro-German action and ultimately help prop up the Nazis.

8. Herr Ribbentrop

Herr Ribbentrop becomes a close friend to Lord Darlington while serving as the German Ambassador during World War II. He becomes a chief source of propagating Lord Darlington's pro-German sentiments.

9. Mr. Lewis

Mr. Lewis is an American senator who visits Lord Darlington's convention that aims to lift German penalties for supporting the World War I Axis. In the end, he denounces Lord Darlington as an amateur politician.

10. Mr. Dupont

Mr. Dupont is a friend of Lord Darlington who attends his seminal 1923 conference to help alleviate the penalties on the Germans post WW1. He arrives with sores on his feet and makes it a point of constantly harassing Stevens for medicine, ultimately leading Stevens to spend more time with him than his dying father.

11. Herr Breman

Herr Breman is another German friend of Lord Darlington's who ultimately kills himself. Lord Darlington uses him as an example of the terrible conditions in post WW1 Germany.

12. Mr. John Silver

Mr. Silver is Stevens' father's employer before Lord Darlington.

13. Rosemary and Agnes

Stevens' current staff at Darlington Hall includes Rosemary and Agnes, two young girls.

14. Mrs. Clements and Mrs. Mortimer

Mrs. Clements is the current cook at Darlington Hall while Mrs. Mortimer worked there during the time of Lord Darlington, Miss Kenton, and Stevens' father.

15. Lord Halifax

Lord Halifax is the correspondent to Germany during World War II from Britain, who is also the Foreign Secretary of the country.

16. Lady Astor

Lady Astor convinces Lord Darlington to fire his two Jewish maids because she is pro-Nazi and pro-fascist (and a member of a British fascist sympathizer group.)

17. Mr. Taylor

Mr. Taylor lives in Moscombe with his wife and takes Stevens in when his car runs aground.

18. Harry Smith

Harry is a friend of the Taylors who has dinner with them the night Stevens arrives. He tells Stevens he is a politician and that it is man's moral duty to speak up when it comes to his opinions.

19. Ruth and Sarah

Ruth and Sarah are the two Jewish girls that Lord Darlington fires upon the suggestion of Lady Astor. Miss Kenton tells Stevens she will quit if they are indeed fired, but later reneges on her vow.

20. Lloyd George

Lloyd George is the prime minister of England in the years following WW 1, and thus Lord Darlington's efforts on behalf of Germany are meant mainly to convince Mr. George to change England's harsh policies in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles.

21. Dr. Carlisle

Dr. Carlisle meets Stevens at the Taylors and offers to give him a ride back to his car after hearing of Stevens' problems. He also says that he knows Stevens was a servant, and not a dignitary.

22. Dr. Meredith

Dr. Meredith attends to Stevens' dying father on the pivotal night of Lord Darlington's convention in 1923.

V. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Glossary of Terms

● attache : many aristocrats in the novel carry attache cases, or briefcases.

● august : august means marked by grandeur, majesty, or dignity.

● Baedeker : A Baedeker is shorthand in British language for a travel guide.

● banter : Mr. Farraday wants Stevens to become better at 'bantering' or delivering witty comebacks, prompting Stevens to practice very hard at his bantering skills.

● blackshirts : the blackshirts are a pro-German, pro-Nazi fascist organization to which Lord Darlington sympathizes, because many of his friends are members.

● chemist : chemist is the British term for pharmacist.

● conviviality : conviviality is the act of feasting and indulging in good company.

● demonstrativeness : demonstrativeness refers to an open display of feelings.

● discernment : the act of discernment is to carefully parse out the circumstances of a situation and to have the insight and ability to see all facets of it.

● disingenuous : disingenuous refers to a someone who gives a false impression of sincerity or simplicity.

● equanimity : equanimity is the preservation of mind and equilibrium, particularly under stress.

● Giffen's : giffen's is the source of the finest silver polish in England, which Stevens uses in order to impress guests.

● Hayes Society : the Hayes Society was a group in the 1920s that exerted considerable influence over much of London and the Home Counties and admitted butlers only of the 'very first rank.'

● House of Commons : the House of Commons is one of the houses of Parliament in England to which the British Aristocracy had much control over until 1911.

● man-servant : 'Man-servant' is the term that many British aristocrats use to describe a butler.
● presumptuous : a person who is presumptuous assumes too much, and as a result, oversteps the boundaries of courtesy.

● proximity : proximity refers to geographical closeness between locations.

● staff plan : in a country house like Darlington Hall, the smooth running of the house depends on a staff plan, or a hierarchical ordering of employment positions, allowing for each individual employee to know his or her responsibilities.

● The Wonder of England : Jane Seymons' book is a photographic tribute to England's landscape which Stevens uses as a guide in planning his journey to meet Miss Kenton.

● Treaty of Versailles : the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I in 1919 and imposed harsh penalties on Germany for causing the war. Lord Darlington is pro-Germany and holds a convention in 1923 in order to convince the Allies to ease these penalties.

VI. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Major Themes

1. Duty vs. Desire

Perhaps the deepest theme of Ishiguro's novel involves the conflict between Stevens' duties and his personal desires which in his mind are in profound conflict. Stevens always believed that a dignified butler never let his facade go - never let go of the professionalism no matter the circumstances. Thus, though he is deeply in love with Miss Kenton, Stevens cannot express it - both because he believes it improper to fall in love with one who serves below him in the staff hierarchy, but moreso because he believes that such love would be a distraction. The other thing to note is that Stevens is so determined to hold onto his dignity that he creates a straightjacket for himself that prevents him from feeling emotions or even recognizing them. Indeed, Stevens takes pleasure in his own asceticism - in his ability to ignore his dying father and focus on the sore foot of a visiting French ambassador, or in his ability to accept his employer's pro-Nazi sympathizers. What's created, then, is an inverse relationship between duty and authenticity, leaving Stevens emotionally bankrupt by the end of the novel. At the end, he has nothing but duty and must finally sacrifice his desires entirely.

2. Dignity vs. Authenticity

One of the more compelling aspects of Stevens' philosophy involves his definition of dignity. According to Stevens, a butler has dignity if he is able to maintain his professionalism no matter what the circumstances. According to Stevens, dignity is holding on to one's duty no matter what's happening around you. But he finds others with competing definitions. At the Taylor's house in Moscombe, he meets a man who believes that dignity comprises quite the opposite - namely the ability to express oneself fully, authentically. In this man's definition, a person who represses his own feelings and opinions in the name of professionalism would be considered "undignified". Thus part of the point of Ishiguro's story is to lay out the basis for two different understandings of what dignity means and offer a character stranded between them. Ultimately, of course, Stevens follows his own definition, but suffers the consequences of finding his deep feelings sublimated, crying out for acknowledgment. In the end, he loses his dignity by recognizing his feelings and discovering that he indeed had followed the wrong definition all along.

3. Formal vs. Informal Relationships

In the course of the novel, we're exposed to a slew of different social interactions - many of which demand formal interaction and others which can subsist on more casual engagement. All are dictated by class hierarchy, specifically associated with the British aristocracy in the time the novel takes place - namely the early twentieth-century. Stevens is extremely fastidious about the formality of his interactions. We sense that he learned this from his father, who treats his son with the utmost formality. Even close to death, Stevens' father is concerned with his duties - only able to acknowledge his relationship with his son as he takes his last breaths. Stevens, meanwhile, is so tied to his own formal nature that he is unable to 'banter' or joke with his new employer, Mr. Farraday, without having to practice incessantly. Stevens even goes so far as to try out his new bantering skills when he visits Moscombe, but finds that in his new context as an individual, not a servant, his bantering is taken differently. Stevens, upon leaving Darilngton Hall, suddenly realizes that there is a world outside rigid formality.

4. Aspiring vs. Settling

By the end of the novel, we find ourselves with characters that much choose between seeking to fulfill their dreams or settling for what's most readily available. In the case of Miss Kenton, for instance, she always loved Stevens and fully gave him the chance to intervene in her marriage before she accepted her husband's proposal. When he doesn't, however, Miss Kenton makes the choice to marry a man she doesn't necessarily love. But at the end of a twenty-year journey, when Stevens finally does find her again, we discover that Miss Kenton never did come to terms with her settling - but only recently has accepted that she will never find the passionate love to which she aspired. Stevens ultimately makes the same decision when faced with Miss Kenton's story of the last twenty years. Instead of confessing his love for Miss Kenton at this pivotal moment, then, he agrees with her and tells her to go back to her husband. He heads back to Darlington Hall, settling for his duty and renouncing love.

5. Upstairs vs. Downstairs

Stevens inhabits two worlds. There is the 'upstairs' world which involves serving Lord Darlington and Mr. Farraday and all their guests -- a world in which he must maintain rigid formality and attentiveness at all times. Stevens sees himself fully as an extension of Lord Darlington at this point - without his own desires or identity. In the 'downstairs' world, however, Stevens is not subservient, and instead fully in charge of his own staff. In one world then, he is acquiescent, while in the other he takes the reins. These two worlds come into conflict precisely because they require different conceptions of identity. Upstairs, Stevens must learn to let go of his own ego, feelings, and desires in order to do his job as professionally as he can. Downstairs, however, Stevens finds his feelings constantly stirred by human events - the death of his father, falling in love with Miss Kenton, the firing of two maids because of their religious faiths. Upstairs, then, he wears a mask, while downstairs he takes it off. The question is whether Stevens can reconcile these two worlds - a feat which he ultimately fails to achieve.

6. Ego vs. Subservience

Perhaps one of the more compelling moments in The Remains of the Day comes when Stevens has dinner at the Taylors' house in Moscombe and details the stories of his time at Darlington Hall without revealing that he was a butler during the time. At this precise moment, then, we see the conflict between a man who still preserves his own sense of ego and integrity and a man who's given his life over to another. Outside of Darlington Hall, Stevens finds power in appropriating the power of an aristocrat, if even fleetingly. To be his own man, even for this brief moment, is enough to give him an intoxicating feeling of freedom. When he's discovered, however, he feels relieved - as if finding his place as a butler again reminds him of the truth and makes him feel less ashamed. Indeed, there is a deep part of Stevens that is afraid to come into his own as a man and make his own decisions. Taking orders and executing them to the best of his ability is what gives him his self-esteem.

7. Sexual Desire vs. Sexual Repression

Miss Kenton has managed to find a balance between her duties and her own human qualities - specifically her ability to temper human sexual desire with her ability to remain a professional. On her vacation days, she visits with a man, and sees a future as a servant not in conflict with that as a wife. Stevens, however, cannot speak in terms of love or human desire. Every time he wants to compliment Miss Kenton or reach out to her romantically, he can only do it in the context of their work. Miss Kenton grows increasingly frustrated by his limitations and subtly begs him to just confess his love for her so they might both live their lives to fulfillment. But Stevens cannot separate his human desire from work - and cannot find any other way of framing his own identity or sexuality without contextualizing it in work. Ultimately, this enables Miss Kenton to leave Darlington Hall and find life as her own person - as a wife and mother - while Stevens is condemned to spend the rest of his life alone at Darlington Hall, as if he's a prisoner.


VII. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Chapters’ Summaries and Analyses

1. Summary and Analysis of Prologue - Darlington Hall (July 1956)

Summary:

Stevens, the narrator of Ishiguro's novel, is the head butler to Mr. Farraday, the Lord of Darlington Hall. The story opens with Stevens prepared to take an 'expedition,' for which he has full permission of Mr. Farraday - including the use of his Ford car - and for which he has been planning quite some time. Mr. Farraday is on his way to the United States for five weeks in August and September and has encouraged him to take a break, and drive off somewhere in the country.
At first, Stevens is a bit incredulous, assuming there is little behind Mr. Farraday's suggestion. But his employer presses him, saying he should take a break from the big house - and he'd even foot the bill for gas. Still, Stevens does not take the prospect of a 'vacation' seriously - until a letter arrives for him. The letter is from Miss Kenton, a former housekeeper at Darlington Hall, who he has not heard from in seven years. In the letter, Stevens believes he picks up subtle cues from Miss Kenton that she would like to return to her work at Darlington Hall. And it is for this reason that Stevens plans to undertake the expedition to fully convince her that such a return would be fully welcome.
Indeed, Stevens has been troubled by his own performance of late. He considers his recent work patchy - riddled with the smallest of errors that suggest that he is overworked, and may soon make an even bigger error. At present, there are only four staff members in the house - Mrs. Clements, the new housekeeper, and Rosemary and Agnes, the two girls that help her. But he believes they are woefully understaffed and that he has given himself far too much to do. The return of Miss Kenton would save them and the house from inevitable catastrophe.
Stevens takes up the mundane details of planning the trip with extreme care. He fusses about the cost of gas, hotels, snacks and meals; what to wear, since most of his outfits are formal suits; and a course of itinerary, carefully divined from an encyclopedic book called The Wonder of England. It is in reviewing the latter - a seven-part photographic epic about the country - that Stevens sees great possibilities in not only meeting Miss Kenton, but also exploring the England he hasn't seen. He also has quite a bit of curiosity to see where Miss Kenton ultimately moved in order to get married and live as a wife.
Stevens decides to bring the matter up again with Mr. Farraday. He worries that when his employer brought up the idea earlier, it was just a momentary impulse, but settles upon broaching the subject during afternoon tea. When he explains the purpose of his trip, Stevens mentions the plan to visit Miss Kenton, but suddenly loses his conviction, realizing he hadn't cleared with his employer his plot to add to the staff once more nor made any advances to Miss Kenton to ensure that she did desire to return to Darlington Hall. His awkwardness produces a single response in Mr. Farraday: 'My, my Stevens. A lady-friend. And at your age?' Stevens is aghast and embarrassed but secures the necessary permission to go on his trip.
Stevens makes note of his employer's quick wit with words and his ability to banter and make jokes. Stevens himself wishes he had such facility. He regularly finds himself before Mr. Farraday, the butt of a joke, unable to come up with an appropriate response. He is sure that bantering is just a sign of friendliness - and there's never any harmful or mean-spirited ribbing involved. But it requires a sense of casualness which he is not used to, nor has practiced.
Stevens himself, believes that only through practice can he appropriately be up to standards with rejoinders to Farraday's bantering. He notes that he is quite sure that Farraday is not satisfied with his responses, and even notes that his employer makes even more stinging barbs these days in an effort to provoke a response. Simply put, Stevens notes that he cannot think of witticisms quickly enough. He vows to work on his bantering. And with that, he sets out on his trip to meet Miss Kenton in West England.

Analysis:

Remains of the Day is a remarkable novel for its sheer force of point of view. This is a story told entirely through the protagonist Stevens' eyes, and is thus one of the most in-depth character studies that classic literature claims - and one the reasons for its vaunted status. The prologue, then, besides establishing the basic narrative devices that will drive the story forward, does more to introduce us to the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the butler of Darlington Hall. Stevens is, to put it mildly, quite detail-oriented, and certainly obsessive about his duties. But what we first notice about him is a remarkable lack of shame or resentment about his position. This is not the story of a butler who wants to ascend ranks or secretly despises his master - or ever sees himself equal to his Lord. Rather, Stevens has one goal and one goal only - to serve the wishes of Mr. Farraday and to do his job as best he can.
But immediately, we begin to see cracks in the facade that suggest that Stevens cares about nothing else but his job. For one thing, Mr. Farraday is quite adamant that Stevens take a vacation from Darlington Hall, perhaps implying that one might be necessary for Steven's mental health. Moreover, Stevens seems preoccupied with a letter that's arrived from Miss Kenton - so much so that when Mr. Farraday alludes to his potential crush on the former Darlington Hall housekeeper, he's simply stating the obvious subtext of Stevens ruminations on Miss Kenton. Stevens seems particularly regretful of a number of small errors that he's made in the house, of late, but underneath it is the feeling that he's incredibly lonely - that the absence of Miss Kenton has left him in a giant manor with no one to talk to. The replacements - Mrs. Clements and the two assisting girls - are simply his employees and he manages them and thinks of them as nothing more. The idea that Stevens regrets his treatment of Miss Kenton, then, offers the reader foreshadowing for what will most likely be the climax of the novel - a meeting between the two of them to address the unfinished business of the past.
As a reader, it's crucial to view Stevens' surface narrative as highly unreliable. Everything he says is weighted with the utmost subtext. He may extol the The Wonders of England as his inspiration for his trip to the west country, but then a small blip reveals the truth - that he's curious where Miss Kenton has taken up her married life. He might pontificate about his awkwardness when bantering with his master, and then offer the quick commitment to becoming better at witticisms - revealing a profound insecurity, and an even deeper fear of being abandoned or unloved. Miss Kenton has left Darlington Hall to start a new life, to become married, but Stevens, perhaps out of desperation, perhaps out of desolation, resolves to bring her back and sets out with hope and fervency. The tone, then, of this opening section is one feverish with hope, buoyed by a sense of renewal and possibility for Stevens.
The prologue also has a melancholy undertone to it because we realize that Stevens is quite advanced in his years - and perhaps has reached the twilight of life (or at least the beginning of sunset). Somehow, despite his relentless pursuit of perfection, his commitment to serving his master, his quest to become a great butler and a great man... it's all not enough. There is an emptiness in him, a void that he must fill - and one that takes him away from the house and on what may likely be a futile journey. But in the end, it is for the cause of something he has never had - love.
Besides the rigorous control over point of view, Ishiguro also employs a subtle use of time jumps that suggest a deep 'stream of consciousness' feel to Stevens' recollections. As the novel continues, pay close attention to how often Stevens takes detours in his memory, to beef up an assertion or to question one of his own conclusions. What Ishiguro seems to be after is the sense that this man has come to live his entire life in his mind -- to have lost the desire to engage people, to find true love -- and rather embraced the narratives of his own head. Only after these narratives have failed to satisfy him does he realize that he is unfulfilled. And so with that, the journey begins.

2. Summary and Analysis of Day One (Evening) - Salisbury

Summary:

Stevens sits in a guesthouse in Salisbury and looks back over the first day of his trip. All in all, he says he is quite satisfied. He left Darlington Hall with an odd feeling, since without him and Mr. Farraday there, it would stand empty for the first time since perhaps the estate was built. He checks the house again and again to make sure things are in order before he goes. Once he leaves, he finds himself overtaken with excitement - and alarm - for having journeyed far beyond where he ever had before.
He steps out to stretch his legs and meets a stranger who urges him to walk all the way to the top of the hill, where Stevens will find a beautiful vista - "You won't get a better view anywhere in the whole of England," says the stranger. Stevens takes up the man on his challenge and walks to the top of the hill where he finds a magnificent view of the countryside. He is buoyed by the sight and proceeds with firm resolve to find Miss Kenton and bring her back to solve his current staffing problems.
That afternoon, Stevens arrives at a Salisbury guest house, where he makes up his room, and then ventures out into the streets. He marvels at the wide, airy nature of the city, at the looming cathedral, but says everything he's seen pales in comparison to the remarkable view of the countryside he had in the morning. The view reminds him of why the country is called "Great" Britain, and Stevens begins to consider what it is about a country or a person that makes them great. In particular, he thinks, what is it that makes a "great butler"?
In the 1920s and 30s, there existed an organization known as the Hayes Society, which held considerable influence over London and other Counties. The Hayes Society only admitted butlers 'of the very first rank,' and had several criteria for membership. These included that an applicant be attached to a distinguished household, and that the applicant be possessed of a dignity in keeping with his position. This word 'dignity' preoccupies Stevens - and he realizes that it is in fact true that all the butlers he considers great did, in fact, possess true 'dignity.'
Stevens points to his father as one of the 'great' butlers precisely because he maintained such a remarkable sense of dignity. He recalls one story his father told over the years about a butler he had heard of in India. One afternoon, the butler entered the dining room and noticed a tiger under the dining table. He then proceeded to the drawing room, where his employer was having tea with a number of visitors. He calmly attracted his master's attention, whispered to him of the tiger's presence, asked for permission to shoot it, which he duly received. He then shot the tiger, calmly disposed of the carcass, and when he returned, informed the men that dinner would be served at the usual time with no discernible traces of the recent occurrence.
Stevens recounts another story that Mr. Charles, an industrialist, tells him about his father's service at Darlington Hall. One evening, two drunk guests of his Lord asked Stevens to take them on a drive around the local villages. They persuaded Mr. Charles to accompany them as well. The men were so unruly and loud and vulgar, but still Stevens' father said nothing. Then the men began to insult Stevens' employer - Mr. John Silver. Stevens' father stopped the car, got out, opened their car door and looked at them with such authority that the two drunken men 'seemed to cower back like small boys caught by the farmer in the act of stealing apples.' Under his glare, finally the men apologized, and Stevens' father resumed the journey.
Another story involved Stevens' father and a General who he deeply loathed. Specifically, Stevens' father hated the general because the General's policies in the Southern African War had led to the death of his second son - Stevens' older brother. The General came to Stevens' fathers employer's house, and Mr. Silver offered Stevens' father the option of not working those days. But Stevens' father refused and waited on the General for several days, despite his terrible manners - and did so well, in fact, that the General left him a substantial tip that Stevens' father donated to charity in disgust.
'Dignity,' then, says Stevens has to do crucially with a butler's ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits. In other words, a butler must be a tremendous actor - never to react to provocation and drop their facade. They can inhabit their role, maintain it, and not be shaken out, no matter what the circumstances.

Analysis:

If the first chapter of Remains of the Day set up the narrative frame for the novel - namely Stevens' trip to West England, then this second chapter sets up the figurative and thematic frames. Here, Stevens ruminates on what it is that makes a great butler - what separates one from the masses that populate the history of the profession. He settles upon the word 'dignity' as that which distinguishes the cream of the crop and even comes to establish a definition. Stevens is extremely ordered in his thinking. For even though Remains of the Day is a stream-of-consciousness character study - a peek inside Stevens' head - he thinks in paragraphs that often begin with a hypothetical question, and end with a conclusion. The paradox of Stevens is that no matter how terse or concise he is with his actual speaking, he is a loquacious thinker - prone to diversion, exposition, and long stretches of contemplation.
The definition of 'dignity' that Stevens establishes seems at once honorable and disturbing. Dignity, in his eyes, is the ability to inhabit the professionalism of the butler and never drop the facade. In other words, to lose ones natural instincts and become unflappable in the name of service is the highest aim of one who undertakes the profession. It is no wonder, then, that Stevens is so uncomfortable in moments of silence, solitude, purposelessness. He has, quite simply, abdicated his own soul in order to be a better butler.
Most defining characters of classic literature have a crucial 'want' that defines their life. Some, for instance, want to find their identiy, others to prove their manhood, others to find love. But for Stevens, here we see that his defining quest is to prove his worth as his father's son - to become a great butler in order to honor his father. But Stevens doesn't seem to consider himself a great butler. There is a sense of melancholy in his inability to completely relinquish feelings in the same way that his father did - able to even stomach his son's de facto killer in the name of serving his employer.
What Stevens, of course, wants deep down is love. It is perhaps obvious that he didn't receive it from his father, has yet to receive it from a woman, and he has now began to face that chasm of unfulfillment that comes once one reaches the twilight of life. He had never left Darlington Hall before, and now sets out with the purpose of bringing a woman back - for staffing needs, perhaps, but more to find a way to have his professional and personal desires coalesce. For bringing back Miss Kenton will not only enable Stevens to improve the household - and thus his chances of greatness as a butler - but to also fulfill a profound emptiness that has begun to impede his professional work. The irony of Stevens is that without Miss Kenton at the house, he should be able to focus even more clearly on his work. But without her there, he's become increasingly distracted and careless.
Mr. Farraday is a bit of a nebulous character, but we should not necessarily attribute this to Mr. Farraday himself. It is Stevens, after all, who defines him - and Stevens seems only to remark about the instances where he's frustrated by his employer's sense of ease and banter. Because what Farraday has that makes Stevens respect him so much is that delicious sense of ease within himself that Stevens envies, perhaps fears. Where some masters are intimidating, Farraday is quite the opposite - casual, loose - and this terrifies Stevens. So much so that he resolves to practice being casual in order to be more at ease in front of his employer - one of the remarkable ironies of Stevens' characters that will develop even more as we proceed.

3. Summary and Analysis of Day Two (Morning) - Salisbury

Summary:

Stevens has a rough time sleeping and awakes in the dark. In these quiet moments, he finds himself going over passages from Miss Kenton's letter. He says that Miss Kenton should be called Mrs. Benn, since she has now been married for twenty years. But because he knew her only during her maiden years, he continues calling her Miss Kenton. Stevens now reveals that Miss Kenton's marriage has come to an end. She has moved out of Mr. Benn's house and is living with an acquaintance in a nearby village. Stevens says that it is tragic that her marriage is ended, but he wonders whether coming back to Darlington Hall might relieve her of her loneliness. Stevens has read her letter closely, and believes he has found a running subtext of despair. He sees emptiness, unfulfillment in Miss Kenton's tone, and the change in her makes him reminisce back to her days working alongside him and her father at Darlington Hall.
Miss Kenton and Stevens' father both arrived at Darlington Hall in the Spring of 1922. Stevens says they came at the same time because an underbutler and housekeeper had a secret affair and then left the house to marry. Stevens makes it clear he finds such liaisons a threat to the order of the house, and is especially disdainful of those who jump from house to house looking for romance with little sense of responsibility to their profession. (But he does not include Miss Kenton in this description for he always found her work of the highest quality.)
Stevens' father had come to the house of the death of his previous employer and was suffering from arthritis. WIth Stevens's father in the house, Stevens and Miss Kenton often found themselves at odds over him. The first battle comes when Miss Kenton address his father as 'William,' prompting Stevens to ask her to call him 'Mr. Stevens senior,' despite Miss Kenton's higher rank. Stevens implies that his father is superior at his job, which Miss Kenton begins to take issue with when Stevens' father makes a number of errors. First, he leaves a dust-pan in the hall, in plain view of those who might visit the house. Then he leaves traces of polish on the silver, and then manages to reverse two sculptures. The last error leads to a blowup where Miss Kenton tells Stevens that his father has been entrusted with far more than he can handle. Steven retorts that she is foolish.
Things come to a head, however, when Stevens' father suffers a terrible fall while carrying a tray out to guests on the lawn. The doctor arrives and lets Lord Darlington know that Stevens' father is overworked. Stevens speaks to his father privately, and quickly we see that their relationship is stilted and dominated by work. Stevens tells his father that his workload will be reduced, and his father is at once embarrassed and quick to blame the fall on the crookedness of the lawn steps. Later that evening, Miss Kenton and Stevens see Stevens' father on those same steps, walking up and down them "as though he hoped to find some precious jewel he had dropped there."
Stevens realizes he may have treated his father brusquely, and proceeds to tell a story that he considers the 'turning point of his life,' one that might further explicate his relationship with his father. The story involves a conference held at Darlington Hall in March 1923, convened partly because of Lord Darlington's friendship with Herr Bremann, an officer in the German army during World War I. Herr Bremann returned to Darlington Hall in the years after the war, and looked increasingly gaunt and disheveled each time. Seeing his friend deteriorate, Lord Darlington had become preoccupied with how the treaty that ended World War I had left Germany to fend for itself - and England had disgraced its own values by neglecting a defeated foe so obviously.
Soon after, Herr Bremann shoots himself, which Lord Darlington harbors deep guilt and resentment over. In his eyes, England was responsible for the officer's death for not helping the Germans after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. As a result, then, this convention at Darlington Hall will assemble Britons, Germans, Belgians, French, Italians, and Swiss in all ranks - clergymen, military gentlemen, writers and thinkers - in order to determine how to correct the Treaty of Versailles to that Germany and its inhabitants were not punished so severely and forced into economic chaos. Indeed, Lord Darlington believed that if the economic spiral of Germany were not stopped, it could spread with alarming rapidity to the world at large.
Stevens notes that the preparations for the conference are increasingly hectic and stressful. He takes an enormous amount of responsibility on his shoulders, believing that if the conference does not go perfectly - and any guests find their stay uncomfortable - it would have terrible repercussions. Stevens notices that Miss Kenton is particularly piqued. When he points out to her that the bed linens upstairs have to be changed, she retorts that she not only has it under control, but that if she were had as much time as he apparently does, she would go around the house reminding him of tasks that he had 'perfectly well in hand.' Stevens offers his own rejoinder attesting to Miss Kenton's lack of experience, which seems to be the last straw. She insists that Stevens not speak to her directly ever again and use a messenger or go-between instead. She leaves him and goes back to his work. Stevens has no time to consider this incident for the guests have just begun to arrive.

Analysis:

Time is always fluid in _Remains of the Day_, so often we lose track of whether we are in the present or the past, and the status of the relationships. It is a novel of stream-of-consciousness reminiscence, and it is only because Stevens' mind is so ordered that we end up having a picaresque view of events - in other words, one that is episodic and anecdotal. In this particular section, we see the convergence of a few streams in the narrative. First off, we begin to understand the fraught, frigid relationship between Stevens and his father. Second, we begin to see that sexual tension appears to overwhelm the relationship between Stevens and Miss Kenton. And finally, we're poised for a key event at the end of the sequence that will likely bring all these matters to a head - namely the conference at Lord Darlington Hall to suggest revisions to the Treaty of Versailles. The political machinations of the conference provide context as well as parallelism to the more domestic dramas between Stevens and the rest of the staff that unfold during the conference.
To begin with Stevens and his father, it's quite clear that Stevens is truly awed by his father's devotion to service and his father's 'dignity' in maintaining his professionalism at all times. Thus when Stevens' father begins to lose his step a bit - making errors that Stevens is not used to seeing from him - he reacts with denial at first. Deep down, Stevens knows two things - that his father is a 'great' butler, and that for him to give up his profession would most certainly lead to his death. He finds that Miss Kenton will conspire on neither count - that she calls his father 'William' because he is of junior rank, and she agrees that he should be relieved of some of his duties. It is the first seed of tension between Stevens and Miss Kenton.
Stevens, himself, is completely uncomfortable talking to his father. It is clearly apparent that Stevens' father commitment to his duties has become his primary relationship and overwhelmed any sense of responsibility to his son. His son is merely a worker in the same house, it seems - and they maintain a relationship that is burdened with formalism, decorum, and impersonal communication. It is perhaps clear, then, that Stevens can only communicate his emotions in terms of work. When he is frustrated, he lashes out at another's work habits; when he is amorous, he compliments one's work - everything must be conveyed through professionalism.
This tendency to sublimate emotions into work is what brings Stevens and Miss Kenton's relationship to a head. By now, it is quite apparent that Stevens has taken a liking to Miss Kenton. And indeed, when he wants to engage her, he says simply that she should clean the upstairs. Miss Kenton, for her part, wants no part of such work-related flirtation, and in fact, takes his comments quite literally. When Stevens labels Miss Kenton 'inexperienced,' it seems to be done with the utmost affection, but she is enraged by it. Something about Stevens' tendency to operate in subtext consistently sets her off and ultimately leads to her severing communication altogether. Remember, Stevens is most definitely the protagonist of the novel, while there seems to be an absent antagonist. Every episode seems to have its own - Miss Kenton at times, perhaps Lord Darlington - but overall, the antagonist seems to be Stevens himself.
The conference that Lord Darlington organizes is one with an explicitly political purpose - namely to revise the Treaty of Versailles. What we must remember in all the political machinations that follow is that Stevens ultimately has no power to affect the dealings of his master. It is a classic upstairs-downstairs narrative where Stevens has full power to comment on the goings-on and make his observation, but cannot actually interfere in them. The irony, however, is that Stevens ultimately feels more responsibility for his employer's life, then for his own. We get exposition, often as a result, as opposed to introspection. As a result, then, he is not a classical hero - and is forced into a passivity unusual to protagonists of character novels.

4. Summary and Analysis of Day Two (Morning) - Salisbury (PART 2)

Summary:

As the preparation for the convention continues, Lord Darlington calls Stevens in to give him an unusual and confidential task. Sir David Cardinal, instrumental in organizing the convention, has brought his son Mr. Reginald, who is twenty-three and engaged to be married. Lord Darlington is the young man's godfather and has been entrusted by Sir David with the responsibility of teaching his son 'the facts of life' before his wedding day. Lord Darlington tells Stevens that he's terribly busy and simply can't find the time to do it - and asks that Stevens does it instead. Stevens obliges but fails on two occasions and finally gives up, since Mr. Lewis, the American senator arrives two days early.
The major guests at the conference include Mr. Lewis and M. Dupont from France. Before the Frenchman arrives, Lord Darlington tells Mr. Lewis that he's aghast by the French attitude towards the Germans. It is unbecoming to hate an enemy once they are defeated - and he is insistent that the British do not adopt this same bullying mentality. The next morning two countesses around from Germany, as well as an Italian, and soon enough the rest of the guests begin to arrive. Stevens tries one last time to talk to Mr. Cardinal about the birds and the bees, but has to abort the plan when he finds out that M. Dupont has arrived - and in a most foul temper.
Mr Dupont is a tall, elegant gentleman who arrives upset because some sores on his feet are growing septic. But ironically on the first day of the conference, it's not M. Dupont that requires severe medical attention - but rather Stevens' father. Stevens runs up to his room to find his father ashen, feverish, and Miss Kenton duly informs him that she will take over monitoring him - and that Stevens should return to work. That evening, Stevens overhears a conversation between Dupont and Mr. Lewis where Mr. Lewis tells the Frenchman of his conversation with Lord Darlington earlier - the one in which he called the French 'despicable' and 'barbarous'.
This seems to cause the next day's conference discussions to be heated and intense. Stevens tries to keep track of what's happening, but he also must attend to his father. Stevens finally speaks to his sick father, and his father says that he's 'proud' of him - he's been a 'good son' and he hopes he's been a 'good father,' ending only with 'I suppose I haven't.' Stevens replies that the can talk in the morning as they're extremely busy.
On the last night of the conference, Dupont gives a speech where he says that he's been eminently impressed by Lord Darlington's efforts and the attempts to ensure German quality of life after the Treaty of Versailles. He says he is determined to lessen the scornful attitude of the French towards the Germans, and here stops to mock Mr. Lewis, who he said secretly spoke behind everyone's back. Mr. Lewis is humiliated, and the rest of the table goes on to toast Lord Darlington. Lewis stands up to make his own speech, and declares that they are all intensely naive and that Darlington is an amateur. Darlington closes by saying simply that he believes in honesty and truth - and his amateurism should actually be called 'honour.'
Miss Kenton comes immediately to tell Stevens that his father has become very ill. Stevens runs upstairs, but then has to come back down to check on the guests. Darlington asks him whether anything's wrong, but Stevens says its merely been the strain of a hard day. Miss Kenton comes down and informs him that his father has passed away. Miss Kenton asks if he will come up and see his father now, but Stevens says he is quite busy and his father would have preferred that he 'carry on.' Stevens takes care of Dupont, whose feet are giving him trouble, and then finally attends to Dr. Meredith, who informs Stevens that his father died as the result of a massive stroke. Stevens asks the doctor to attend to Mr. Dupont.
We return to the present day, then, where Stevens recalls all these events. He looks back and says that that night he displayed the level of 'dignity' that would make him a great butler. He remembers that day not for its sense of sadness, but for the triumph of maintaining his professionalism even in the harshest of circumstances.

Analysis:

In perhaps one of the most heartbreaking moments of the novel, Stevens cannot attend to his own father on his deathbed because of his piety to his professional duties. Perhaps even more heartbreaking is that looking back at this confluence of events, Stevens views it as a triumph, rather than a tragedy. He does not look back with sadness on his father's death, rather pride that he was able to maintain his dignity and professionalism in the face of such chaos and pain. This single moment, it seems, makes him believe that he was worthy of being called a 'great' butler. The paradox of this moment, of course, is that what makes Stevens a great butler also makes him an unfulfilled human.
The idea of 'confidence' seems to permeate the novel at every level of the term - confidence in terms of trust, confidence in terms of secrecy, even confidence in terms of self-belief. In the case of Stevens, he is entrusted by Lord Darlington with the most delicate and seemingly inappropriate matters - for instance, informing Mr. Cardinal about sex. At the same time, though, Stevens does not trust Lord Darlington enough to let him know the goings-on in his own life. Truly he would see this as a disruption of his professionalism, but there is also the implicit sense that Stevens is afraid of being seen as weak. The situation with the young Mr. Cardinal is a larger metaphor for Stevens' own reluctance to find comfort in his own sexuality.
In the earlier chapter, Miss Kenton noted that she no longer wished to speak to Mr. Stevens directly and it would have to be done through a messenger from now on. Ironically that messenger turns out to be Stevens' father. Indeed, it is Stevens' father in his illness that brings them back together, as Miss Kenton vows to stay by his side even though Stevens must press on with his work. In many way,s Miss Kenton comes to symbolize Stevens' severed heart. She understands the tenor of a man who would relinquish his own father in order to preserve the semblance of his duties. Suddenly she does not take Stevens' slights so personally.
Stevens, even more than his father though, does actually have emotions that overtake him. Where Stevens' father learned to quell his emotions entirely - hence leading to Stevens' belief that he pales in comparison to his father's greatness - Stevens occasionally must surrender. Indeed, when he's running upstairs and downstairs, between jolly guests and his dying father, he can't help but shed tears. But when confronted with this by Lord Darlington, Steven wipes his tears as if they're sweat, and attests only to the hard work of a long day.
Perhaps one of the odder moments in the novel comes when Stevens is asked by Lord Darlington to inform Mr. Cardinal about the 'facts of life.' Suddenly reading these passages, we're terribly concerned as to whether Stevens himself has ever experienced carnal love. The discomfort of having to explain biological processes to a young man engaged to be married can only be more humiliating to one who never managed to find his own love. Again, Stevens finds a way to be distracted by his duties. But slowly we see that all the aspects of life he should have enjoyed - family, love, marriage, children - have never been broached, merely swept away in the name of work.

5. Summary and Analysis of Day Two (Afternoon) - Mortimer's Pond, Dorset

Summary:

Stevens returns to the definition of a 'great' butler as determined by the Hayes Society - namely the butler must be a member of a 'distinguished' household. Stevens says his generation has a much more idealistic view of this definition of the word 'distinguished.' His generation believes that a distinguished man furthers the progress of humanity and aspires to noble causes. In his generation, other butlers are willing to leave not just over wages, but also over the moral worth of one's employers.
Butlers of Stevens' father's generation tended to see the world in terms of a ladder - and thus a distinguished household often represented the houses of royalty or the houses of lords. Any butler in his father's generation, then, simply climbed the ladder as high as possible - and the higher he went, the more professional prestige he accumulated. The Hayes Society endorsed this view as well. But later, the new generation viewed the world not as a ladder, but more as a 'wheel' - meaning that they cared about who they served, and they wanted to serve those to whom civilization was entrusted.
Stevens is taking a drive through Dorset, and suddenly realizes that his employer's Ford is emanating a weird smell. he parks the car, and finds a Victorian house a ways away. At the house, he meets a man who puts water in the Ford's radiator, which promptly gets it going again. Stevens asks him how many people are employed at the house, but the man tells him that his employer, the Colonel, is trying to get rid of the house. The man asks Stevens whether he worked for Lord Darlington, but Stevens says no. They part with the man telling Stevens to visit a local pond so he can meet his employer, the Colonel.
At Mortimer's Pond, Stevens begins to think about why he denied working for Lord Darlington. He did this once before, when Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield, an American couple that moved to England, came to visit Darlington Hall. Stevens realizes that he isn't necessarily ashamed of working for Mr. Darlington, but there are just too many foolish things said about Lord Darlington for him to take responsibility for correcting. He says Lord Darlington was a man of great moral stature, no matter what people say, and he is proud and grateful to have been given the privilege to work for him.
Stevens lodges at the Couch and Horses outside of Taunton, Somerset, a cottage by the roadside. He ventures down to the bar, where one of the men tells him he won't get much sleep because of the master and mistress' arguing. Stevens uses the opportunity to make a joke back: 'A local variation on the cock crow, no doubt.' But clearly they don't get it. Stevens is upset that his joke didn't work, especially since he's been listening to a broadcast humor show on the ratio regularly and studying the programme. Later, he considers all the reasons his joke didn't work.
Stevens sits and has tea in Taunton close to the Market Square. He muses about the nearby village of Mursden, where a famous firm named Giffen and Co. used to manufacture a silver polish that put the town on the map. He believes that silver polish came to be one of the key shifts in his profession - the emphasis on silver-polishing as one of the key duties of a butler. He looks back on one butler named Mr. Marshall, who achieved greatness because of his famous silver polishing skills.
Stevens recalls that polishing silver at Darlington Hall often had a pleasing impact on observers. He remembers Lady Astor and George Bernard Shaw both taking note of the beauty of his polishing work. Even Lord Halifax told Lord Darlington that the silver in the house was a delight. Stevens continues his stream of consciousness reminiscing and remembers Herr Ribbentrop, a man who people believed was determined to deceive England about Hitler and Germany's true intentions in 1936-1937. Stevens, however, believed Herr Ribbentrop was an honorable gentleman, and Lord Darlington frequently stayed with Nazi sympathizers because at the time, they were considered significant people in the German administration and extremely hospitable.
Stevens says that his work as a butler often influenced the mood of important political guests and led to them admiring his employer, Lord Darlington. He was particularly proud of his silver polishing skills back then and found that even the most demanding guests were impressed by it. But now his work has slipped. Only recently, he saw Mr. Farraday scrutinizing a dirty fork -- which Stevens had to promptly replace. Stevens again blames the mistake on the staff shortage and looks forward to correcting the error once Miss Kenton arrives.

Analysis:

The last moments of the chapter bring what is a rather aimless section to a dramatic close. For a good portion of this section, Stevens waxes rather oddly upon the importance of silver polishing. The subtext of all this is how deeply he believed in the significance of the details of his work. Indeed, in Stevens' mind, the quality of his work had an undue influence on the attitude of his guests towards his employer. If he did good work with the silver, then inevitably, even the most exacting guests would compliment the silver to Lord Darlington, leading to Stevens essentially changing the mood of the household. If a guest entered the house in a foul mood, then he might leave much more content upon seeing the care with which Darlington took care of his house.
But now, it seems, there's a crack in Stevens' facade. He no longer seems to have the same attention to detail as he used to - and in fact, Lord Farraday has noticed the lapse in his work. Stevens blames it on his staff shortage, but it's clear that he's lost a little bit of his own motivation and self-belief. He's looking for something bigger it seems than just clean silver. And indeed, what he's looking for seems to be layered in with his search for Miss Kenton - she will at once provide him the staff necessary to bring the silver back to its previous quality and to also fulfill the emptiness that has begun to distract him and which is slowly creeping over and dominating his life.
Stevens is an interesting character in that he is not completely of the old guard, but rather a transitional generation. Indeed, most of this section concerns itself with what his peers look for when choosing an employer. In his father's day, Stevens believed that a person's worth as a butler was tied entirely to that of his employer. In other words, one simply absorbed the rank and reputation of his boss. But in Stevens' generation, the principles changed slightly - so that butlers now cared deeply about the moral reputation of their employers rather than just their actual rank in society. The butlers, then, have to be extremely conscious of their employer's politics, which explains Stevens' deep knowledge about Darlington's inner consciousness. Moreover, it explains the constant need for Stevens to explain his employer's friendships and relationships.
Stevens puts such deep emphasis on practicing and training and work ethic that we can't be surprised by t relentless effort he puts into becoming better at bantering. In this particular instance, he listens to a radio program with an emphasis on humor, in order to develop his comic witticisms. When he arrives at the lodge in Somerset, he sees an opportunity to put his learnings to use, but his joke falls flat. We can feel the disappointment. Deep down, we get the sense that Stevens wants to be as normal as the commoners he meets - at ease in his own skin. But he is so deeply ensconced in the idea of being a 'great' butler that he cannot let go of his armor. He has lost touch with his own soul.
Deep down, Stevens seems deeply repressed about his own desires. In many ways, he is attempting to construct a narrative of consciousness and introspection in order to find the Holy Grail - happiness. For so many years, he found distraction, fulfillment in his work, but we sense that the moment Miss Kenton left, he began a slow decline, even though his desire for her was probably subconscious. At the same time, there wasn't much Stevens could do - so tied to propriety, he had to wait until Miss Kenton's marriage had ended. The moment it does, he seizes upon her latest letter as evidence that she is waiting for him to come and rescue her - and bring her back to his castle, like a prince in a fairy tale.

6. Summary and Analysis of Day Three (Evening) – Moscombe Near Tavistock, Devon

Summary:

Stevens feels he has to qualify some of his statements from earlier, and returns to the idea of Lord Darlington's purported anti-Semitism. According to Stevens, there was the rumor that people of Jewish faith were not allowed on the staff of Darlington Hall. Stevens says he can refute this with authority. There was one incident, however, when Mrs. Barnet, a member of a local 'blackshirts' organization and friend of Lord Darlington, spent a good deal of time visiting one summer. Soon after, Lord Darlington barred Jews from the staff of the Hall and Stevens was forced to fire two maids.
Later that night, Stevens informs Miss Kenton that they will have to fire the two Jewish maids. Stevens is himself clearly concerned by Lord Darlington's request but he says they must fulfill Lord Darlington's orders, since he is their employer. Miss Kenton, on the other hand, is completely aghast. She says that if Stevens agrees that the girls are good workers, then he's wrong to let them be fired just because they are Jewish. It is his responsibility, she says to take a stand. If the girls are fired, says Miss Kenton, then she will quit as well.
Stevens fires the girls, but Miss Kenton doesn't leave. She tells Stevens repeatedly that she has every intention of handing in her notice, but simply hasn't had the time. Eventually, though, Miss Kenton stays. A year later, Darlington comes to Stevens and asks him to trace the whereabouts of the maids - as he is terribly sorry for firing them. Stevens goes to Miss Kenton and tells him of Lord Darlington's aboutface on the maids, and Miss Kenton is surprised to see that Stevens felt the same way she did. In her eyes, she thought he didn't care at all about the girls - that he, in fact, agreed with Lord Darlington. She asks Stevens why he always has to pretend, and he avoids the question.
After the firing of the maids, a new housekeeper arrives named Lisa. Stevens is not a terrible fan of the girl, but Miss Kenton does a good job training her and Stevens is forced to admit she's doing a good job. Miss Kenton departs from her usual decorum and says she is surprised Stevens can admit that Lisa is competent because he always had such a strong aversion to having pretty girls on the staff of Darlington Hall. Stevens is embarrassed by such talk, but Miss Kenton reiterates that perhaps Stevens is flesh and blood after all and can't trust himself in the presence of pretty women. Eventually, however, Stevens is proved right in his suspicions when Lisa runs off with the footman. Miss Kenton agrees that Stevens was right to suspect her, and Stevens tries to say that Miss Kenton did her best with her. They both come to the agreement that giving up one's profession for romance is not only naive but also improper.
Stevens realizes that his relationship with miss Kenton changed quite dramatically around 1935 or 1936 after they maintained a proper and professional dynamic for so many years. Stevens thinks of an incident in the pantry as perhaps the biggest turning point. Miss Kenton had a habit of coming into the pantry with flowers to brighten it up, and one night she comes in while Stevens is reading. She asks him what it is he is reading, but Stevens refuses to tell her, saying it's private. miss Kenton says she suspects it's something 'racy,' and manages to pry it out of his hands. It's a sentimental love story. He shows her out of the pantry firmly. Stevens qualifies the incident heavily, saying he was reading the book only to improve his command of the language, and though he certainly enjoyed the romance, he thinks the nature of the book is irrelevant. Instead, he was embarrassed that he was seen 'off duty' in the presence of others. A butler must never be seen off-duty. He resolves to make sure he reestablishes the professionalism of his relationship with Miss Kenton.
Miss Kenton had two days off every six weeks. Usually on her days off, she might stay in Darlington Hall and just rest, but all of a sudden, Stevens notices that she is taking full advantage of her time off - disappearing for the full two days. She finds out that she has been visiting an 'acquaintance,' who used to be a butler with her at Granchester Lodge. Miss Kenton tells Stevens he seems like a well-contented man, for he is at the top of his profession, with every aspect of Darlington Hall under his control. Stevens replies that he will not be fulfilled until he can do all he can to fulfill Lord Darlington's wishes for the house. Another day, Stevens comes to Miss Kenton for their cocoa chat, but Miss Kenton says she is very tired. Hurt, Stevens says they should stop meeting for cocoa and despite Miss Kenton's protests, ends the meetings entirely and says she can leave him written messages.
Stevens returns to the present day, where he has parked his Ford on a dark road after breaking down. He walks down to the village where is hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. Stevens has dinner with the Taylors' friends, and they are deeply impressed by him as a gentlemen and believe that he is of a high rank. Stevens, for his part, says it is 'dignity' which makes a gentlemen. They ask him if he has met Churchill and Halifax, and Stevens says he has indeed, since he was involved in international affairs before war. Dr. Carlisle, a friend of the Taylors, arrives, and finds all the fuss over Stevens' celebrity connections a bit odd. Stevens says he felt terribly embarrassed over all the guests' misimpression of him.

Analysis:

Stevens usually seems to ramble a bit in his reminiscences, aimlessly exploring his memory before settling on a telling anecdote to end each section. In this particular instance, he ends on the story of attending the Taylor dinner, where he seems to have totally morphed into a man aspiring to gentlemanly status. Already we can see the difference between Stevens and a man like his father. Where Stevens' father would have never pretended to be of higher rank in order to curry favor, Stevens can't resist. He excuses away the entire episode as a misunderstanding, but deep down, he deeply wants the approval and rank of others to fulfill the void he feels inside.
Miss Kenton alludes to this tendency of Stevens when she asks him why he always has to pretend - why he can't simply relax and tell the truth. Stevens says he does not know what she's talking about, but at the end, we see this literal instance of pretending, and realize that Miss Kenton saw all along that he is shielded in a thick coat of armor through which most people cannot penetrate. By now, however, Stevens has clearly fallen in love with Miss Kenton. So deeply that he cannot seem to bear her taking her full vacation days to visit another acquaintance. Indeed, he seems passive aggressive in stating that his only need for contentment comes in service - and he has no other desires. It's as if he wants to make Miss Kenton feel guilty for her own human instincts.
Perhaps one of the less effective devices in the novel involves the constant returns to Lord Darlington's political views. Stevens has to reveal how he became enmeshed in his master's own politics, but we never seem to get a full grasp of what Darlington is actually like. We do sense, however, that he is fallible, and as he comes to admit this fallibility, Stevens begins to lose his complete filial devotion to him, and discovers his own self-esteem. The incidents of the maids, meanwhile, is less crucial for illuminating Darlington's politics and more of Stevens. Stevens is willing to subordinate his personal views in order to maintain his 'dignity.' For Miss Kenton, however, dignity comes in casting off the views of one's employer if they do not agree with one's own. In the end, however, she is practical enough to stay with Darlington even though she disagrees with his politics.
Stevens himself is extremely passive-agressive in his romantic strategies. The most illuminating moment of the opening section comes, of course, when he is caught reading a romantic novel. Immediately we see the veneer fall away and his true sentimental instincts emerge - his true fragility. But he cannot admit them to Miss Kenton and upon discovery of the novel, ushers her out with the resolve to reinforce their domestic relationship. Later, instead of confessing his love to her over their cocoa chats, he obfuscates his intentions, frustrates her, and ends up cancelling their chats to punish her for not putting up with his steel facade. What we begin to see, then, is Miss Kenton losing interest with Stevens as he fails in his ability to engage her on a deeper level. The more he comes to realize his love for her, the more he resists it.
Deep down, Stevens now seems at a crossroads. The reminiscing on his trip has seemingly made him realize the freedom of being a man. He has the time to see himself outside of his duties, outside of his comfort zone and we sense that he has renewed in confidence and vitality. As he nears Miss Kenton's house, we begin to sense his dramatic momentum - that he now has the opportunity to fully achieve self-fulfillment by embracing his love for her and declaring it.

7. Summary and Analysis of Day Four (Afternoon) - Little Compton, Cornwall - Day Six(Evening) - Weymouth

Summary:

Stevens sits in the dining hall of the Rose Garden Hotel in Little Compton after finishing lunch. He will meet Miss Kenton in forty minutes at her current residence. He notes now that he never received a reply from Miss Kenton confirming that she wanted to meet, but he says knowing her, a lack of letter means she is more than happy to meet. Stevens returns to his night with the Taylors in his memory and says that when Dr. Carlisle drove him to his car, he asked Stevens simply if he was a 'manservant.' Stevens was relieved and said that he was in fact the butler at Darlington Hall. Carlisle said he suspected as much and here in a small town, people would likely view Stevens as some form of royalty.
Stevens returns to one memory in particular - an evening a few months after the death of Miss Kenton's aunt, when the young Mr. Cardinal turns up at Darlington Hall. Sir Reginald Cardinal's father, David Cardinal, had been killed in a riding accident a few years earlier. The young Mr. Cardinal had been building a name for himself in international affairs. The young Mr. Cardinal says he is in a jam at the moment and wonders if Mr. Darlington could put him up for the night. Stevens goes to tell Miss Kenton of Mr. Cardinal's arrival and is a bit spooked, because earlier he had stood outside her door, contemplating whether to go in and comfort her over the loss of her aunt. Miss Kenton had been extremely close to her relative and Stevens knew he should assuage her over her loss - but yet didn't know how to do it. Stevens goes in to find Miss Kenton quiet and contemplative. He tells her that Mr. Cardinal has arrived - and she reminds him it is her day off. She then tells Stevens that her aquaintance has asked her to marry him. Stevens can only say that it is 'interesting,' and Miss Kenton says she is thinking it over. Tension hangs in the air, as if she expects him to do something.
Miss Kenton returns from her day off and tells Stevens she has accepted her acquaintance's marriage proposal. Stevens can't seem to formulate his thoughts, and Miss Kenton is a bit surprised by his lack of response. She wonders why he doesn't have more to say, but Stevens says there are events of 'global significance' unfolding upstairs. Miss Kenton seems frustrated and says that she and her fiancee pass their time with her recounting amusing anecdotes about Stevens' fastidity. Stevens leaves, obviously hurt. Stevens attends to the guests upstairs and they ask for a bottle of port. He runs downstairs to get it and finds Miss Kenton in the doorway.
Miss Kenton apologizes for her comments about Stevens earlier. He pretends to not recall what she said and says he's too busy for them to talk right now. When he comes back up after fetching the port, however, he hears Miss Kenton crying in her room. He stands outside her room for some time, debating what to do. But then he continues on his way up to the drawing room to serve the port. He remembers that subsequent hour so vividly -- torn between his duties, his 'dignity', and his deeper desires. He was so proud of his ability to serve the highest ranking gentlemen and not let his feelings get in the way. And indeed, even though Miss Kenton is crying in her room at that precise moment, Stevens feels a sense triumph at having maintained his professionalism.
Stevens next writes from Weymouth, where he recalls his meeting with Miss Kenton two days earlier in the tea lounge of the Rose Garden Hotel. He says Miss Kenton arrived looking quite similar to the person he remembered from twenty years earlier, only with a few more wrinkles. For the first twenty minutes or so, they exchange pleasantries, small talk, about Stevens' journey thus far. Once the awkwardness dissipates, they reminisce about people from the past, and slowly Stevens begins to glean some facts about her present circumstances. For one thing, Miss Kenton's marriage is not so far gone as she made it seem -- she returned home to find Mr. Benn pleased to have her back. She says it's best to be sensible about these things, as if she's resigned to reconciliation.
Miss Kenton goes on to talk more generally about her husband, who will retire soon, and asks Stevens to visit their daughter in Dorset on his way back. Stevens says it's unlikely he'll pass by Dorset, but Miss Kenton insists, saying that Catherine's heard all about you. Stevens tries to tell Miss Kenton of the current state of Darlington Hall, and explains how Lord Darlington became an invalid and eventually lost his reputation. Stevens wonders aloud why Miss Kenton seemed so dire in her letter, even mentioning that her life seemed empty. Miss Kenton seems surprised that she wrote such a thing, and backs off from it - saying that her life does not seem empty now, and they are even looking forward to grandchildren now.
Stevens finally asks her directly - in her letters, she made it seem like she was unhappy, and he just wanted to make sure she wasn't. Miss Kenton says that she is absolutely fine - her husband is not cruel or ill-tempered. She says that she never loved her husband at first - and was surprised she was marrying him at all. but she grew to love him. There are times, where she wonders what she did with her life - whether she could have had a better one with Stevens. But she doesn't look back any more, and thinks her life has been good enough, if not ideal. Stevens tells Miss Kenton that it's time she enjoy her life now - and make her years happy for herself and her husband. He says they may never meet again. The bus arrives, and Miss Kenton leaves. Stevens sees that she is crying as she leaves.
Stevens sits on a pier bench, and is joined by a stranger who Stevens confesses virtually his whole life to - even the fact that he's been making too many mistakes as the butler of Darlington Hall. The stranger offers Stevens a handkerchief when he sees he's been crying. Stevens realizes that perhaps he has wasted his life because he never made his own mistakes - and lived simply as the vehicle of another. He confesses that perhaps there is no dignity in not being able to say he made his own mistakes. But he resolves not to look back and to continue to move forward with the remains of his day. He vows first to return to Darlington Hall and surprise Mr. Farraday with his new bantering skills.

Analysis:

The last section of Remains of the Day is at once the anticipated climax because of Stevens' meeting with Miss Kenton and a bit of a false tease, since we do not see it unfold in real time. Instead, the narrative jumps, and we hear about Stevens' recollection of it two days later. One of the interesting things that's easy to forget in Ishiguro's novel is that Stevens is recounting events that happened twenty years ago. That gap in time is difficult to convey through the text since so little of it unfolds in real time. Instead, we must make conjectures as to how Miss Kenton might react to Stevens' suggestion that she return to Darlington Hall, even after setting up her new life for more than two decades. We realize the answer to this when we discover that she had many moments when she may have returned, but now it is too late - she already had a number of doubting moments, when she wondered about the cosmic path of her life, but Stevens has come when she has already become complacent, and already let go of her need for a better life.
Stevens, for himself, seems to reach his breaking point here. He is so deeply in love with Miss Kenton and has built up such fierce expectations and a desperation for her love - but when the moment comes, he cannot confess it. In a moment of perhaps supreme self-sacrifice - or perhaps cowardice - he caves, and says simply that he wishes she remains happy with her husband and that she enjoy the rest of her life. Just as Miss Kenton acknowledges thatt the time for regrets is gone, Stevens does too, and they part way with no possibility of reconciling for it is simply too late. Inertia has taken them too far.
Stevens does finally break, however, to a stranger, to whom he confesses that he never did have his own life. He was so concerned with dignity, with being a great butler to someone else, that he never followed his own dreams. As a servant, Stevens was so terrified of making mistakes, so terrified of having his own identity. In his eyes, it was his duty to renounce his own soul in order to be the best employee possible. It's taken his whole life for him to realize what a mistake it is. In other chapters, Stevens recounted stoies with similar themes but in the end, always confessed that he felt triumph upon remembering that he preserved his professionalism at all costs. But for the first time, he says here that it has afforded him nothing. but it is too late. He will go on with the remains of his day - the remains of his life - trying to hold on to his dignity.
Ishiguro's novel, first and foremost, is a portrait of a man broken by his own life choices. Over and over, he looks back and sees the opportunities in his life he should have taken but cannot admit defeat. If he can get Miss Kenton to come back to Darlington Hall, if he can get her to wipe the slate clean, then he'll have another chance. What Stevens wants then is a do-over - a chance to relive his own life. He does this through his memory, but he comes to the realization that to find fulfillment, he will have to actually take action in real life. But at the crucial moment, he can't do it -- because it's too late. Miss Kenton has already steered onto the course of least resistance. And now Stevens will have to also.
Ishiguro's novel achieves such masterclass status because of its intense subtext. So rarely do novels manage to create such a fluid sense of consciousness and then use memory to achieve an apotheosis or epiphany. For all its lack of a narrative, The Remains of the Day has the power of a thriller precisely because we want Stevens to find happiness. We want him to find peace once and for all. But in perhaps the cruelest twist of all, when it comes time for him to take action and strike out in search of fulfillment... it's too late.

VIII. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Background on the Treaty of Versailles

One of the most important episodes in Ishiguro's novel involves the 1923 convention at Lord Darlington's house to potentially effect a renegotiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Lord Darlington, in particular, is unhappy with the outcome of the treaty, which he feels unfairly penalizes Germany. Here is some background on the Treaty which ended World War I that will help you make sense of much of the political discussion in the book.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, five years after the start of the first great World War and after six months of negotiation at the Paris Peace Conference. The biggest issue at stake in the negotiation of the treaty was how much to penalize Germany for causing the war - a discussion which ultimately ended with a full blame of the country for precipitating conflict and imposing on them a harsh set of reparations and penalties which ultimately came to build German resentment towards the Allies and pave the way towards the second World War.
The terms of the treaty were quite severe for Germany. These included:
The terms of the Treaty, which Germany had no choice but to accept, were announced on May 7, 1919. Germany lost:
-- more than 13% of its country's territory
-- its African colonies, which included Cameroon, Togo, and East Africa
-- Alsace-Lorraine, ceded to France
-- Upper Silesia, ceded to Poland
-- the right to Germany as a military zone
Additionally, German armed forces were limited to 100,000 troops, the manufacturing of weapons and import and export of weapons were prohibited, as was the manufacture of gas or the use of tanks. Military equipment was also heavily limited - including naval ships, submarines, military aircraft and artillery. Finally, and perhaps most humiliating, were the articles attached to the Treaty. In these articles, Germany was forced to accept sole responsibility of war in the "War Guilt Clause" and vow to somehow compensate the allies. The German emperor, Wilhelm II, was declared a war criminal. And last but not least, the Germans were forced to pay huge reparations to the Allied Countries.
Overall, the Treaty of Versailles had a devastating effect on the German people. Not only did it cause a source of shame for them around the world, but it crippled them economically. Moreover, the German public didn't support the treaty - believing that they had neither fully caused the war nor lost it it ultimately. Even within Germany, the signing of the treaty created deep factions between German nationalists who believed the country must never give in to such draconian terms and 'extraloyal' Germans, like Poles, and Jews who had another affiliation beyond their country. Ultimately, these civil conflicts between groups hardlined into the formation of the German nationalist Nazi Party that quickly escalated into the start of the second World War.

IX Kazuo Ishoguro – The Remains of the Day : Suggested Essay Questions

1. What does Stevens see as the paramount virtue in a butler?

Answer:

Stevens believes that a butler first and foremost should exhibit dignity, or rather the ability to remain professional no matter what the situation. Even in the most dire of circumstances, a butler is responsible for maintaining his facade.

2. Why does Stevens choose not to reveal his position as a butler during his dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor in Moscombe?

Answer:

Deep down, Stevens is seeking to finally build his own identity, and he finds tremendous freedom in pretending as if he had met all the British luminaries as a result of his own professional prowess. But when it is finally revealed that he is a butler by Dr. Carlisle, he feels tremendous relief.

3. What is Stevens' only regret as the novel comes to an end?

Answer:

At the end of The Remains of the Day, Stevens has one overhwleming regret - that he never got to be his own man, make his own decisions, and stand up for himself. He realizes that he has been merely an extension for his various employers and never truly had the chance to follow his own desires or make his own life.

4. Why does Stevens not confess his love to Miss Kenton at the end of the novel?

Answer:

When Stevens meets Mrs. Benn at the end of the book, she has already come to terms with her own loveless marraige and given up on the dream of love. Stevens sees that she's agonized with the decision and thus does not pursue her, knowing the cause is lost.

5. What is meant by the title The Remains of the Day?

Answer:

Stevens invokes the title to mean what is left of his life. At the end of his story, he returns to Darlington Hall to live out what remains, unsure whether he's lived a life he can be proud of. One can also take the novel's title to refer to the last days of the British aristocracy.

6. Why does Stevens not protest Lord Darlington's anti-Semitism?

Answer:

In Stevens' view, a butler must always be an extension of his master's wishes. It is not his place, therefore, to contradict Lord Darlington's orders, even if he finds them morally repugnant. Miss Kenton on the other hand vows to quit if Lord Darlington goes through with his plan to fire the maids.

7. Why does Stevens initially set out on his journey to Mrs. Benn?

Answer: Stevens has clearly been devastated by Mrs. Benn's departure from Darlington Hall - an event that happened twenty years ago. But in recent days, she has announced the end of her marriage and also sent him a letter suggesting that she may wish to return to her duties at Darlington. Stevens ventures to convince her to return.

8. At the Taylor's dinner, what is the alternative definition of dignity that Stevens hears presented?

Answer:

Mr. Harris tells Stevens that dignity is in no way a simple acquiescence to professionalism, but rather quite the opposite - the ability of a man to speak his opinions and truth no matter the circumstances. He believes freedom of expression is what makes a man ultimately dignified and honorable.

9. How would you best describe Stevens' relationship with his father?

Answer:

Though Stevens loves his father, there is clearly a thick wall between them precisely because his father is so deeply mired in work. Indeed, even on Stevens' father deathbed, he can only muster one last thought - that he likely wasn't a good father.

10. Why can't Stevens tell Miss Kenton he loves her?

Answer:

Stevens isn't necessarily 'repressed' as much as he is torn between his duties and his desire. In his eyes, a butler cannot embrace human emotion and thus human frailties without likely being disassembled completely. And thus, whenever he wants to show his love for Miss Kenton, he does so in the context of her work - something she inevitably rejects.

X. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Essays Topics

Personality, Class, and Culture in The Remains of the Day

XI. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Quiz [ 25 Questions ]

1. What is Ms. Kenton's married name?

A. Mrs. Taylor.
B. Mrs. Benn.
C. Mrs. Darlington.
D. Mrs. Farraday.

2. When Stevens begins his journey to Miss Kenton, what's his reason for visiting her?

A. to bring her back to the staff of Darlington Hall.
B. to report his father's death.
C. to give her a ring she lost.
D. to marry her.

3. When was The Remains of the Day published?

A. 1991.
B. 1993.
C. 1995.
D. 1989.

4. Stevens has what position at Darlington Hall?

A. head butler.
B. head chef.
C. head maid.
D. head footman.

5. What is Stevens' father's name?

A. George.
B. Leff.
C. Phil.
D. William.

6. Where does Stevens run into Mr. and Mrs. Taylor?

A. London.
B. Westcombe.
C. Salisbury.
D. Moscombe.

7. The Treaty of Versailles punished which country for causing World War I?

A. Germany.
B. United Kingdom.
C. Italy.
D. France.

8. When does Lord Darlington hold his convention to renegotiate the outcome of the Treaty of Versailles?

A. 1920.
B. 1923.
C. 1925.
D. 1918.

9. Who recognizes Stevens for being a butler on his trip to Miss Kenton?

A. Mrs. Taylor.
B. Dr. Carlisle.
C. Harry Moscombe.
D. Mr. Taylor.

10. What is the word that Stevens uses to describe great butlers?

A. integrity.
B. dedication.
C. dignity.
D. honour

11. What is the name of the society that is a home to great butlers in the early twentieth century?

A. Hayes Society.
B. Super Society.
C. Aristocrats Society.
D. Symons Society.

12. What is the name of the book that Stevens uses his atlas and map as his guide for his travels?

A. The Wonder of England.
B. The Majesty of England.
C. The Wonder of Luton.
D. The Majesty of Luton.

13. Why does Darlington want to fire the Jewish maids?

A. Because they stole from him.
B. Because they ran away.
C. Because they broke his antiques.
D. Because of his pro-German sympathies.

14. What country is Mr. Dupont from?

A. Germany.
B. United Kingdom.
C. Italy.
D. France.

15. Why does Darlington want Stevens to speak to Reginald Cardinal?

A. to educate him about the facts of life.
B. to give him back his attache.
C. to introduce him to his future wife.
D. to educate him on WW 1 politics.

16. Where is Mr. Lewis from?

A. America.
B. Germany.
C. Italy.
D. France.

17. Who ultimately turns on Lord Darlington at the 1923 convention?

A. Mr. Farraday.
B. Mr. Lewis.
C. Mr. Dupont.
D. Mr. Taylor.

18. What term does Mr. Lewis use to describe Lord Darlington?

A. barbarian.
B. dignified.
C. boor.
D. amateur.

19. Where is the Coach and Horses inn located?

A. Westcombe.
B. Darlington.
C. Taunton.
D. Moscombe.

20. What is the name of the silver polish compan that Stevens extols?

A. Darlyle & Co.
B. Giffen & Co.
C. Dupont & Co.
D. Symons & Co.

21. Mrs. Astor is friends with Darlington and influences him with what kind of sympathies?

A. pro-French.
B. pro-Jewish.
C. anti-Catholicism.
D. fascist.

22. What is the name of the German ambassador who Lord Darlington has a key relationship with?

A. Herr Astor.
B. Herr Mosley.
C. Herr Dupont.
D. Herr Ribbentrop.

23. Sir Oswald Mosley leads which group?

A. The redshirts.
B. The German troops.
C. The Jewish Majority.
D. The blackshirts.

24. Who is John Silver?

A. Stevens' father's former employer.
B. Mr. Farraday former employer.
C. Stevens' former employer.
D. Mrs. Kenton's former employer.

25. Who is the Foreign Secretary of Britain during World War I?

A. Lord Brown.
B. Lord Halifax.
C. Lord Stevens.
D. Lord Darlington.


XII. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day : Quiz Answers

• 1–B;
• 2-A;
• 3-D;
• 4-A;
• 5-D;
• 6-D;
• 7-A;
• 8-B;
• 9-B;
• 10-C;
• 11-A;
• 12-A;
• 13-A;
• 14-D;
• 15-A;
• 16-A;
• 17-B;
• 18-D;
• 19-B;
• 20-B;
• 21-D;
• 22-D;
• 23-D;
• 24-A;
• 25-B.

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