Table of contents

Table of contents ........................................................................................................ 2

1.  Introduction  3

2.  Stevens ideology of life  3

2.1.  The Hayes Society and the question what a good butler is  3

2.2  Dignity  4

2.3  Stevens and his father  5

2.4  Stevens and Miss Kenton  6

2.5  Stevens and Lord Darlington  8

2.6  Stevens and his role  10

3.  Résumé  11

4.  Bibliography  13

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1. Introduction

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the day is about an elderly butler, named Stevens who is sent on a trip through England by his new master, Mr Farraday, an American. Stevens only agrees to this trip because he wants to see Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper of Darlington Hall and hopes that she is willing to work there again. During his trip, Stevens thinks back to the time when Lord Darlington was still his master, the period between World War I and World War II. We learn soon that Lord Darlington was involved in political affairs and sympathised with the supporters of Fascism. However, Stevens did not question his master’s point of view and just served. He is obsessed with the idea of being a good butler and puts his private life in second place. At the end, he realises that he has made great mistakes in his life which were not even his own (256). 1 This novel deals mainly with Mr Stevens and his ideology of life. Those views become clear, for example, when he gives his definitions of greatness, dignity and professionalism, ideals which are of great importance to him in his life. He tries to live and work in accordance with them, too. He bases his whole life on this. Nevertheless, his relationships with other characters in the novel show his ideology of life, too. Therefore, this essay will be concerned with Stevens’ ideology of life. Then, it will be obvious how Stevens sees the things and whether he has learned anything from his life or not.

2. Stevens’ ideology of life

2.1. The Hayes Society and the question what a good butler is

The Hayes Society is briefly described in the novel. For Stevens, the society is very important because from his point of view it is the only institution which gives an answer to the question what a great butler is (32), and a great butler is what Stevens wants to be. This institution flourished in the 1920s and 1930s and answered the question through the selection of its members. Thus, only those butlers were permitted to join who really were from highest rank (32). However, the most important criterion for being a member of the Hayes Society was to have a great amount of dignity. Dignity is very important for Stevens, too. Therefore, he agrees with the 1 All quotations follow the edition of The Remains of the day mentioned in the bibliography.

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Hayes Society’s point of view although, he says he has a “lack of enthusiasm for” it (33). Stevens thinks that dignity is the factor which distinguishes great butlers from ordinary ones. Mr Stevens wants to be such a great butler, so he strives all his life for dignity, or rather he strives for the concept he has of dignity. In his opinion, dignity is not something one has hired through his birth; he thinks that you can acquire it through self-discipline, experience and training (34). It is due to the criteria of the Hayes Society that he cannot step out of his role of butler and because of that he is unable to be “the son, the lover, or even concerned citizen” (Trimm 146).

Generally spoken, the terms dignity, greatness and professionalism appear in the whole novel again and again as a leitmotif. This shows how very important they are for Stevens. As explained above, he tries to acquire them in his profession. It is clear that he wants to be one of the butlers who have the right to join the Hayes Society, no matter that he says that he has not much enthusiasm for it. He wants to acquire the form of dignity which makes him one of the great butlers. To succeed in doing so he developed several explanations what dignity is. These concepts will be discussed in the following.

2.2 Dignity

For Stevens, dignity is the attribute that matters most. He is not interested in other characteristics in butlers (Lewis, 80). Stevens defines dignity with the help of his father’s anecdotes. For him, his father was the “embodiment of ‘dignity’” (35). The first anecdote takes place in India where a butler finds a tiger in the dining room. The butler solves this problem by first asking his master if he is allowed to use the twelve- bores and later informs him that “there will be no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence” (37). The second anecdote is about Stevens Senior himself. Stevens Senior chauffeurs two drunken gentlemen. The two first insult Stevens Senior who shows absolute no reaction to this, and then they insult his employer. The employer, Mr Charles, then fears physical violence. However, Stevens Senior rescues the situation by stopping the car, getting out, holding the back door of the car open and bending over the gentlemen without speaking. He stands there until the gentlemen apologise (39-40). The third anecdote shows that Stevens Senior does not allow himself to show any personal feelings when he is on duty. Stevens’ elder brother was killed in the South African War as a result of an inept action of a certain general. Ten years later, the same general visited the house Mr Stevens Senior served in. Of course, he had no positive feelings towards the general, but nevertheless assures his

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