Remains of the Day Stevens\'

Remains of the Day

Stevens' Success in the Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is a complex novel that touches on many themes popular to literature. Like many other British novels written in the period after World War II, it deals with the events surrounding the war and the changes that it brought to society in England. In many ways the events in the novel that deal with the war are symbolic of the characters' lives since that time, and reflect the same themes and messages that the "present day" action of the novel does.

The primary concern of The Remains of the Day is the relationship between Stevens, butler in Darlington Hall and formerly to Lord Darlington, to Miss Kenston, who used to be the housekeeper there. Their relationship has many parallels in the war, as does his relationship with his former employer, now deceased. Both of these relationships ultimately fail Stevens, and do not provide him with the security or comfort that he had hoped for. This has led many people to read The Remains of the Day as a novel about Stevens' failure, and the idea that his sense of duty interrupted his ability to have a happy and truly meaningful life. This, too, can be seen to have parallels in England's involvement in World War II, and just as England and the rest of the Allies were ultimately successful in this endeavor, so too is Stevens.

The issue of success and failure cannot be discussed without defining the terms. Those people who read The Remains of the Day as a novel about Stevens' failure note that he and Miss Kenston never fulfill or even fully reveal their romantic feelings for each other. In addition, Stevens' loyalty to the tragically naive or possibly worse Lord Darlington is also noted as evidence that Stevens' life is not a success. This is not, however, how Stevens measured his own success, and his own perspective changes the way in which the novel should be read.

Stevens makes his own definition of a successful life very clear. When he is talking about first starting out as a butler, he mentions a collective spirit between his companions and himself that he very clearly continued to carry throughout his life with Lord Darlington and beyond:

"We were, as I say, an idealistic generation for whom the question was not simply one of how well one practised one's skills, but to what end one did so; each of us harboured the desire to make our own small contribution to the creation of a better world, and saw that, as professionals, the surest means of doing so would be to serve the great gentlemen of our times."

(Ishiguro 116)

For Stevens, serving the dignified aristocrats that made the powerful decisions which shaped history was the only way to success, and he did so to the best of his ability. Dignity is a central theme of the book, and Stevens admires it both n his employer and in himself and his peers. It also comes at the cost of sacrifice, and Stevens went without a romantic relationship out of his desire to remain at Darlington Hall and continue to serve his beloved master Lord Darlington.

This explanation Stevens makes of his generation, which was coming into adulthood in the years leading up to the Second World War, applies to the war effort and England's involvement as much as it does to his own life. The English suffered a terrible loss during the war, and it would have been made easier by their capitulation. Instead, they remained dedicated to their principles of making the world better in the long-term, even if it meant they themselves suffered.

A scene that speaks more directly to Stevens relationship with Miss Kenston and how this affected his ideas of dignity, service, and success occurs later in the novel. Stevens recalls a time before the war when both he and Miss Kenston were still working at Darlington Hall. He is reading in the butler's pantry, which he considers an inviolable space and "a crucial office, the heart of the house's operations, not unlike a general's headquarters during the battle" (Ishiguro 165). This is the space that Miss Kenston intrudes upon, much to Stevens' consternation. He does not appreciate the way that she crosses the boundary of the dignity of his office or the barriers of their duties and positions in Darlington Hall, and disregards his authority.