This essay examines how Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day uses the character of Stevens, its protagonist and narrator, to explore the theme of emotional repression. Drawing on key passages from the novel, the paper argues that Stevens — shaped by an old-fashioned English ideal of reserve and professional dignity — suppresses powerful emotions throughout his life, whether concerning his complicity in Lord Darlington's misguided politics or his inability to engage warmly with his new employer, Mr. Farraday. The essay situates these observations within a broader thematic point about how adults learn to hide, rather than overcome, their feelings.
One of the most revealing passages in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day is the anecdote about farmers and their emotions regarding the slaughter of animals they have raised since birth. Emotions, and the way people deal with them, is one of the principal themes of Ishiguro's work. The crux of the anecdote is the claim that despite the assumption that farmers grow accustomed to killing their animals, in reality "that's just not true," and the son of a farmer "cried for days" (Ishiguro 169) following the death of an animal with which he had grown close. What this passage actually suggests is that most people — particularly adults — become very good at hiding their emotions. However, as the young boy's crying implies, they are merely concealing those emotions and still feel them powerfully, struggling to contain them. A number of passages throughout the novel support this interpretation, and the most effective ones concern Stevens, the protagonist and narrator, and his relationships with the men he serves.
Stevens' relationship with Lord Darlington — his longtime employer who had died not long before the novel's narrative begins — reveals his difficulty in containing emotions he feels strongly. Darlington was an Englishman who maintained friendly ties with the Germans during World War I and in the years leading up to World War II. After Germany rose to power again in the Second World War, Darlington became deeply unpopular for his political views. Stevens is troubled by the contemporary judgment of his former employer, believing Darlington to have been a good man whose opinions simply fell out of political favor. Yet what disturbs Stevens most is his own failure to question his master's views — a tension made clear in the following passage: "It is hardly my fault if his lordship's life and work have turned out today to look, at best, a sad waste — and it is quite illogical that I should feel any regret or shame on my own account" (Ishiguro 169).
This quotation supports the idea that Stevens is an adult struggling to hide powerful emotions. He attempts to use logic to justify his silence — his failure to challenge Darlington's viewpoints even as history proved them harmful to England. Yet the very act of framing the argument this way betrays the emotions he is working to suppress. Even though it may be unreasonable for him to feel "shame or regret," he does feel them, and this becomes increasingly apparent toward the end of the novel. As the novel's narrative arc makes clear, Stevens' emotional life has been quietly devastated by choices he rationalized away at the time.
Additionally, Stevens' relationship with his new employer, the American Mr. Farraday, demonstrates how difficult it is for him to manage his emotions — regardless of their nature. As a butler, Stevens has always prided himself on emotional control, and on a quality of reserve that he associates with professional greatness. However, this same reserve is what prevented him from challenging Lord Darlington's opinions, and it is also what prevents him from cultivating a warm relationship with Farraday. The latter difficulty is most clearly illustrated in Stevens' inability to understand his employer's jokes or to respond in kind with light-hearted remarks of his own.
"Stevens struggles to express warmth with Farraday"
Thus, it is apparent that the quotation from page 169 is highly indicative of Stevens' — and others' in the novel — inability to access his own emotions. What makes this so poignant is that he still feels those emotions, quite powerfully in some cases, yet remains forever estranged from them as a result of an old-fashioned, traditional English mode of reserve. Ishiguro's novel ultimately argues that emotional repression does not neutralize feeling; it only delays and deepens its cost.
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