This essay examines the theme of loyalty as it appears in Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day, focusing on the tension between professional and personal obligations. Through the character of Stevens, who consistently prioritizes his duties as a butler over his responsibilities as a son, and through the broader historical backdrop of post-World War I diplomacy, the essay illustrates how different forms of loyalty conflict and interact. The analysis draws connections between Stevens's personal dilemmas and the geopolitical loyalty conflicts among Britain, France, and Germany following the Versailles Treaty, ultimately arguing that professional loyalty was considered the highest virtue of the era.
The paper demonstrates comparative thematic analysis: it identifies a central concept (loyalty), defines multiple variants of it, and then traces each variant across different narrative and historical contexts. By juxtaposing Stevens's personal conduct with Anglo-French diplomatic behavior, the essay shows how the same moral tension manifests at both the individual and national level — a technique that adds analytical depth without requiring extensive additional evidence.
The essay opens by establishing the professional-vs.-personal loyalty tension through Stevens and his father, then expands outward to the historical scale of the Versailles Treaty and Anglo-French allegiances. It returns to Stevens's personal choices during the conference night, synthesizes the two levels of analysis, and closes with the reunion scene as evidence that personal loyalty is eventually — if belatedly — reclaimed once professional duty is fulfilled.
There are different types of loyalty explored in Remains of the Day. The early part of the story addresses the tension between professional and personal loyalty. This situation arises when Stevens realizes that his father is in failing health and will need to be relieved of most of his duties. Stevens faces little internal dilemma — his loyalty to his employer outweighs his personal loyalty to his father. The conflict is eased somewhat by the fact that his father occupies the same profession and therefore understands the hierarchy of loyalty by which Stevens must operate.
The loyalty dilemma presented through the reworking of the Versailles Treaty is considerably more complex. Britain and France were allies in the war against Germany, yet historically they had no particular loyalty to one another. Indeed, in the post-war environment, the Germans and British could easily have forged strong loyalties to one another — an outcome that might have precluded the rise of the Third Reich. The loyalty that the British felt toward their French allies, however, proved stronger than any potential loyalty that could have developed with Germany.
Lord Darlington hints that such allegiances create their own dilemmas. The English, if guided purely by their own sense of loyalty and honor, would have pursued a less punitive relationship with Germany in the 1920s. The French, however, demanded harsher terms. The English were therefore caught in a loyalty dilemma that balanced their obligations to France against their own code of honor. In the end, loyalty to the French alliance prevailed, as the English were unable to negotiate an acceptable alternative. As explored in analyses of Ishiguro's novel, Lord Darlington's discomfort with his friend Herr Bremann reflects precisely this tension between national alliance and personal conscience.
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