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Genre: Novel Title: The Remains of the Day Narrative Level:

Type: Historical English Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Published: 1989 Time Period: Early 1920s- 1956

Characters: Stevens (Protagonist)- is the narrator of the story and head butler at Darlington hall. He is a constant example of poise and meticulous habit as he stresses utter most seriousness at all times (he does not understand “bantering”- the American way of “joking around”). His personal quest for dignity is the main internal conflict throughout the novel, as he questions the moral of his formal employer and gradually develops his own self regret when he realizes that Lord Darlington made some very poor choices and was not the master he assumed he had been. Lord Darlington- the former owner of Darlington Hall, who has died three years before Steven’s narrative. He is scorned for a mild allegiance/support to Nazi Germany because he pitied how they were treated in the Treaty of Versailles and their poor economic condition after the war. He holds the peace conference at Darlington Hall in hope to alleviate his grief and worries about a future war (WW2). Miss Kenton- is a warm and intelligent former head housekeeper at Darlington Hall who left to get married as she became sick of Steven’s inability to express his feelings toward her. She was hired at the same time as Steven’s father. She is less formal than Steven’s and serves as his foil throughout the story, as she also makes decisions for herself and displays more personal integrity. Mr. Farraday- an amiable and light-hearted character who is the new owner of Darlington hall and perplexes Steven’s with his “bantering”-kidding around. Steven’s Father- the epitome of a “great” butler who is esteemed by many of his colleagues. In his old age and increasingly fragile state it becomes more difficult for him to perform his tasks, something hard for Steven’s to accept because he looks up to him so much. Mr. Reginald Cardinal/Sir David Cardinal- Close friends of Lord Darlington (LD). They sympathize with Germany, but later Reggie is angered at how the Nazis manipulate LD and eventually tells Steven’s how LD has been used by the Nazi regime. Reggie stays frequently at Darlington and attempts to tell Stevens about Nazi threats to Lord Darlington from the people he is hosting parties for. Herr Karl-Heinz Bremann- A close German friend of LD who later commits suicide because of the poor conditions in Germany after WW1. Mr. Lewis-American Gentleman who attends the March conference at Darlington hall and calls Lord Darlington an amateur. M. Dupont- Frenchman who attends the March conference at Darlington Hall. He is a very important historical figure who was needed to support a decision about the support of Germany after World War 1.

Plot Outline: The Remains of the Day depicts a loyal and dutiful English butler who comes to terms with his own life and society as he takes a six-day road trip through the West Country of England. The story is told in first person narration by an English Butler named Mr. Stevens. He begins the story by telling about his recent decision to take a road trip while the owner of the house he works is on leave. Stevens tells about his place of work called Darlington hall where he has worked for thirty years as a butler. The first owner of Darlington Hall, Lord Darlington, employed Stevens, but after he passed away he is now employed by a man named Mr. Farraday, an American man. It is obvious that Stevens does not connect with Mr. Farraday as well as he did with Lord Darlington, as Stevens does not understand the joking around or “bantering” Mr. Farraday displays. Stevens prides himself on being a dignified, professional man and he is very serious in everything he does. He often talks about his beliefs regarding the butler profession and associates them with “dignity” and “greatness”. Dignity is what he believes all butlers should strive for, it is professionalism and seriousness. Stevens attempts to make himself more humorous in order to please his new owner. After explaining his past work and brief life experience Stevens begins his road trip. He is leaving to go visit Miss Kenton, the former head housekeeper of the Hall who eventually left to get married. They initially butted heads when Stevens was employed but they both gained a positive relationship and started to grow on each other. Stevens had received a letter from her about a failing marriage and he goes to visit her in hopes of getting her back on the staff. During this trip Stevens recalls many old memories and describes experiences at Darlington Hall in the past. The flashbacks and present descriptions switch very frequently and after he tells a story about the past he then tells about the current journey. He talks a lot about his previous employer Lord Darlington and about his meetings with the Germans after World War 1 and before World War 2. Darlington is a strong believer in supporting the Germans and rebuilding their economy to stabilize their country. As time goes on it is realized that the people he meets with are part of the Nazi party. Darlington also at one point becomes anti- Semitic and fires two women of Jewish decent from his staff. He regrets this decision in the long run and realizes that his sympathy to the Nazis was due to misunderstanding and his hospitality. Miss Kenton becomes a large part of Stevens life as well and it seems as if he has romantic feeling toward her because of how much he pays attention to her. After the journey across the English country -side is finished, Stevens finally meets with Miss Kenton. Miss Kenton accounts about her current marital problems with her husband, Mr. Benn. She knows she is going to stay with him but admits she wonders what it would have been like if she ended up with Mr. Stevens. The two part after this meeting and Miss Kenton (Miss Benn) begins to cry. Stevens keeps his composure, and leaves Miss Kenton with kind and supporting words. After his visit he returns to Darlington hall and serves Mr. Farraday.

Themes:  * The value and importance of the personal quest for dignity­ Steven’s pursuit of dignity and greatness is the driving theme  behind ROTD. It is of the utmost importance in his professional life, and because he has had no previous personal life outside of DH, it  is the most significant quality found in every aspect of English life. Stevens claims "dignity is the essential ingredient of greatness”  (37), and he fervently repeats this characteristic throughout his journey (ie. The land is great, his father is great, Lord Darlington  appears to have been great, and his profession is great). This installment of dignity validating greatness shows not only how naïve  Stevens is about reality, but how absolutely concerned he is with the image he portrays and the contributions he makes to his household.  By concealing his individuality in this manner, he never achieves true intimacy with another person and his perspective regarding  dignity is so misguided it reinstates how pitiable of a character he really is.  * Being easily impressionable leads to ignorance and the loss of individuality­ Because the butler profession is the only thing  Stevens knows and is familiar with, he was easily persuaded about how noble and important his employer, Lord Darlington was. He did  not consider or accept any outside views or opinions until Lord Darlington’s true nature and affairs are revealed via Reggie Cardinal.  Stevens is so consumed with being a “great” butler, worthy of establishing “dignity,” that he fails to ever show his emotions or interact  like a normal human being. His lower status put him as a lesser person to the important dignitaries and employers he encounters. Even  when interacting with other co­workers (Miss Kenton) he has extreme difficulty not conducting himself with the utter most seriousness  and professionalism, another reason why he is so perplexed by Mr. Farraday’s “bantering.”  *The reoccurrence of Nostalgia and the depiction of memories as important entities­ ROTD is filled with the countless  memories from the past depicted by Stevens. His meticulous and intricate accounts of past events are astounding, as he remembers  names and dialogues extremely well. He can elaborately recall all of his former co­workers names as well as all of the esteemed (and  not so esteemed) butlers in England. He knows more about Lord Darlington’s needs, likes, dislikes, and guests than he probably knows  about himself because he pays such careful attention to tending to Lord Darlington’s every need. Furthermore, he frequently recalls old  memories of his father and how respected and worthy he was in his craft. He highly looks up to his father and it is quite apparent that  Mr. Stevens Senior was a large role model for Stevens excellence in the butler profession. Miss Kenton is also a frequent character in  Stevens’ sentimental affection of the past. He upholds her with the utmost respect and admiration and becomes extremely involved in  his recounts and portrayals of her.

Motifs: *Bantering- Mr. Farraday’s “bantering” and concept of joking around is an unexpected and reoccurring element throughout ROTD. It is humorous how Stevens uses the formal word "bantering" to describe Mr. Farraday’s joking ways and just reinstates how old  fashioned he is.It is a glimpse into another realm Stevens is unfamiliar with and adds humor and uplift into the narrative. However, it  shows the extremity to which Stevens has become an dull and uneventful character. He constantly repeatedly tells talks about how he  tries to better himself at bantering, and never succeeds. He is confused why Americans like Mr. Farraday, like to speak in such a casual  and unimportant way. Stevens finally realizes that bantering is not so useless towards the end of his journey, and finally views it as a  way to spread happiness and shed light on boring life.  * The Journey­ The essence of the journey, whether for leisure or personal salvation is extremely prevalent in ROTD. Although  the whole plot revolves around Steven’s visit to Miss Kenton it is the larger, personal journey that Stevens’ experiences that is important.  Stevens accounts for the journey everybody around him has experienced, but rarely says anything about his own experiences. His own  fulfillment of self­identity that he mildly grasps while away demonstrates his enlightenment into independence and free­will, as he  begins to make decisions about the outside world and his employer by himself. CONTEXTUAL LEVEL: Kazuo Ishiguro is initially from Japan but his family immigrated to England in 1960. He graduated from the University of Kent and instantly had success as a writer. A Pale View of Hills (1982) was his first novel, and (winning the Winifred Holtby Prize from the Royal Society of Literature) it too depicted a post WW2 scenario similar to ROTD. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World won the Whitbread book of the year in 1986, and also contained a narrative chronicle of the life

(similar to ROTD) of an elderly Japanese political artist. ROTD was Ishiguro’s third novel and it also became very popular, adapted into a motion picture in 1993. ROTD is an interesting body of work for Ishiguro because it does not contain any mention of incorporation of his Japanese heritage. It is simply not there and is a pure English body of work. However, ROTD does follow a theme characteristic of Ishiguro’s work- it depicts the human experience in regard to larger human concerns. His novels are not meant to be just a historical entry; they prove a point regarding society, especially concerning how individual’s lives were changed before and after WW1. ROTD can mainly be seen as a contemporary piece of literature as it was written in the 1980s, but it believably depicts the scattered and torn English society that erupted during and after World War 2. Ishiguro’s extensive knowledge of England is shown in the details throughout ROTD, as many of the societal beliefs are shown through Steven’s ideals and opinions.

RHETORICAL LEVEL: The tone of ROTD is extremely monotonous, only because that is how Steven’s character really is. He  will routinely use personification to describe his frame­by­frame new findings on the journey, but it is limited to what he is able to  compare it to. The author’s narrative through Stevens presents almost a satire­like view point to achieve the effect that Stevens is  extremely naïve and scrupulous, he rarely finds joy or in life, a pathetic tragedy he realizes towards the end. The narrative style is  extremely discursive and unhurried, and incredibly deliberate and detailed. Stevens is absolutely fervent in portraying descriptions and  recalling events in the past, but he is also despairing when it comes to talking about his own feelings and opinions outside of his  professional manner. In addition, a rhetorical method Stevens uses to make his points is to pose a question and then answer it himself.  He answers by incorporating defensive counter arguments that could possibly disprove his point. Stevens is creating the illusion that he  fully understands all sides of the issues he discusses. But we find throughout the duration of the book that there are many points of view  he has not considered and it makes many of his assumptions less credible and more naïve.  STRUCTURAL LEVEL: ROTD is mostly comprised of the first person narrative of Steven’s memories during his years serving as a butler before and after WW2. It is a journey novel gradually revealing the nature of Lord Darlington and the English society through present tense chronological narrative and detailed flashbacks, which are regularly told. The narrative is complex  because it incorporates both Stevens's knowledge of and his blindness to the events he recounts; Readers are strictly limited to knowing  only what Stevens wishes to disclose about the land, society, and all other characters in general. There is no outside opinion, forcing us  to trust Steven’s narrow point of view. The plot as a whole takes place over Steven’s six­day trip and is resolved when he returns to DH  with new insight.  SYMBOLIC LEVEL: Two extremely important symbols in ROTD are the English Landscape and the scene in which Stevens’ father searches the steps as if searching for a jewel. The English Landscape is “great, calm, and dignified,” just like Stevens himself. Stevens believes that the “calmness” and “sense of restraint” exhibited in the landscape is an exemplarily characteristic that is highly esteemed and sought after in his own personality. He sees himself in the landscape and that sense of nationalism and belonging is very similar to his sense of pride and belonging at Darlington Hall. The Scene in which Stevens’ father paces up and down the steps examining them like a jewel because they caused him great loss and embarrassment encompasses the whole scheme of “searching” in the novel. Stevens himself searches through his memories in order to find order and balance in himself, an explanation for any mishaps that may have happened or he may have created. It is another restatement of how Stevens overanalyzes many a situation and scenario, just out of diligent habit. He is constantly double checking everything, whether in his job or life, searching for that small imperfection that he is so afraid could cause a larger mishap or catastrophic probelm

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS: 1. “A great butler can only be one who can point his years of service and say that that he has applied his talents to serving a great gentlemen-and through the latter, to serving humanity” (117). 2. “One can’t be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful” (239). 3. “It is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of out land apart” (28).