Stevens’ Emotional Restraint
“And let me now posit this: ‘dignity’ has to do crucially with a butler’s ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits [. . .] Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race are capable of.” (42-3)
Stevens, the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day,” exemplifies this British characteristic of “emotional restraint.” He constantly sacrifices his personal life for the whims of his employer; this is particularly evident in his relationship with Miss Kenton. There are multiple instances where Miss Kenton shares her personal feelings on a matter, which in stark contrast to Stevens emotional distance. When Miss Kenton tells Stevens that his father has died, he responds by saying “my father would have wished me to carry on just now” (106). Stevens continues to serve the members of an important “off the record” conference that is occurring at Darlington Hall, because he considers it to be more important than the death of his father. Likewise, when Miss Kenton tells him that someone has asked her hand in marriage, he responds that he is very busy and that he will find a replacement so that she may leave. While he tries to convince the reader that he is content with the choices that he has made in the past and with his current situation as butler for Mr. Farraday, there is a sense of nostalgia and opportunities lost due to Stevens’ constantly putting his job before relationships because of this idea of “dignity.”
Stevens is very guarded in all social interactions, in that he is obsessed with conversational formalities. Stevens may begin a conversation using the pronoun “I”, however if he is discussing an emotional topic and does not want to own a statement, he will use the universal pronoun “one.” For example, when he is discussing with Miss Kenton the dismissal of two maidservants on account of their being Jewish he states, “Naturally, one disapproved of the dismissals. One would have thought that quite self evident,” (154) when, in actuality, he is suggesting his own opinion. This provokes Miss Kenton to respond, “Why, Mr. Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?” (154). Stevens equates dignity with constantly maintaining the “role” of a butler; to do otherwise is to be considered weak. It is this constant “pretending” that creates Stevens’ emotional restraint, which explains the idea that we discussed in class of Stevens being both an engaging yet distant narrator at the same time.
The idea of “verbal banter” is mentioned several times throughout the novel; Stevens’ inability to partake in verbal banter illustrates his inability to emote. Bantering requires a more intimate conversation with the other person, because there is a very fine line between humor and offense. Bantering bridges a personal level with which Stevens in uncomfortable. For Stevens, all situations are black and white; there is a dignified response and an undignified response. Oftentimes, the undignified response is that which suggest any sort of emotion, which, while this may make him a great butler, eventually makes him lose the only chance he had at love, because, as he says himself, those servants who seek romance are a “blight on good professionalism” (51).
Katie Jennings
I would like to focus on a particular instance that Katie discusses: the death of Stevens father. In this scene, more than any other, I find myself so exasperated by Stevens seeming nonchalance. I want to go up to him, push over his silver tray of drinks, and scream in his face “your father’s dying upstairs!!! Wake up!!” Perhaps this reaction is exactly what Ishiguro desires from his readers. Steven’s apparent stoicism is very unsettling. Yet there is definitely a sensitivity that lurks beneath (for example, the tears that are observed on Steven’s cheeks). In the final interaction between father and son, I am interested in why Stevens Senior is so consumed with his hands: “my father was still looking at his hands as though he were faintly irritated by them” (97). Maybe this is a stretch, but perhaps on his death bed, Stevens father calls into question the significance of his life work. In essence, he has chosen his hands over his heart and mind – he has served the role of a machine, a type of automated assistant that has forsaken any genuine sense of self. This realization is maybe a foreshadowing of the younger Stevens comment at the end of the novel, “the harsh reality is, surely, that for the like of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentleman at the hub of this world who employ our services” (245).
I would like to further discuss Ishiguro’s mention of banter towards the end of the novel to Stevens’ growth, particularly that he seems on his way to developing the capacity to express his emotions more freely. One of the key moments of the novel is when Stevens speculates while on the pier, “that in bantering lies the key to human warmth” (245). Stevens even plans on improving his bantering so much so as to “pleasantly surprise [his employer]” 245. For someone whose made a career as a butler working to prevent surprises, this is a drastic change. Although Stevens mentions an interest early in the novel for developing bantering skills, his interest is more driven by duty, thinking bantering as a job, linking “my failure to do so a form of negligence” (16).
The only factors that could have caused such a drastic change in someone who has been fighting change for so long was the realization that his heart was breaking and that he would probably never see Miss Kenton again. With Miss Kenton out of the picture, the only relationship Stevens has left is with his employer, and his decision to embrace banter is Ishiguro’s method revealing Stevens’ change.
The idea that hit me the hardest when reading about Stevens and his lack of emotions was that of regret. Often in the novel, we see Stevens saying one thing, but another character revealing a different situation than what he’s said. It’s as though Steven is trying to convince himself that he’s an emotion-less machine, but everyone around him sees the betrayal literally on his face (i.e. tears). This strikes me as particularly interesting if we look at Stevens as a representation of traditional Great Britain itself – understated, restrained, proper, loyal, etc. (This is an idea I haven’t quite had the time to flesh out- so I’m ready for backlash)
It seems, however, that we can draw a comparison between how Stevens spends his life working so hard to be proper and dignified, and just following the rules of formality that he misses the life that goes on in between the ongoing propriety. The idea that Great Britain’s methods are outmoded are repeated several times in the novel (incidentally re-iterated by the presence of Americans), demonstrating the Great nation’s sense of stagnation- a sense that Stevens conveys often.