Introduction
Ever since Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “The Remains of the Day” was published in 1989, the foremost message it conveys has been discussed from a variety of different perspectives. However, most literary critics agree that in “The Remains of the Day”, Kazuo Ishiguro was striving to expose the concept of an old-fashioned “dignity”, embodied in the character of Stevens, as being counter-productive. For example, in his article “Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day”, Jack Slay suggests that it was namely due to Stevens’ emotional coldness that the novel’s main character had found himself unable to pursue a romantic relationship with Miss Kenton: “Unable to respond to her (Kenton’s) intimations of the desired relationship, Stevens allows the one possible love of his life to escape. His extreme professionalism prevents him from responding emotionally to Miss Kenton on any level, allowing her instead to slip away into marriage and forever away from him” (Slay 1997, p. 182). However, we have a good reason to believe that in his novel, Ishiguro was far from trying to ridicule the behavioral virtues associated with the popular perception of a “good old Britain”. On the contrary – it is namely the fact that Stevens was able to suppress his emotions, while on the line of duty, which provided his character with existential wholesomeness. In this paper, we will aim at exploring our thesis to a further extent.
Main part
It is a well-established fact that people deeply associated with a particular culture, are rarely capable of defining such culture’s metaphysical essence, simply because it often proves quite impossible, on their part, to distance themselves emotionally from the values upon which this culture is being based. In its turn, this explains the phenomenon of many authors being able to gain literary fame as experts on countries they wrote about, despite the fact that they had never even traveled to these countries. For example, despite the fact that famous French author Jules Verne had never left France in real life, in his literary works he was able to prove himself an expert on the way of life in many different countries, throughout the world. In its turn, this explains how in “The Remains of the Day”, Ishiguro was able to provide readers with insight on the very spirit of “Englishness”, despite his Japanese ethnic origins – it was namely due to the author’s ability to assume a stance on an unengaged observer while retelling the story of Stevens’ life, which allowed him to present readers with a subtly defined answer as to what used to account for Britain’s geopolitical greatness in the past.
As Adolph Hitler in his “Table Talks” had put it: “The Englishman is superior to the German in one respect – that of pride. Only the man who knows how to give orders and how to obey unquestionably has pride” (Trevor-Roper 2000, p. 11). Therefore, even though that “The Remains of the Day” is being seemingly concerned with exploring the harmful effects of Stevens’ hypertrophied sense of personal dignity, the novel’s philosophical undertones leave no doubt as to the fact that Ishiguro thought of his main character with admiration – despite the fact that Steven was unable to achieve personal happiness, he nevertheless managed to maintain dignity in how he addressed life’s challenges. And, this is only the thing that matters in the end.
Apparently, Stevens’ sense of existential idealism allowed him to think of the concept of dignity as having a value in itself – in Stevens’ eyes, life’s problems had no power of affecting his existential stance even slightly. This is exactly the reason why, throughout the novel, Stevens never ceases expressing his contempt towards people who are being enslaved by their own emotions: “A man who will, at the slightest provocation, tear off his suit and his shirt and run about screaming, does not deserve respect” (Ishiguro 1990, p. 43). The fact that Stevens served Lord Darlington with utter dedication had turned him into an “aristocrat of spirit”, despite his low social status. It was not merely by an accident that, throughout the course of his journey to Little Compton, Stevens had often been mistaken for a gentleman – apparently, Lord Darling’s butler had never ceased to radiate nobleness, just as it was the case with his master.
Therefore, we cannot agree with suggestions that Stevens’ acute sense of professionalism merely served him as an excuse not to become politically or sexually active and also helped him to conceal his mental insecurities. In fact, it would also be a mistake to think of Stevens’ unwillingness to express his feelings to Miss Kenton as proof of his “fear of women”, as some feminist-minded literary critics imply. It appears that Stevens was well aware of the fact that only a tragic love has aesthetic subtleties, just as it was the case with medieval knights, who were often willing to dedicate their whole lives to serving their “dames of heart”, without even hoping to be able to meet these “dames” in reality. It is exactly due to Stevens’ feelings towards Miss Kenton being of platonic rather than of sensual nature, which accounted for the sheer strength of these feelings and also for the fact that his love to this woman never attained comedic undertones.
Just as ancient Greeks, Stevens’ associated the concept of emotionally charged love with existential immaturity, while rightly suspecting that, had he admitted of his feelings to Miss Kenton, it would have deprived him of his dignity as an intellectually and aesthetically refined individual. Being an “aristocrat of spirit”, Stevens’ liked savoring tragic and therefore noble aspects of his love to Miss Kenton, while always remaining in full control of his feelings – apparently, Stevens’ knew perfectly well that it is men’s ability to adjust their behavior to considerations of rationale and self-discipline, which signifies their value as potential husbands, in the eyes of women. In its turn, this explains why the intensity of Miss Kenton’s attraction towards Stevens never diminished.
In his article “Spontaneous Mirth” out of “a Misplaced Respectfulness”: A Bakhtinian Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day”, Seonjoo Park makes a perfectly good point while stating that: “Steven’s stylization does not function like a mask that hides his “essential,” “real,” and “truthful” self. On the contrary – the rigid stylization to which Stevens devotes himself does not frustrate his unspoken love with Miss Kenton but, in a paradoxical way, produces it” (Park 2008, p. 50). Nowadays, people in Western countries are being prompted to disregard such concepts as “dignity”, “self-discipline” and “rationale” as utterly euro-centric, and therefore – “evil”, since the notion of euro-centrism does not quite correlate with the policy of “multiculturalism”, which is the main reason why large cities in these countries are now being slowly reduced into Third World slums, where “ethnically unique” citizens explore their cultural roots by setting cars on fire and indulging in gang-rape.
However, Stevens was brought up in a time when Britain “ruled the waves”, in the literal sense of this word. And, it was due to the psychological traits of Britons, as utterly rationalistic and euro-centrically minded individuals, which allowed them to subject Third World nations to their rule with such amazing ease. For example, from 1900 to 1945, only five thousand British administrators exercised full political control over the native population of three hundred million in India. The reason such a situation became possible, in the first place, is because native Indians used to perceive British colonists as superior beings, due to their ability to act “as necessary”, as opposed to Indians’ traditional way of acting “as it feels like”. And, it is only people committed to executing their professional duties with utter dedication, who are capable of acting “as necessary”.
This is the reason why Stevens used to take pride in his loyalty towards Lord Darlington: “My vocation will not be fulfilled until I have done all I can to see his lordship through the great tasks he has set himself. The day his lordship’s work is complete, the day he is able to rest on his laurels, content in the knowledge that he has done all anyone could ever reasonably ask of him, only on that day will I be able to call myself a well-contented man” (Ishiguro 1990, p. 173). Therefore, it is quite inappropriate to refer to Stevens’ dedication to his master as the proof of butler’s inability to expand his intellectual horizons. On the contrary – as it appears from Ishiguro’s novel, Stevens’ professional loyalty to Lord Darlington derived out of his ability to operate with highly abstract terms, which in its turn, derived out of Stevens’ strongly defined sense of existential idealism.
Brian Shaffer’s book “Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro”, contains an excerpt from an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro, during the course of which the acclaimed British author had suggested that the character of Stevens cannot be discussed outside of a popular image of Britain as probably the greatest country on Earth: “What I’m trying to do there is to actually rework a particular myth about a certain kind of mythical England, an England with sleepy, beautiful villages with very polite people and butlers” (Shaffer 1998, p. 88). Thus, the character of Stevens can be thought of as a physical embodiment of typically British existential values, as such that is being concerned with “essence” rather than with mere “appearance”.
As a highly idealistic and culturally refined individual, Stevens’ never strived to increase the intensity of his emotional experiences, just as people with well-developed culinary tastes never go about putting too many spices on grilled steaks. While being exposed to the sight of the English countryside, Stevens comes to the realization that it was named the absence of cheap dramatics about the scenery, which directly corresponded to its aesthetic value: “The English landscape at its finest—such as I saw this morning—possesses a quality that the landscapes of other nations, however more superficially dramatic, inevitably fail to possess… I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it” (Ishiguro 1990, p. 95). Therefore, there was nothing psychologically repressive about Stevens’ behavior – as a true intellectual, Lord Darlington’s butler was aware of a simple fact that one’s tendency to freely manifest its emotions indicates such person is at odds with spiritual and intellectual values, upon which Western civilization is being firmly based. The fact that such countries as Britain, Germany and France were able to attain geopolitical prominence is because the populations of these countries consisted of people who knew how to prevent their animalistic urges from affecting their existential mode. On the other hand, the tribes consisting of people who did not know how to do it were never able to advance beyond the Stone Age.
Conclusion
Nowadays, citizens in Western countries are being made to believe that there is absolutely no difference between them and those savages in Third World countries who are being solely preoccupied with indulging in tribal warfare, in time free from making love to just about anything that moves. However, the reading of “The Remains of the Day” effectively dispels this neo-Liberal myth, because it provides readers with the insight into the fact that the very concept of civility cannot be thought of as a “thing in itself” – it is only those in full control of their emotions, who qualify for the role of civilization’s builders and maintainers.
Moreover, through the character of Stevens, Ishiguro provides readers with the elitist advice on how ordinary citizens can contribute to the well-being of their countries: “Those of us who wish to make our mark must realize that we best do so by concentrating on what is within our realm; that is to say, by devoting our attention to providing the best possible service to those great gentlemen in whose hands the destiny of civilization truly lies” (Ishiguro 1990, p. 199). It is due to the fact that in today’s Britain “great gentlemen” have been reduced to the bunch of conniving bureaucrats, solely preoccupied with indulging in politically correct rhetoric, which explains why the process of this country being turned into the “Northern Pakistan” had begun, in the first place. Had Britons helped people like Lord Darlington establishing contacts with German officials, prior to the outbreak of WW2, this war would have never begun – 400.000 British soldiers would not have needlessly died on the battlefield, while fighting for the interests of international Plutocracy, and British Empire would have never collapsed. Yet, British citizens’ ignorance prompted them to support Churchill, which is why Britain is now being deprived of its national identity by our own politicians, who encourage the hordes of immigrants from the Third World to “celebrate diversity” on British soil at the expense of British taxpayers.
Such our suggestion corresponds rather well to this paper’s initial thesis – it is not only that the character of Stevens should be thoroughly admired, but readers should also be prompted to read Stevens’ monologues as such that contain answers as to what is wrong with today’s Britain, and with Western civilization, in general.
Bibliography
Ishiguro, Kazuo “The Remains of the Day”. London: Vintage, 1990.
Park, Seonjoo “Spontaneous Mirth’ out of ‘a Misplaced Respectfulness’: A Bakhtinian Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Remains of the Day“. Ariel, 39.3 (2008): 45-71.
Shaffer, Brian “Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro”, Columbia, S.C.:University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Slay, Jack “Ishiguro’s ‘The Remains of the Day’”. The Explicator, 55.6 (1997): 180-2.
Trevor-Roper, Hugh “Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944”. NY: Enigma Books, 2000.