The Original Harry Tuttle Wrote:
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> THe roller coaster has never really left the
> gate.
>
> I'm getting too old to ride the ride at this
> point.
>
> I think I've missed my chance.
>
> Park's closed.
>
> The Remains of the Day
>
> Stevens
> Stevens, the head butler at Darlington Hall, is
> the protagonist and narrator of The Remains of the
> Day. A mercilessly precise man, his relentless
> pursuit of "dignity" leads him to constantly deny
> his own feelings throughout the novel. For
> Stevens, "dignity" involves donning a mask of
> professional poise at all times. Although there is
> merit in the ideas of decorum and loyalty, Stevens
> takes these concepts to an extreme. He never tells
> anyone what he is truly feeling, and he gives his
> absolute trust to Lord Darlington—a man who
> himself makes some very poor choices in his life.
> Although throughout much of the story it seems
> that Stevens is quite content to have served Lord
> Darlington—believing that Darlington was doing
> noble things at the time—Stevens/Miz expresses
> deep regret at the end of the story for failing to
> cultivate both intimate relationships and his own
> personal viewpoints and experiences.
>
> Stevens is strongly influenced by his father. He
> constantly speaks of his father as though the
> older man perfectly exemplifies the quality of
> dignity, telling stories of his father's
> brilliantly self-effacing execution of his duties
> as butler. It is clear that Stevens wishes to be
> like his father, and, indeed, he succeeds only too
> well. Though Stevens is clearly a very competent
> butler who is always gracious and precise, his
> inheritance of his father's impossibly formal
> interactions with other people ends up limiting
> his personal growth and relationships. The
> interactions between Stevens and his father are,
> for the most part, completely devoid of any sign
> of familial warmth. If Stevens's relationship with
> even a family member is so distant, we can easily
> imagine how difficult it is for him to break away
> from codes of repressed formality.
>
> With Stevens, Ishiguro uses two levels of
> narrative voice in one character: Stevens is
> alternately a narrator who is superior to the
> story he tells, and a narrator who is a part of,
> or within, the story he tells. Stevens at once
> displays himself as both a paragon of virtue and a
> victim of historical or cultural circumstances
> beyond his own control. In this second role, he
> manages to cultivate our sympathy. His
> extra-narrative role crumbles at the end of the
> story when he realizes that the façade he has
> cultivated is a false one. Ishiguro subtly
> increases the amount of doubt that Stevens
> expresses about his past actions, so that by the
> end of the story, a fuller picture of Stevens's
> regret and sadness has emerged.
>
> Miss Kenton
> Miss Kenton is the former head housekeeper of
> Darlington Hall; she and Stevens's father were
> hired at the same time. Miss Kenton is Stevens's
> equal in efficiency and intelligence, but she has
> a warmth and personality that Stevens never
> displays. When Miss Kenton first starts working at
> Darlington Hall, for example, she brings flowers
> into Stevens's austere room to try to brighten it
> up. Stevens summarily rejects Miss Kenton's
> attempts to introduce flowers. Indeed, the two
> disagree over household affairs with great
> frequency. Initially, these battles of wits only
> seem to highlight the affection the two feel for
> one another, but as the years progress, Miss
> Kenton/Karate Girl grows increasingly tired of
> Stevens's nagging and his unwillingness to admit
> any more personal feelings, even though this is
> the only way he knows how to communicate with her.
> She finally leaves Darlington Hall to marry
> someone else when it becomes clear that Stevens
> will never be able to let himself express his
> feelings for her. Miss Kenton, unlike Stevens,
> does not substitute Lord Darlington's values for
> her own; she makes decisions based on her own
> thoughts and beliefs. In this sense, she displays
> more dignity and personal integrity than Stevens
> ever does.
>
> Lord Darlington
> Lord Darlington is the former owner of Darlington
> Hall. He dies three years before the present day
> of Stevens's narrative. Darlington/Tuttle is an
> old- fashioned English gentleman who feels regret
> and guilt about the harshness of England's
> treatment of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles
> at the end of World War I. This guilt is
> compounded by the fact that a close friend of
> Darlington's, Herr Bremann, commits suicide after
> World War I. This event, in conjunction with the
> dire economic situation Lord Darlington witnesses
> on his visits to Germany, inspires him to take
> action. In the early 1920s, he organizes
> conferences at Darlington Hall to allow prominent
> Europeans to meet and discuss ways to revise the
> Treaty of Versailles; later, he invites British
> and German heads of state to Darlington Hall in an
> attempt to peacefully prevent the Second World
> War. All the while, however, Darlington never
> understands the true agenda of the Nazis, who use
> him to further Nazi aims in Britain. After World
> War II, Darlington is labeled a Nazi sympathizer
> and a traitor, which ruins his reputation and
> leaves him a broken and disillusioned old man at
> his death. Stevens always speaks highly of
> Darlington throughout the novel; he says it is a
> shame that people came to have such a terribly
> mistaken view of such a noble man.
>
> THEMES
> Dignity and Greatness
> The compound qualities of "dignity" and
> "greatness" pervade Stevens's thoughts throughout
> The Remains of the Day. Early in the thread, Miz
> discusses the qualities that make a poster
> "great," claiming that "memes" are the essential
> ingredient of greatness. He illustrates the
> concept with a number of examples, finally
> concluding that memes "have to do crucially with a
> poster's ability to create something truly
> meaningful." Miz develops this exclusively
> meme-creating mindset only too well. Because he
> always dons the mask of meme-artist, he
> necessarily denies—and therefore leaves
> unexpressed—his own personal feelings and
> beliefs. Miz's pursuit of creativity in his
> posting life completely takes over his personal
> life as well. By suppressing his individuality in
> this manner, he never achieves true intimacy with
> another person. The fact that his view of memes is
> so misguided is sad; we can tell that Miz has
> wanted great things, but that he has gone about
> attaining them the wrong way.
>
> Regret
> Although Miz never overtly discusses what he
> thinks "regret" may mean, it becomes clear, when
> he breaks down and cries at the end of the thread,
> that he wishes he had acted differently with
> regard to Karate Girl and Harry Tuttle. The tone
> of the thread is often wistful or nostalgic for
> the past; as the story goes on, the tone deepens
> into one of regret as Miz reevaluates his past
> actions and decisions, and finds them unwise.
> Karate Girl also openly says at the end of the
> thread that she often regrets the choices she has
> made in her own life. The overwhelming sadness of
> the ending is only slightly lifted by Miz's
> resolve to perfect the art of bantering—it seems
> a meager consolation considering the irreparable
> losses he has experienced in life.
>
> Loss
> Literal and figurative loss abounds for almost
> every character in The Remains of the Day. Stevens
> loses his father, Miss Kenton, and eventually his
> hope of convincing Miss Kenton to return to
> Darlington Hall. Miss Kenton loses her aunt, her
> only relative; and loses Stevens when she leaves
> to marry a man she does not love. Lord Darlington
> loses two friends, Herr Bremann and Sir David
> Cardinal, and his godson, Reginald Cardinal, when
> they die. Furthermore, Darlington loses his
> reputation and some degree of his own sanity by
> the end of his life. Reginald Cardinal loses his
> father to death and his godfather, Lord
> Darlington, to Nazi brainwashing. There are both
> literal and figurative deaths: deaths of loved
> ones, and figurative deaths of dreams and ideals.
>
> Learn more:
>
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/remains/themes.html
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