The Remains of the Day

Stevens recalls one of the “incidents” (104) when, at Darlington Hall, he heard an explicit example of fascist ideology. During that time, Lord Darlington makes friends with someone named Carolyn Barnet. She is a member of the British Union of Fascists, commonly known as the blackshirts. Two young Jewish girls had come to work at Darlington Hall. Under Carolyn’s influence, Lord Darlington tells Stevens to fire the young girls because they “cannot have Jews on the staff here at Darlington Hall” (105). That evening, Stevens sits down with Miss Kenton to drink cocoa, as he does most nights in meetings that were “predominantly professional in character” (106). They review the day, and Stevens mentions the need to fire the girls. Stevens admits that he knows the girls to be excellent maids, but he does not feel it proper to question his employer. Even when he is alone with Miss Kenton, he refuses to question Lord Darlington. Miss Kenton is shocked. She believes Lord Darlington is wrong to fire the girls just because they are Jewish, which is tantamount to “a sin” (107). She threatens to resign if they are fired.

The girls are fired, but Miss Kenton does not resign. Stevens teases Miss Kenton occasionally about the matter. A year later, Stevens remembers, she confessed to him that she was too scared to follow through on her threat as she had nowhere to go if she left her position, which made her feel “ashamed” (110). During this conversation, Stevens admits to Miss Kenton that Lord Darlington has privately expressed his regret at firing the young Jewish girls. He has gone so far as to ask Stevens to track down the girls though he has not yet succeeded in doing so. Miss Kenton is distressed, especially as Stevens never admitted his personal feelings about the matter. She begs him to tell her why he must always guard his feelings and “pretend” (110), but Stevens cannot respond.

Stevens and Miss Kenton hire a new maid named Lisa after the two Jewish girls are fired. Stevens is skeptical about Lisa, but Miss Kenton insists she will be a good employee as she shows “much potential” (111). After Lisa improves quickly, Stevens is impressed and congratulates Miss Kenton. She teases him that he seems to have “a curious aversion to pretty girls being on the staff” (112), joking that he may feel unable to resist her charms. Stevens refutes her joke. After less than a year, however, Stevens is proved right. Lisa elopes with one of the footmen. Miss Kenton is upset and tells Stevens that he was right. Stevens disputes her claim, assuring her that she did well in training Lisa and that such incidents are not rare. Stevens and Miss Kenton agree that Lisa should not “throwaway” (114) her career for a romantic adventure.

Stevens believes that his relationship with Miss Kenton changed around 1935, but he cannot pinpoint the exact moment of change. He remembers her entering his pantry one night without knocking, and her insistence on seeing whatever book he was reading resulted in her being physically close for the first time. The book was little more than a sentimental love story, and, after, Stevens politely showed her from his pantry. He claims that he only read such books as they represent “an extremely efficient way to maintain and develop one’s command of the English language” (121). He chastises her for breaking protocol and entering his quarters when he is technically off duty. Afterward, he became concerned that their relationship was not wholly professional, so he strove to avoid further inappropriate interactions.

During this time, Stevens notices that Miss Kenton has begun “suddenly to take full advantage of her contracted time off” (122). In one of their late-night cocoa meetings, she admits that she has been meeting an old acquaintance, a butler, at another home where she once worked. Stevens knows the man and Grantchester Lodge, where he works. He claims that the butler and the household are expertly run. Miss Kenton says that she “cannot imagine” (125) what more Stevens might want from life than to run a large, well-regarded house. In another meeting a week later, Miss Kenton suddenly confesses that her recent absentmindedness is because she feels so “very tired” (126). Stevens is surprised. He ends the meeting, as well as all their other meetings.

Miss Kenton’s aunt dies a few weeks after her outburst. She tells Stevens and then asks for a moment alone. She goes into another room, and, to his horror, he realizes that he “had not actually offered her [his] condolences” (128). Stevens is torn between interrupting a crying woman and failing to be polite. She spends several hours alone in her room, and Stevens carefully sidesteps the issue when she emerges. He talks instead about work, and, seeming tired once more, Miss Kenton agrees to go to talk to the maids. She excuses herself from Stevens’s presence. Moments such as this, Stevens believes, represent pivotal moments in his life. If he had acted a little differently, his life might have unfolded in a very different manner. He regrets that such pivotal “turning points” (130) seem relatively small during the time they occur.

While driving his car, Stevens comes to a stop. The car is out of gas. Stevens is forced to take refuge in a nearby house when a local couple named Mr. and Mrs. Taylor offers to help him. He stays with them, and after word of his presence spreads through the village, it seems “the whole village” (132) passes by the Taylor house to meet him. They believe that he is a real gentleman, and Stevens launches into a description of his beliefs about dignity, allowing them to continue under the misapprehension he is an aristocrat rather than a mere butler. Stevens is told about a doctor named Carlisle who lives in the area. Like Stevens, the locals say, Carlisle is also a gentleman. The locals quiz Stevens about his life. While not explicitly saying he was a butler, Stevens says he has met famous politicians such as Winston Churchill. The locals are impressed. Carlisle arrives, and the locals share Stevens’s stories about meeting famous politicians with him. Carlisle seems able to detect that Stevens is not quite being truthful. Stevens, noticing “the doctor’s eyes examining [him] closely” (139), claims that he must go to bed. Carlisle offers to help him fetch gas for his car, and they arrange to meet the next day.

Stevens is discomforted by the locals’ mistaken impression of his aristocratic status. He remembers discussing his idea of dignity with one of the locals, a working-class man named Harry Smith. Harry refuted Stevens’s idea of “dignity” (141), claiming that true dignity comes from a working man who embraces his capacity for political change. Stevens rejects Harry’s beliefs as idealistic. He does not believe ordinary people can know everything. He evidences this belief by remembering a time at Darlington Hall when one of Lord Darlington’s friends named Mr. Spencer quizzed Stevens on complicated political issues. Stevens declined to answer any of the questions; Spencer uses Stevens’s polite responses as proof that ordinary such as Stevens and “the few million others like him” (143) are not to be trusted with complex political matters, so the rich and powerful should reject democracy as fundamentally unworkable. Lord Darlington apologized for his friend’s rudeness but did not fundamentally disagree with the principal. He believes democracy is “something for a bygone era” (144). Still loyal to his former employer, Stevens suggests that these ideas may be unpopular but insists that they contain “an important element of truth” (145). He believes that a butler answering such questions would be utterly absurd.

To Stevens, butlers who question the actions and beliefs of their employers are fundamentally misguided. A butler with opinions of his own is not a loyal butler. Stevens believes a butler should, naturally, dedicate his life to the service of one person he finds to be “noble and admirable” (146). Stevens dedicated his life to serving Lord Darlington; even after the ensuing scandal, he does not feel he wasted his life. He has no shame and no regrets about dedicating his life to Lord Darlington.