The novel, The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro is about a butler named Stevens motoring through the countryside after serving Lord Darlington, a Nazi sympathizer, for thirty years. As Stevens road trip progresses, he makes a stop in the town of Moscombe for a rest break. There, Ishiguro makes the townspeople mistake him as a gentleman to construct a scene that explains Stevens’s stubbornness in letting go of his antiquated views towards dignity. Ishiguro is arguing that Stevens refuses to accept the new, modern worldview because it would completely nullify the dignity he believes he has acquired according to the old, aristocratic system. When the townspeople mistake Stevens for a butler, he gladly takes up the facade of a gentleman in …show more content…
183). After Stevens confirms Smith’s suspicion, Harry responds, “‘Absolute beauty, it is… never seen anything like it. Put[s] the car Mr Lindsay used to drive completely in the shade!’”(p. 183). Stevens is pretending to own a fancy automobile that puts other gentleman’s cars “completely in the shade” to gain the appearance of being wealthy and respected, which gives him the image of being a gentleman. Earlier in the novel, Stevens described his desire to be closer to the ‘hub,’ or the center of political activity in Britain at the time, which was conducted by aristocrats. He believes a servant’s dignity is directly tied to his master’s political activity. According to these ideals, Stevens should possess great dignity: he has served Lord Darlington who was crucial in British-German relationships. However, Stevens still has doubts about the dignity of his work. In an attempt to stem these doubts, Stevens pretends he is an aristocrat, essentially raising himself on the social ladder and placing himself …show more content…
He is desperately trying to cling to the old system, where his work was valuable and dignified, while refusing to accept the modern system, where his past service was meaningless. After Stevens argues that dignity is a quality that defines a gentleman, Harry Smith rants, “Dignity’s not just something for gentlemen’...‘That’s what we fought Hitler for, after all. If Hitler had had things his way, we’d just be slaves now. The whole world would be a few masters and millions upon millions of slaves. And I don’t need to remind anyone here, there’s no dignity to be had in being a slave,” (p. 186). Ishiguro uses the phrase, “few masters and millions upon millions of slaves” to show the role Stevens has willingly placed himself in aristocratic society: Stevens is the ‘slave’; his entire life is dedicated towards serving his master, Lord Darlington. Harry Smith ridicules slaves, or those who follow without hesitation, a quality which Stevens believes makes a good butler. Smith is arguing that those who serve
Finally, the government was unjust because of their need to treat black males as animals rather than men. During slavery the high level of cruelty towards slaves made it seem as though the man was an animal and was often referred to as such. Douglass didn’t take kindly to how laws had referenced to slaves as “beast of the field” (Douglass, 2011, p.780). He found it ridiculous that when it came to the law the term “man”
In The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro places Mr. Stevens’ stay at the Taylors’ house directly after Lord Darlington’s abrupt dismissal of two Jewish staff members, and he uses different tones and the repetition of key phrases in the two incidents to contrast the generosity, respect, and hospitality of the lower class with the racism, cruelty, and emotional detachment of the upper class nobles. Ishiguro especially contrasts the way the two classes treat each other with the courtesy of the lower class and the apathy of the upper class. Ishiguro uses a generally cold and distant tone while Lord Darlington is speaking to Stevens about firing the Jewish housemaids; however, he uses a warm and friendly tone when the Taylors and the rest of the villagers are speaking and being described. These contrasting tones exemplify the cold distance of Lord Darlington and the warm friendliness of the Taylors, and further of the upper and lower classes.
...details the transformation of a slave to a man. The institution of slavery defined a slave as less than human, and in order to perpetuate that impression, slaveholders forbade slaves the luxury of self definition. Therefore, when Douglass finally rejects the notions about his identity forced on him by slavery, and embraces an identity of his own creation, he has completed his journey from slave to man. He no longer defines himself in terms of the institution of slavery, but by his own thoughts regarding what his identity is. Through the metamorphosis of his identity as “an animal” to an author who fights for the abolitionist movement, Douglass presents his narrative not simply as a search for freedom, but also a search for himself.
On his motoring trip, Stevens meets a man named Harry Smith, who argues his own definition of “dignity';: “there’s no dignity in being a slave…no matter if you’re rich or poor, you’re born free and
Stevens pretending. Mr. Stevens has been suppressing his emotions for most of his adult life, probably all of his adult life. When a muscle is not used, it atrophies. Perhaps, in Mr. Stevens case, the same principle applies. Mr. Stevens has learned to control his emotions so well, that he does not have much of an emotional response when it is appropriate to have one. Mr. Stevens did not learn how to compartmentalize his business life and his personal life. Instead, the two are just one, leaving absolutely no room for personal feelings. Just as with the only space in the house that Mr. Stevens claims as his, the pantry. In the pantry, there is nothing personal that would bring happiness or comfort to Mr. Stevens. Where other people might have pictures of family and loved ones or little nick knacks, Mr. Stevens does not want anything in there that could possibly distract him. When Miss Kenton first starts at Darlington Hall, she attempts to be kind to Mr. Stevens and bring him flowers in order to bring life into his little pantry. Unfortunately, he rebukes her kindness. Here is the conversation between Mr. Stevens and Miss
The first master, Mr. Garner was in charge of the farm called “Sweet Home” before the other master named Schoolteacher took over. Mr. Garner ruled his slaves without raising a fist. He was a seemingly polite master. He considered his Slaves “men” and allowed them to do things that most owners wouldn’t. His slaves were allowed and encouraged to correct him, and “even defy him” (p.125). He allowed his slaves “to buy a mother, choose a horse or a wife, handle guns, even learn to read if they wanted to” (p.125). These are actions that a typical slave owner didn’t allow. But Mr. Garner was not a typical slave owner. He was a proud man, and very pleased with the way he ran his farm and his slaves. Some writers even feel tha...
Kazuo Ishiguro in his literary work, “The Remains Of The Day”, implements a complex interplay between author and narrator. The interplay allows readers to gain perspective as to the true nature of, Mr. Stevens, the narrators identity. Mr. Stevens in various moments of the novel unconsciously disengages from his usual use of deception and tricky verbiage to reveal his identity as a sympathetic, tragic character that falls victim to his circumstances, which lost any personal identification because of a codependent relationship to his profession and more specifically to Lord Darlington.
At the start of the novel the narrator is a Magistrate in an unnamed town on the frontier of an Empire. On its edge live the ‘Barbarians’. The Magistrate encounters a head of a secret service, Colonel Joll, who has been sent by the empire to wage war against the ‘Barbarians’. Colonel Joll captures some of them and tortures them in the name of finding out the ‘truth’ (5) about the rumoured ‘Barbarian’ uprising. In the meantime, the Magistrate takes in a barbarian girl, who takes to begging in the town, after being left behind by her people on their return to the desert (28). After a while, taking pity on the girl, he takes her back to her people (79) then real trouble starts. A new officer named Mandel comes to the town and takes charge of his office (84). The Magistrate is arrested and tortured before being left free.
Lane, for example, the lowly butler of Algernon, is used to give an unfamiliar perspective to the social class problem: the neglected lower class is finally given a voice (Wilde 7). Reality in this period was that the lower class virtually never got to state their opinions or defend themselves, so Wilde used the character of Lane for people to visualize their treatment of the lower classes and be held accountable for their distasteful actions against them (Victorian). Furthermore, Lady Bracknell represents yet another perspective: the posh, frivolous lifestyle of the upper class and how backwards their thinking was. At one point in the play, Jack and Gwendolen are discussing their plans of marriage to Lady Bracknell. After interrogating Jack about his familial ties and his past life, she disapproves of their engagement (Wilde 69). Her reasoning was clear: she did not want Gwendolen to have even the slightest chance of marrying into a poor family, even if that was what made her happiest. Bracknell's eternal craving for more wealth and reverence is exactly what Wilde wanted readers to frown upon and take out of their own
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
Christ, Carol T., Catherine Robson, Stephen Greenblatt, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.
Stevens thinks of his past about Miss Kenton a lot. She used to be a former housekeeper at Darlington Hall and then quit her job to get married. Mr. Stevens reads Miss Kenton’s letter for several time, he cannot deny that he misses her. The time when Miss Kenton and Mr. Stevens still works at Darlington Hall together, there are many moments that make Stevens feels regret for missing the chances that Kenton gives him. In the past, when Miss Kenton realizes that she loves Stevens, but Stevens tries to act nothing. She tells Stevens that Mr. Benn is proposal her and she accepts it. She expects some reaction from him, but he congratulations to her. In fact Mr. Stevens also loves her, but he unacceptable to let private feelings decreasing his professional. A few weeks later, Miss Kenton’s aunt is passed away and she cries so hard in her room. Stevens wants to console her, but he afraids to interrupt her private grief. At present, Stevens hopes that Miss Kenton will be turn back to Darlington Hall not only to work but also relieve his doubts and regrets as
A 3-page paper on the topic of the Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man.” The paper analyzes the structure of the writing. No sources are used besides the source material.
By combining Falstaff’s individuality, personal values, and audience appeal, the character of Falstaff conveys an important theme: the significance of the individual. Though societal values and the individuals within those societies depend on one another, Falstaff confirms the urgent need for one to stay true to who they are, no matter what societal norms decree. Falstaff survives by adhering to his own beliefs, and by doing so remains immortal within the realm of literature.
By taking the duchess’s arrogant attitudes seriously, she represents the ladies of her class as smiling brownnosers, ready to do the beck and call of their betters in order to be approved them. Lady Windermere not only reforms herself to fit the duchess’s standards, she ends up imitating her attitude toward men, specifically Lord Darlington, and society. She immediately humbles herself before the duchess, making her ball seem smaller to become a mere dance and vowing that she will only invite the proper company of which the duchess approves. Towards the end she even teases Lord Darlington in a similar manner to the duchess’s, calling him trivial, and lightly chastising him about his “foolish insincerity” in a playful