#4 The Remains of the Day

On this episode of Lasting Literature, we discuss The Remains of the Day, a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. We talk about what's at the heart of the novel: the tragedy of chasing greatness, the cost of ambition, and what it means to live a real human life.

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Transcript

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Imagine pouring your all into something. You sacrifice everything to this thing because you believe it's your duty in order to be great and you want nothing else but to be great. But as you reach the end of your life and reminisce on the things you've sacrificed, you realize the thing you devoted yourself to meant almost nothing. This is the tragedy at the heart of the Remains of the Day, a novel by Kazuro Ishiguro that we'll be discussing on today's episode of the podcast. So, yes, in this episode, we are taking a quick break from Russian literature, which if you haven't already listened to our episodes on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment or Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ivelich and Tolstoy's Confession. You can find those episodes in the back catalog. And if you'd like to support the podcast, you can do so by, of course, following and sharing. But if you want to go a step further, I will recommend checking out my substack. You can sign up for free, but the paid subscription will give you access to all my past and future issues of a subsection titled Marginalia. I read a lot of books preparing for these podcast episodes for future episodes and for my own curiosity and pleasure. In every week, an issue of marginalia goes out. I recommend three to four books I've enjoyed with snippets of my annotations and marginalia, along with other thoughts on the reading life and things I've learned throughout my devotion to great literature. Thank you for considering. While on this road trip, we get a look inside Stevens' memories of his service under Lord Darlington while he reminisces on past events at Darlington Hall in the 1920s and 30s. Through these events told by Stevens' point of view, we get a look into what he sacrificed in order to be a great butler, which is an ongoing theme in this novel. What does it mean to be a great butler? Stevens defines a great butler as someone who is calm, self-controlled, and holds a sense of dignity. A great butler is completely devoted to duty and never puts their needs before others. A great butler is one you barely notice, but who makes everything run in perfect order. This becomes Stevens' professional philosophy, a philosophy he won't compromise for anything. And as the narrative goes on, the reader starts to realize that in Stevens silencing himself to be a devoted professional butler, he may have silenced the very parts of life that make it worth living. We see the memories through Stevens' perspective, and so we see how Stevens wants to remember it. It's not necessarily that Stevens is deceiving the reader, but he is reframing the memories he is recounting as he wants to remember them. He downplays regrets and avoids uncomfortable truths. One scene I found truly heartbreaking is when Stevens' father dies. It goes like this That evening there was an important political gathering at Darlington Hall, and Stevens was extremely busy with the guests and making sure everything was running perfectly. Stevens truly believes this was a kind of evening that defines history until Miss Keaton alarms him his father's not well and is in his final moments. Miss Keaton tries to get Stevens to go upstairs away from the guests and to be with his father as he's in his last moments. And Stevens does eventually go upstairs to see his dying father, but almost immediately leaves to go back to serve at the event. We can see that he is repressing his emotions and doesn't allow even the death of his father to get in the way of serving at this important event that Lord Darlington is hosting. Stevens' father dies that night without his son beside him. This is the moment Stevens proves to the reader that he fits his own definition of greatness, but it also reveals the cost. Steven sacrificed this final moment with his father in order to be a great butler to a man Stevens thinks is an architect of peace. But there's a huge problem with Stevens' idea of greatness that he never fully allows himself to confront. Lord Darlington wasn't what Stevens thought he was. As the story unfolds, we begin to see something Stevens refuses to see. Lord Darlington was naive, misguided, and even dangerous. He aligns himself with Nazi sympathizers and participates in political meetings that attempt to influence the course of Europe. And Stevens stands quietly in the background, serving drinks, polishing silverware, and ensuring everything runs smoothly. He doesn't question the idea that he may be on the wrong side of history. An example of this in the narrative is when Lord Darlington decides to dismiss two Jewish maids from the household. Not because they've done anything wrong or because they are incompetent, but simply because they are Jewish. Stevens doesn't question Lord Darlington's choice. He carries out the order calmly and professionally. Meanwhile, Miss Keaton is horrified. She thinks it's unjust in that they are two good workers who have done nothing to deserve being fired. But Stevens doesn't engage with the moral weight of it at all. Instead, he reframes the situation as a matter of duty. He insists that it's not his place to question his employer, that a great butler serves regardless of personal opinions. And even years later, when he reflects on this moment, he doesn't fully condemn it. He softens it. He distances himself from it. This point in the story does a couple of things. It shows Lord Darlington is not the flawless and heroic man Stevens thinks he is, and that he's actually extremely misguided and will be on the wrong side of history. Next, it shows Stevens is avoiding the moral responsibility of the situation by hiding behind his definition of greatness. Because to question Lord Darlington would be to question Stevens' entire life, which is something he will not bring himself to do. And finally, it shows Miss Keaton as a moral contrast and as the moral anchor of the story, which is what we'll now talk about. Miss Keaton worked with Stevens at Darlington Hall, and their relationship was odd. While Stevens goes back through his memories, we see something he refuses to see. Miss Keaton wanted to love Stevens, but once again, Stevens represses his emotions in order to best serve Lord Darlington. Miss Keaton represents something dangerous to Stevens in his philosophy. She challenges him, she teases him, she tries again and again to pull him out from behind the mask of dignity he's built his entire identity around. There are moments where he can feel it, where something almost breaks through. A conversation lingers a little too long, a silence feels a little too heavy, but every time Stevens retreats, he believes he has a total devotion to duty. And love, emotion, personal desire are all distractions. So instead of stepping towards Miss Keaton, he steps back into his role. He chooses professionalism over vulnerability. He chooses service over connection. He chooses the idea of greatness over an actual life. What makes it even more painful is Miss Keaton waits. She gives him opportunities, clear ones, not abstract, not subtle, real openings where all Stevens has to do is respond honestly. Just once, but he never does. And eventually, Miss Keaton does leave and gets married and builds a life elsewhere while Stevens stays exactly where he is. And this brings us back to the reason why Stevens goes on a road trip years after Miss Keaton left Darlington Hall, the letter Miss Keaton sent to him, in which Stevens believes she's hinting at an unhappy marriage. Stevens and Miss Keaton at last meet again at the end of Stevens' road trip and they talk for hours upon hours, catching up as old friends. Stevens eventually asks her if she's unhappy as he suspected. She responds and says no, but it took her a long time to be happy and to love the man she is now married to because she constantly would think of the life she could have with Stevens. And this is the very subtle but extremely devastating part of the novel. Stevens is externally confronted with the truth that he could have had all the things that make life worth living, but chose to conform himself to his failable definition of being great. And after everything, after the memories, the realizations, the quiet devastation, Stevens finds himself sitting on a bench by the sea. And for a moment, it feels like something might finally break, that he might confront the truth, that he might grieve the life he didn't live. But instead, he does something else. He decides to learn how to banter. Because he believes will make him a better butler for his new witty American employer. And that is the tragedy. Not that Stevens doesn't realize what he's lost, but that even when he does, he still cannot let go of the identity that costs him everything. He still chooses duty, he still chooses dignity, he still chooses the performance over the person. And maybe that's the real warning of this novel that a life devoted entirely to being great in the eyes of others can leave you with nothing of your own. No love, no truth, no self. Just the remains of the day. Thank you so much for watching this short episode of Lasting Literature. Um, again, I will mention my Substack. You can totally sign up for free, but the paid subscription will give you more things and will support me in making these episodes. I do really, really appreciate you guys. And thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.