This novel presents a very strong unreliable narrator, Stevens, as he mostly tells us about his past life through a series of flashbacks. In these flashbacks, Stevens tells us about his old life as a butler at Darlington Hall and his interactions with Miss Kenton, whom he is currently driving to visit while he recollects these stories.One of the most prevalent tones I picked up on in this story is the nagging flags of regret and guilt Steven carries about his past actions.
I believe the main focus of his regret throughout the book is the blurred line between professionalism and personal expression. You can see through Stevens’ actions that he is a considerably shy and unsocially character which innately causes the source of his guilt upon future reflection. The reader can make a strong inference that Miss Kenton was in love with Stevens and from Stevens’ recollection he was in love with her as well. Despite this mutual pining no further relationship followed.You can make several connection to conclude that Stevens inability to show emotional venerability in his past work place is the cause of this disconnect. He lacked proper knowledge of how to emotionally connect with people and even missed his own fathers death due to his inability to stop working.
Of course, all this information is subjective as Stevens shows a blatant unreliability in his own past emotions and experiences. He tells relatively convenient stories and only offers corrections sparingly. The ambiguity is key to how well the tone is established throughout the story.I believe with both the ambiguity and remorseful tone the collection gives a very objective idealism of Stevens’ life that the narrator must give the story themselves by using evaluative questioning.
One of the most intriguing parts about the novel was definitely Stevens’s perception of himself through his professionalism versus the way that he’s clearly emotional and carries around parts of his life that he doesn’t want to acknowledge or wonder about. While I wouldn’t call him shy, he doesn’t have much difficulty actually talking to anyone (including strangers), I would classify him as being more introverted. He appears to be more comfortable whenever there’s less for him to say and less for him to possibly have to overthink. On the point you made about his unreliability, that is true, but what I personally found ironic about his recollection of the events that happened was how thought to include what others pointed out about him. If he was really so concerned about upkeeping his image then that leads me to wonder now why he included the bit about the comment about him crying after he last spoke to his father or how Miss Kenton pointed out he was making a fuss in the kitchen after she told him that she’d most likely accept the marriage proposal. I’m also not sure if I would call Stevens an idealist considering the cynical outlook he has on other country, people, and life in general; maybe ignorant is how I would describe him? But that may be up to personal opinion.
I really agree. I think my word choice with “shy” was misleading and I hadn’t thought to call him introverted but that descriptor works so much better. I do agree one hundred percent that he is ignorant in a sense. His own self image is so horribly inconsistent with what he does and does not decide to disclose to us. I believe this is due to him trying to further understand his own emotional state now that he has grown older and that’s why he is deciding to look back on his life and look at how other people saw him. I think this sort of self reflection is a way for him to cope with his own emotions and maybe figure out how to proceed in his own life. There was so much he decided to ignore while he was younger and I would like to think he is making an effort to understand that now but I suppose that’s just wishful thinking.