This book by Kazuo Ishiguro is a fascinating read, mainly due to its portrayal of deep and complex emotion through a narrator that has no clue how to begin to comprehend such ideas. Stevens, a butler who has served at the Darlington Estate for many years, is writing this book as a sort of diary or journal of his trip to visit Miss Kenton after many years of rarely ever leaving the grounds he tended to. The overall structure of this journaling style of writing that Stevens presents us with gives us insight into the vast differences between his thoughts, feelings, and actions. There is an overarching theme of suppression throughout this book, making Stevens seem more like a hollow, inhuman narrator whose own feelings are completely foreign to him. It appears as though these behaviors he exhibits are the result of a lack of compassion from his Father, and years of upbringing that require Stevens to strive to be a ‘great’ butler. However, the definition of a truly ‘great’ butler is one that has sparked much debate among butlers in this narrative, so it would seem that Stevens has ingrained in his own head what a great butler must do based upon how his Father acted during his service as a butler. Stevens states, “This whole question is very akin to the question that has caused much debate in our profession over the years: what is a ‘great’ butler? I can recall many hours of enjoyable discussion on this topic around the fire of the servants’ hall at the end of a day” (pg 29). The constant debate as to what a ‘great’ butler really is caused Stevens to create boundaries for himself in his profession that completely overrule all other aspects of his life; the possibility of new adventures, careers, friendships, and future relationships. As such, this makes Stevens out to be a narrator with the most structured and constrained way of life I have ever read about, and it leads readers to take his recollection of events very cautiously because he is extremely unreliable.
This narrative is set in motion when Stevens is told by his boss Mr. Faraday that he should take a motoring trip away from Darlington Estate and take a break from his duties. This gives Stevens a lot to talk about, and I believe he started this journal as a way to document possibly the biggest trip of his life. It also seems to function as a message for other butlers that may read his writings, because he addresses an audience directly on multiple occasions, and treats the audience as though they have a base knowledge of all things butler-related time and time again. Throughout this book, the perspective of the narrator appears to be very instantaneous, which contradicts the journal-esque style of writing Stevens produces. This leads readers to believe that perhaps the things we are reading were documented very soon after they occurred, with the exception of the many past events that Stevens reminisces upon. The nature of this book in its’ entirety is a difficult concept to place; at a first glance it would seem as though the narrator is using this journal as an explanation for why he set out to Miss Kentons’ home in the first place, but on a deeper level I believe that Stevens is writing this journal as more of a confession, even though he does not realize that is what he is doing. The perspective of Stevens is a very shallow one, which contradicts the attention to detail he uses during his work as a butler. For all of his meticulous plans and work for Darlington Estate, Stevens has little to no knowledge of how to function as a human being. This causes his writing to be very separated from the situations he describes throughout the course of his trip. I found it particularly interesting that Stevens’ own emotions were so unnatural to him that he didn’t even notice when he was crying after the death of his Father. When Lord Darlington points out that it appears as though Stevens is crying, he states, “I laughed and taking out a handkerchief, quickly wiped my face. ‘I’m very sorry, sir. The strains of a hard day’” (pg 105). Stevens has effectively alienated himself from his own body, and the toll that took on the rest of his life caused him to miss out on the best parts of life, and a potential relationship with Miss Kenton. Although it is obvious to readers that he has feelings for her, he cannot understand them and would never make the first move to get to know her better. Overall, this book is fascinating read, and a very tragic story due to the restrained nature of Stevens’ personality, and how that affects his entire life and prevents him from being with the woman he might have loved.
Your mention of how Stevens’s perspective is “is a very shallow one, which contradicts the attention to detail he uses during his work as a butler” was one really key point in this, and I have some thoughts about it. I don’t think that it was necessarily that his perspective was shallow, because if it had have been he wouldn’t have pointed out the details that allow us as the readers to know that there’s more to his actions and to the story. Like the comment that everyone’s mentioned about how he was crying after his last talk with his father, or how after Miss Kenton told him that she was thinking about accepting the marriage proposal he recalled her making a comment about the way he was causing noise in the kitchen out of frustration. So, my rambling aside, I think that it was less that Stevens had a shallow perspective and more so that he just didn’t know how to elaborate on his experiences. How he spoke about his work was shallow, it’s detailed, and he pays attention to a lot, but there wasn’t a lot of mention about how to interpret people’s moods at parties. There wasn’t a lot of interpersonal relationships between coworkers other than the odd comment about how some would irresponsibly run off to get married. I completely agree about this being a fascinating and tragic read though.