Stevens’s ideas about dignity and his service under Lord Darlington must be examined in order to gain a better understanding of why he felt the need to reminisce—evaluating his

Stevens was never really in denial of who Lord Darlington was, but at the same time, he was never really in acceptance either. He recalls “absurd allegations”—mostly those of his employer being a Nazi—which were fueled by a few ‘ incidents.’ Among those incidents were Lord Darlington’s references to a newspaper as a Jewish propaganda sheet, a command to stop giving to a charity with Jewish management, and to release all of the Jews on staff at Darlington Hall. Stevens does not agree with this decision, and he seems to acknowledge that Lord Darlington was flawed. In the same respect, Stevens also deems this dismissal of all Jewish staff members (which coincided with Hitler’s reign in Germany) as a “minor incident.” It appears that Stevens is torn between recognizing his lordship’s true intentions and continuing to serve his lordship with the same diligence. By recognizing Darlington’s faults, Stevens would be admitting that he was serving an imperfect man and this divulgence would only be the demise of Stevens’ dignity

However, the explanation that Stevens gave for his deceptive behavior was not that he was embarrassed or ashamed of having worked for his lordship, but rather that he was trying to avoid unpleasantness. Stevens explains “that my odd conduct can be very plausibly explained in terms of my wish to avoid any possibility of hearing any further such nonsense concerning his lordship…for it is true, nothing vexes me more these days than to hear this sort of nonsense being repeated” (p. 125). Stevens continues his reasoning as he argues that Lord Darlington was a man of such moral stature that he would dwarf all of the people talking nonsense about him. Even as Stevens claims that he would basically stake his reputation on Darlington’s morals, he has doubts as to his confidence in his assertions.

When he has a bit of radiator trouble and encounters the chauffeur at a Colonel’s large house in the country, the chauffeur and Stevens started chatting a bit about their common service profession. When the chauffeur, or Colonel’s batman, discovered where Stevens worked his “voice changed noticeably as he inquired: ‘You mean you actually used to work for that Lord Darlington?’ He was eyeing me carefully again” (p. 120). Stevens quickly denied having worked in the hall during Darlington’s time. As he later motored on, Stevens tried to give meaning to his deception, “It could simply be that a meaningless whim had suddenly overtaken me at that moment—but that is hardly a convincing way to account for such distinctly odd behavior. In any case I have now come to accept that the incident with the batman is not the first of its kind” (p. 122). Stevens at least had the conscience to evaluate his actions even though he still could not provide explanation at that point for his outright denial. He offered that maybe he had simply lied in a moment of panic, but Stevens knew it was not true. He acknowledged and recalled another moment which he deliberately lied about being under Darlington’s employ.

Although Stevens knows what Lord Darlington’s activities are, he still does not want to face what happening at Darlington Hall, even when the younger Sir David Cardinal confronts him directly with the truth. Instead Stevens seems to keep rationalizing that Lord Darlington’s clandestine meetings are of the utmost importance—that by serving the Foreign Secretary, German Ambassador and the British Prime Minister during their meeting Stevens was helping to uphold foreign policy (and to maintain his dignity). As Sir Cardinal continued to pry Stevens maintained that he was not interested because he did not want to hear what Sir Cardinal had to say because he already knew. And that knowledge mea

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