Remaions of the Day

Stevens makes this comment when his father has never given any indication as to his condition. Stevens also tries his best to avoid having a moment of any personal closeness even when his own father, whom he considers the benchmark in Butler etiquette, tries to make an effort to connect with his son on a personal level before he dies. Stevens's avoidance being in the form of making excuses like "I"d best get back. As I say the situation is rather volatile". Looking at this excuse and the passage, which follows, it can be seen how false it is because he says in the passage that dinner was served an hour later. This would imply that at the time the staff would be preparing food, which Stevens doesn't need to oversee, and other staff would be serving drinks prior to dinner. So serving drinks does not require a great amount of skill especially for the well-trained staff of such a distinguished household, showing that Stevens probably could have stayed with his father but he chose not to confront that difficult task. This point being an ideal example of Stevens trying to conceal an issue with a simple story line but if simple deduction techniques are used the issue of Stevens avoidance of any human and real moment is revealed. Stevens's refusal to his father to stay and talk manages to lets another opportunity to form an emotional relationship slip away like it does with Miss Kenton.
             While the episode with his father is going on Stevens really buries himself in work. Even when he receives the news of his father's death he chooses the excuse to not see him, as his father would have wanted him to carry on with his duties. Stevens pretends that carrying on with his work means to him that he has reached to the highest point of his career where he has upheld the ideals of his profession or as he would put it he has conserved his "dignity". On first reading this, it might seem that Stevens is doing the honourable thing but it can be seen that he may have reached a high in his employment but he has also obtained an all time low and has lost his humanity.