In Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day, the main character , Stevens, recounts his life's work and the happenings at Darlington Hall. Stevens is a strong but sad character. He has completly dedicated his life to being a gentleman's gentleman, therefore devoting no time to himself, but instead to the comfort and convienence of others. The new owner of Darlington Hall, Mr. Farraday, even feels sympathetic towards the fact that Stevens devotes all of his time to Darlington Hall, and that he has regretfully spent very little outside of the estate nor has he seen much of his country, England. Upon this Mr. Farraday tells Stevens, "I really think that you should take a break."4 so that he may get to have a bit of peace and time unto himself, without having to worry about the maintainance of the estate. The initial response that Stevens has about the offer is quite interesting, he dismisses the notion at first as, ".just another instance of an American gentleman's unfamiliarity with what was not commonly done in England."4. it is interesting because the reader gets to view the perceptions Stevens has about Americans. The offer is not fully considered until Stevens realizes that he could turn this vacation into a business trip to try and regain one of Darlington Hall's lost employees, Miss.Kenton.
During Stevens' recollections and during his trip, the reader begins to paint a certain picture of him in their mind. Stevens is a hard working, dedicated, and morally dinified man who has dedicated all his life's work and energy into pleasing others, instead of trying to take care of himself in the least. His devotion is to Darlington Hall, and to whomever his employer may be. He is so wrapped up in his buttlering duties that it consumes all of his life and time. It eventually gets to the point where it becomes his life. This is a sad thing to witness, seeing that I don't think that Stevens realizes at all how pathetic he has become while being a buttler at Darlington Hall, and if he has noticed, he is most definatly suppressing this sad fact quite well.
