The Remains of the Day

Stevens is so dedicated to his principles that he struggles to communicate with others. His relationships with Miss Kenton and his father are defined by unspoken emotions, not because those emotions do not exist but because the characters struggle to put their emotions into words without breaking the rules they have set for themselves. Stevens believes dignity involves a quiet stoicism that demands that he suffer in silence. Thus, he cannot confess his love for Miss Kenton without breaking his rules about professionalism. He cannot doubt his employer Lord Darlington without contravening his beliefs about service. He cannot tell his father that he loves him without breaking the rigid walls of silence they have erected between them throughout their lives. Stevens’s inability to address his feelings leads to his unhappiness. He cannot properly say goodbye to his father and never tells Miss Kenton how he truly feels. He represses his emotions in a desperate bid to maintain his dignity, even though he is increasingly concerned that this behavior is a mistake. Stevens provides plenty of details as the narrator, but he changes the subject whenever his emotions are called into question. Even when talking privately to the reader, he maintains an air of professional decorum that is never broken. The reader discovers that Stevens is crying, for example, when another character offers him a handkerchief, rather than Stevens confessing that he feels sad. Stevens polices the boundaries of his emotions so forcefully that their absence makes them all the more distinct. The irony of Stevens’s communication failures is that by not communicating his emotions at all, he happens to reveal them. Stevens’s communication failure—at least in the context of his narration—becomes a demonstration of emotion as described by negative space, in which the unspoken but keenly felt sentiments are made all the more distinct by their absence.

Stevens learns this behavior from his father. William is remarkably similar to his son in this respect, but as he approaches death, he becomes direct in his emotions. Before he dies, he tells Stevens he is proud and confesses that he has feared his competency as a father. William’s deathbed conversation reveals how deeply ingrained these tendencies have become in father and son. Only death can shake William from his convictions, adding greater poignancy to the emotional outburst. Only when he thinks he has no more life left to live is William able to talk about his existence in a free, unreserved manner. William dies after a lifetime of silence between him and his son, with only a brief burst of emotional honesty at the very end redeeming his lifetime of regrettable communication failure.

Miss Kenton suffers from communications problems of her own. Like Stevens, she is invested in an idea of professionalism that prevents her from embracing her feelings. She loves Stevens, but she fears declaring her love and being rejected. She tries to prompt him to show that he feels the same way, but she lacks the communicative tools to do so. Whether she is bringing flowers to his room, asking about his book, or threatening to quit, she cannot elicit a response from Stevens. Eventually, she tells him that a man has proposed to her. When he still does not react, she tells him that she has accepted the proposal. This ruse fails in that Stevens does not react. Miss Kenton accidentally marries a man due to her failure to communicate directly with Stevens. Fortunately for her, she learns to love her husband. Ultimately, neither she nor Stevens gets what they truly want. They are punished for their failure to communicate, but they manage to find what relief they can in the lives they are forced to lead.