论文总字数：30959字

摘 要

主人公史蒂文斯是一位深受英国传统熏陶的典型的男管家，对工作有着高度负责的态度，对主人他忠贞不二地追随，但是他却渐渐变得冷漠无情走向悲剧的人生。本文将从三大方面探寻史蒂文斯的职业牺牲，一是为了职业牺牲了与父亲相处的最后时光，二是牺牲了与女管家真心相爱的机会，第三点更是匪夷所思地被虚伪的荣光蒙蔽双眼，失去了看清事实真相的机会。通过对主人公职业牺牲的深入探究，找到史蒂文斯带给我们的关于职业和人生的启示。在感性生活和理性工作中找到平衡，做一个全面发展的的人。

关键词；史蒂文斯；职业牺牲；个体价值；爱情悲剧

Contents

1. Introduction 5

2. Literature Review 7

3. Stevens’ sacrifice of Profession in The Remains of the Day 10

3.1 Stevens’ sacrifice of family 10

3.2 Stevens’ sacrifice of love 12

3.3 Stevens’ sacrifice of the choice of justice 14

4. Conclusion 16

Works Cited 18

Introduction

The 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro, a 62-year-old Japanese-born British writer. The award speech said thathis stories are full of great emotional driving force, his works let us see a profound abyss under the illusion of integration with the world. Although Kazuo Ishiguro is not a prolific writer, he has won many international literary awards such as the Booker Prize, the British Empire Medal, the French Art and Literature Knight Medal since he published his novel in 1983. Along with Rusidy and Naipaul, they are known as the “Three Heroes of British Literary Immigrants”.

“Memory” is the theme throughout Kazuo Ishiguro’s creation. The first novel, A Pale View of Mountains tells the story of Yuko, a Japanese widow living in England. The story reflects the disaster of Nagasaki and the post-war recovery in Japan. An Artist of the Floating World explores the Japanese people’s attitude towards World War II through a Japanese painter’s memory of his experience in the army. The Unconsoled tells the story of how a pianist struggled to perform as planned in an unknown European town; When We Were Orphans took place in Shanghai in the early 20th century, telling the story of a private detective investigating missing parents; and Never Let me go The subject involved is the cloning of human beings who provide organs. Ishiguro’s previous novels focus on individual memory, but in The Buried Giant , Kazuo Ishiguro set the theme of writing on social memory and collective forgetting for the first time. Under those simple and seemingly monotonous words, there is a series of deep thinking.

Kazuo Ishiguro has written many works that contain authentic British customs. But Ishiguro often taunts himself as “a writer who doesn’t know where his home is”. He does not emphasize his Asian identity. However, there is not only unique delicacy and implication but also restrained aesthetic feeling in his writings. Japan’s tolerant and quiet nationality is evident in Ishiguro’s maiden work —— The Shadow of the Mountain .This is because Kazuo Ishiguro’s cultural background is very special. Born in Nagasaki, Japan, he grew up in Britain and was strongly influenced by British culture and tradition. which has had a vital impact on his literary and literary outlook. Instead of focusing on the disasters of a particular country or nation, his works attempt to explore the inner feelings of people in the process of change.

In 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro won the most prestigious “Booker Prize” in English literature for The Remains of the Day, which established his reputation in the international literary arena and made him a first-class mainstream writer in English literature. What’s more, since its publication, this work has been widely loved by readers and translated into more than 30 languages for publication around the world. The story of this book took place in 1956, but since the beginning 20th century, the empire has been weakened. Stevens, the protagonist of the novel, often misses the fascinating day before the Second World War in Britain, so the whole book has a strong nostalgic color. Stevens served in Darlington House for more than 30 years as a butler in pursuit of perfection. During this period, on the one hand, he tried to make himself a prominent man in the butler, pursuing the unique “dignity” of this class, at the same time, he also paid a considerable price for it.

Stevens was a “survivor” of the Empire. He witnessed the glorious achievements of the Empire and was proud of being “close to the center of the world’s great wheel”. Nevertheless, with the decline of the Empire and the change of culture, he gradually became an outsider in the new era. When he came out of Darlington House and saw the life of ordinary people in the wider world, the values he had adhered to were impacted, which made him see his career and life afresh. The author takes the male butler who best represents the social and cultural characteristics of England as the protagonist and expresses the politics, history, culture, tradition and human ideology of England in a realistic way.

Literature Review

Since the second half of the 20th century, immigration has become more and more common. In this new century with frequent global population movements, multiculturalism has gradually become the mainstream of British culture. Accordingly, the works of immigrant writer Kazuo Ishiguro have also attracted wide attention from critics at home and abroad, and The Remains of the Day have been analyzed from various perspectives, including narrative techniques, post-colonialism, existentialism and tragic psychology, nostalgia complex, comparison of British and American cultures and so on.

It is difficult to avoid the fact that there are two time backgrounds in the novel, one is Stevens’ actual life, and the other is the scene of the two world wars that Stevens recalls. The owner of the manor changed from Lord Darlington to American Mr. Farraday, which is a metaphor for the fall of the authority of the Victorian era and the establishment of a new world order. Susie O’Brien argues in her essay that Stevens serves his American employer Mr. Farraday is actually “serving the new world order”. (Shi 2)Similarly, James M.Lang considers that as an Ishiguro’s intentional arrangement to implicate that a new era comes - America has replaced Great Britain as the leading role in the West. (Shi 2)

Some researchers study this novel from the narrative perspectives to exam the reliability of the narrator. Amit Marcus in his “Stevens in The Remains of the Day” studies psychological meaning of Stevens’ narration and reaches the conclusion that the motivation of the narrating character is to reinforce self-deception through narration. Gong Yixin and Tang Jiani explain the narrative features of The Remains of the Day from the perspectives of first-person narrative, unreliable narrative style and metaphorical narrative discourse in their paper “Questioning the Narrative Features of The Remains of The Day ”(2017). They point out that through the first-person narrative perspective, the author infiltrates the past and the present to promote the plot development in Stevens’ memory. At the same time, unreliable narrative mode reflects the struggle and contradiction of narrator, and creates a complex and multifaceted image of housekeeper. And the metaphorical narrative discourse running through the whole journey implies Stevens’ re-examination of the old self and his pursuit of the new self.

Some researchers study this fiction through Japanese factors embodied in the novel, they focus on Kazuo Ishiguro’s dual cultural identity. In James Alan’s article, he points that Stevens’ language is upper-class British. But the philosophical undercurrents of the novel are Japanese. Jiang Qingyuan and Shen Fuying put forward in their article “A Research into the Meaning of The Butler’s Image in The Remains of The Day” (2007) that the stewardship character displayed by Gong Stevens is consistent with the traditional Japanese Bushido spirit. Behind this image is the author’s more objective and dimensional examination of the nation and history.

Some others explore the theory of post-colonial. Wu Min associates Stevens’ status as an empire survivor with the author’s racial identity, analyzing the confusion of Stevens and Kazuo Ishiguro. She comes to a conclusion that they realize the salvation through the experience of trauma by Homi Baba’s concepts of “identity”, “mimicry” and “hybridity”.（Zhang 6) In “A Post-colonial Study of Stephens’ Identity in The Remains of the Day”(2014) ,Tang Shuzhe and Wang Liming reinterpret Stephens’ identity in the novel with the help of Edward W. Said’ s post-colonial theory. As a white butler in the Darlington Mansion, Stephens has a sense of racial superiority and a colonialist mentality. He agrees with the British colonial expansion and opposes the independence of the former British colonies.

Besides Concentrating on the theory of post-colonial, some scholars are interested in Stevens’ profession, because he is a conventional, stalwart, fogyish and consummately professional butler which is full of British unique cultural characteristics and aristocratic colors.

Apart from the above, much emphasis has been placed on the tragic nature of the novel. Chen Wenjuan and Wang Xiaojing analyze the tragic spirit embodied in The Remains of the Day from the tragic theory, tragic characters, tragic plots and tragic themes. They conclude that Stevens’ misfortune is not only the individual’s misfortune, but also the confusion of human existence. Modern society should pay more attention to the value of individual existence and promote individual development. (Chenamp;Wang 6)

From the above literature review , it is true that the fiction has been loved by many readers since its publication in 1989. Critics have also made extensive research on it, which still leaves us a lot of room to do a further study on this novel. Kazuo Ishiguro said “The starting point of his writing of the novel is to write how did you waste your life in order to achieve your career, and how did you waste your life at the personal level”. Most of the individuals in the background of the big era are the same small people as Stevens. Therefore, although the protagonist of the novel lives in a different era from us, he has similarities with us. Most people have deep love for their work,they work diligently and conscientiously, and are thirst for success. However, Stevens who is meticulous and dedicated spent a tragic and ironic lifetime. Ishiguro said he wanted to depict a “destroyed life” through a mysterious and little-known ancient career, and contemporaries are also experiencing such a dilemma. This paper will explore Stevens’ career sacrifices based on Stevens’ tragic spirit and explore how to strike a balance between career pursuit and life value.

Stevens’ sacrifice of Profession in The Remains of the Day

Ishiguro talked about Stevens’ cost in his speech my twentieth century night and other small breakthroughs “In the twilight of his life, it is too late to realize that he has followed a wrong set of values all his life; that he has spent his good years serving a sympathizer for the Nazi; that he has wasted his life in a deep sense by refusing to take moral and political responsibilities for his life. Also: in his pursuit of becoming a perfect servant, he closed the door of love and being loved, blocking himself and the only woman he cared about.” Next, the article will explore Stevens’ professional sacrifice in detail from three aspects: family, love and justice.

Stevens’ sacrifice of family

The inspiration for the creation of The Remains of the Day originally came from a joke by Kazuo Ishiguro’s wife, Lorna. One day, a reporter was interviewing Kazuo Ishiguro about his first novel. Lorna said, “Wouldn"t it be interesting if this person came in and asked you serious, solemn questions about the novel and you pretended to be your butler?” They thought it was an interesting idea. Ishiguro was unable to stop “regarding butler as a metaphor”. So in The Remains of the Day, a British butler is written.

America has cowboys, Japan has warriors, and England has butlers who best represent its social and cultural characteristics. When it comes to butler, the first thing that comes to mind about the butler is Mr. Carson, the classic butler portrayed in the British TV series Downton Abbey. Mr. Carson served Downton Manor all his life with integrity, rigorousness and seriousness. He convinced his colleagues and was loyal to his master. He did not choose to retire until he was ill and could no longer carry his tray. There are many similarities between Mr. Carson and Stevens, the protagonist of the novel. Whether through the description of Kazuo Ishiguro or the direct performance of the TV series, it seems that we can see a serious, meticulous and perfect butler putting on newly ironed newspaper on his master’s breakfast table, responding to the host’s request and saying “yes, my lord” politely.

Stevens, as an authentic British housekeeper, is very proud of his profession. In the prologue of the novel, the new owner suggests Stevens to travel and his answer is “It has been my privilege to see the best of England over the years ,sir,within these very walls”(Kazuo 4) In Stevens’ view, life in Darlington Manor is the most glorious life in England, and the scenery in the Darlington Manor is the best in England. However, the reality is that the stewardship profession at this time has declined, many nobles have been unable to afford the operating costs of the estate after World War II and have chosen to sell. In addition, great changes have taken place in the values and professional outlook of the British people. Stevens still loves this gradually unpopular profession, which reflects his conformity and ignorance of keeping pace with the times.

When he was on his way out of Darlington. Stevens felt extremelt nervous about the new environment.

“the surroundings grew unrecognized and I knew had gone beyond all previous boundaries. I have heard people describe the moment ,when setting sail in the ship, when one finally loses sights of the land”. (Kazuo 30)

It can be seen that Stevens has no sense of security for new things. He is very sensitive to change, and is afraid and uneasy about the unknown. He worried that new attempts are the wrong start and it is difficult for him to accept self-change. Such a character laid the groundwork for his life development and destiny.

According to Stevens’ recollections, we find three particularly important people in his life: his father, his master, and Miss Kenton. Stevens’ father is also a butler, and he regards the code of a butler as the highest dignity of his existence, which also affects Stevens. He believes strongly that this dignity is something one can meaningfully strive for through one’s career, and he said “my father was indeed the embodiment of dignity.” The old father worked as a butler all his life. At last, he came to his son helplessly because he was old and frail. Stevens, however, offered him an uneasy job to prove that he was not biased. Miss Kenton was aware of the problem. She told Stevens several times that his father was no longer fit for the job. He was too old and weak, and he should rest, but Stevens stubbornly insisted on his own opinion and did not listen to the advice.

Finally, on the evening of an important meeting at the Lord’s Palace, Stevens’ father was so ill that he wanted to see Stevens for the last time. Stevens still adhered to the loyalty of the profession. After the servant reminded him again and again, he still stuck to his post and did not visit the small attic where his father lived. At the end of the meeting, the father had passed away, What is incredible is that Stevens did not come to see him for the last time until he had finished all his work.

His father’s professional education method made him restrain his emotions for a long time and gradually became numb. His incredibly indifferent practice violates human nature. Stevens lost his personal freedom by working as hard as he could. The sacrifice of individual freedom inevitably resulted in personality defects and personality distortion.

Stevens’ sacrifice of love

Stevens never expressed his feelings for Miss Kenton, the housekeeper, but he always likes Miss Kenton. First of all, from the beginning to the end of the novel, he has been concerned about her. What’s more, the main reason for Stevens’ decision to leave Darlington House, where he had worked for more than 30 years, was that Miss Kenton’s letter made him mistakenly think that Miss Kenton’s marriage was in crisis and was ready to persuade her to return to Darlington House. Last but not least, although he kept telling the stories of the past in a restrained tone, Stevens kept reminiscing about his work with Miss Kenton all the time during his travels, which showed that Miss Kenton had an important place in his heart.

Miss Kenton was enthusiastic and cheerful, which contrasts sharply with Stevens’ restraint. Miss Kenton carefully found Stevens’ room dark and cold, so she specially prepared a large vase of flowers in the hope of adding some vitality to his room. However, such a kind act was also opposed by Stevens. He said“ Miss kenton ,I appreciate your kindness. But this is not a room of entertainment. I am happy to have distractions kept to a minimum.”.(Kazuo 68) However，Miss Kenton thought that there is no need to keep room so dark and bereft of colour. Apart from this, there are more than one time when they disagree.

Lord Darlington, influenced by his German Nazi friends, ordered Stevens to dismiss two faithful and competent Jewish maids. Although Stevens was questioned and obstructed by Miss Kenton, in carrying out his master’s order, he relentlessly dismissed the two maids. Faced with Miss Kenton’s anger and confusion, Stevens emphasized that they must obey the decision of the employer without hesitation.

“Miss kenton, I am surprised to find you reacting in this manner. Surely I don’t have to remind you that our professional duty is not to our own foibles and sentiments, but to follow the wishes of our employer.”(Kazuo 192)

Stevens was unable to get rid of his fetter as a British butler and succumbed to his social character , which ultimately made him regret for life.(Zhang 81)

Stevens is rigid and indifferent on the surface, but deep in his heart, he is a thoughtful and emotional gentleman. When he saw Miss Kenton indulging in grief over her aunt’s death, he stood at her door hesitating for a long time, hoping to express his condolences in an appropriate way. It can be seen that he cares about Miss Kenton very much, but he chose to restrain himself and talk to Miss Kenton on the grounds of work and criticized her work. This practice caused Miss Kenton to be confused, upset and exhausted. The mistake may be attributed to the problem of his way of expression, but when Miss Kenton asked him if someone wanted to marry her to test Stevens’ true intentions for her, he still chose to refuse cruelly on the grounds that he had to serve important meetings and prominent gentlemen. Stevens’ choice completely frustrated Miss Kenton.

This kind of male housekeeper’s calm restraint and unlimited self-control makes him lose the basic emotional communication and interaction as an ordinary person, and also makes him lose his personal feelings. He repeatedly and falsely avoided the love of Miss Kenton, and frustrated her feelings again and again until she said that someone wanted to marry her, and she was not very willing, Stevens still hided his true feelings, even wished her happiness in disbelief .As a result, Miss Kenton left sadly. Self-control deprived Stevens of the woman he loved because he believed that a top butler should not mix personal feelings in his work. In the dilemma of love and career, he gave up his love. Under the shackles of “professional ethics” and “dignity”, Stevens turned himself into a working machine, and work became the whole of life. In his opinion, professional value represents personal dignity, which leads to his personality splitting and extreme tendency.

Stevens’ sacrifice of the choice of justice

Stevens chose to sacrifice his family and love for the sake of his professional dignity. We cannot help but lament Mr. Stevens’ absurd sense of professional mission. It seems that we can foresee his lonely and desolate future, but his tragedy goes beyond that. When it comes to other housekeepers, Stevens always talks about how housekeepers in one house are. It seems that they have no names, just the accessories of their owners and the big houses. In his view, the value of a housekeeper is embodied in the value of the owner. As a professional housekeeper, it is his duty to be loyal to the owner and safeguard the dignity of the owner.

Lord Darlington, who has been served by Stevens for more than 30 years, was unintentionally exploited by Nazi Germany. The Lord once took Hitler’s Foreign Minister, Ribbon Trove, into his confidence, which affected the formulation of British policy towards Germany and encouraged the indulgence of the Nazis. Stevens could have reminded his master of the German intentions, but he kept his duties as a butler and did not make any efforts. He was happy to obey his master’s decision. When the outside world criticized Darlington, Stevens “bravely” stood up to defend the reputation of his master, because his blind loyalty principle had already integrated his own honor with his master’s honor.

When Lord Darlington’s student, Donald, hinted to Stevens that Lord Darlington was being used by German Nazis in the hope that he would remind his master to stop his foolish behavior, Stevens refused Donald out of the protection of his master"s dignity.

“I am sorry,sir,but I cannot see that his lordship is doing anything other than that which is highest and noblest. He is doing what he can ,after all, to ensure that peace will continue prevail in Europe.but I have to say that I have every trust in his lordship’s good judgement.”(Kazuo 292)

From the above things, we can see that Stevens has lost his ability to judge right and wrong for the principle of profession. Again, he lost his sense of justice because of profession. His sacrifice is not the sacrifice of heroes, but worthless sacrifice.

Ishiguro said, “The British bulter in my writing will stick to his emotional defense and hide behind it, avoiding himself as well as his readers until the end of the book. But now,I know must reverse this decision. At some point, near the end of the story - a moment I had to choose carefully - I had to make a crack in his armor. I had to show him a huge, tragic longing for someone to see under that armor.” When his father was seriously ill, he still insisted on going to work. The master could see that he was crying. Here we could also see that he was suffering. He was caught in a dilemma in front of his career and family. He was divided. At first, he followed the great master with the reason of changing the world and saving the destiny of Europe, but at last he firmly denied it two times in a row when people asked him if he was a former butler of Darlington House. It also shows that Stevens began to rethink himself, no longer thinking that it was the peak of his proud career and the most glorious work history.

When he separated from Miss Kenton, we felt that he wanted him to be with Miss Kenton. He hoped that she could go back with him. His language became straightforward and his true feelings were no longer concealed by the language of extreme calmness and restraint. But after accepting an imperfect marriage and falling in love with her husband, Miss Kenton decided to cherish her present life and not to return to Darlington with Stevens. He expressed his first and only blessing to Miss Kenton frankly and sincerely. At that moment, he got rid of his butler status, restraint and disguise. At the same time, it reveals a huge and tragic desire. At the end of the story, Stevens sits on a bench near the city’s most beautiful pier. People coming and going around are waiting for the moment when the lights come on here. In the sunset he realized his mistake and decided not to dwell on the past, to reconcile himself with a new life.

As far as I am concerned, Stevens’ tragedy conforms to Hegel’s tragedy theory. Hegel believes that the essence of tragedy is the self-division and reconciliation of ethics, and the division of ethical entities is the root of tragic conflicts. Stevens is the butler of Darlington House, but he is also the son of his father and Miss Kenton’s colleague . He should also be a British citizen with correct values. However, he sacrificed other things for his career. His tragedy lies in who he is besides his profession. Not only did he neglect his other identities, but he was also reluctant to delve into the problem, which made him shudder. At the end of the novel, Stevens’ awakening is his reconciliation with himself, which makes us feel the warmth of human nature in the hero and makes the novel reach its climax.

Conclusion

The memory of Stevens shows us his nostalgia for his past life.At the same time, it also shows us the pain of the protagonist"s family, love and career.In order to gain the dignity of his job, he suppressed his true feelings and abandoned his ordinary needs as a normal person. These pains made his life absurd and ridiculous.By the time he woke up, most of the good times of life had passed.

Stevens’ tragedy inspires us to rethink the value and significance of life. In modern society with rapid economic development, many people are facing the same dilemma as Stevens. In order to achieve success, they sacrifice their time with their families and become indifferent and refined egoists.

The main cause of Stevens’ tragedy is his wrong career outlook. Family, love and justice are the most precious values in a person’s life. Only these feelings can bring us moving and happiness. Stevens did not know how to balance emotional life with rational work and put all the focus of his life on his work, which led to his indifference, alienation and monotonous life. Success and glory brought about by work can not replace all achievements in life, because we have multiple identities in life. What a person lives for seems to be a profession, but in essence, it should be a person’s quality. Such as optimistic and positive, professional, open, modest, emulative, persistent, confident. Work can bring us a full life, material needs and reap the affirmation of others for us. But work can"t bring us all the value. What we can do is to grasp every wonderful moment of life and temper our will from the difficulties of work and life. Stevens is a perfectionist, but there is no perfect person in the world.We need to bravely step out of familiar territory, accept changes in the environment and constantly innovate ourselves.

Works Cited

Anthony F. Lang, James M. Lang.“Between Theory and History: e Remains of The Day in the International Relations Classroom”Political Science amp;amp; Politics,2(1998):31.

Mohamed Fathi Helaly Khalaf. “Reconstructing the Past as a Means of Rationalizing the Present: A Study of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of The Day” (1989) International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature,4(2017):6.

Sonali Thakkar. “Resurfacing Symptomatic Reading: Contrapuntal Memory and Postcolonial Method in The Remains of the Day” The Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry,1(2017):4.

张凤鸣： “AStudyontheRemainsoftheDayfromthePerspectiveofExistentialism”西安外国语大学,2014.

李珍： “AFoucaultdianInterpretationofStevens"sTragedyintheRemainsoftheDay”西安外国语大学,2014.

史蒙：《lt;落日余晖gt;中的历史与责任》北京外国语大学,2015.

[Shimeng. “History and Responsibility in The Remains of the Day” Beijing Foreign Studies University(2015)]

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