The Remains of the Day

Miss Kenton was once the housekeeper at Darlington Hall. She left to get married, and she now lives in southwest England. Though she now lives under her married name, Mrs. Benn, Stevens clings to her memory. His devotion to her shows his reluctance to let go of her original name. To him, she will always be Miss Kenton. She is an important figure in Stevens’s life because she is one of the few servants who can match him in terms of dedication, skill, and demeanor. She arrives at Darlington Hall at the same time as Stevens’s father, William. While William is now old and can no longer carry out the job to the same high standards, Miss Kenton immediately settles into the role. She changes Stevens’s life in many ways, though he refuses to acknowledge this. She brings flowers into his private room, a symbolic demonstration of how her presence brings color into his austere life. Stevens rarely discusses his time at Darlington Hall before the arrival of Miss Kenton because, before her arrival, his life is uninteresting. The importance of her character is demonstrated in the degree to which she dominates Stevens’s thoughts. The audience only glimpses Miss Kenton through Stevens’s memories, but how he presents these memories shows her importance in his life.

Miss Kenton is only portrayed from Stevens’s perspective, but her personality and her emotions are conveyed subtly, not always in ways that Stevens understands. Stevens is desperate for the audience and everyone he encounters to be certain that he does not hold a romantic interest in Miss Kenton. Such an attraction would be unbecoming for a man obsessed with dignity. However, he thinks about her all the time. Their affection is clearly mutual, but Miss Kenton becomes increasingly frustrated that Stevens cannot admit that he is in love with her. Her frustration builds over the years, to the point where she aggressively accuses him of pretending there is nothing between them. Stevens does not respond to her. His affection for Miss Kenton is revealed through silent gestures. She is permitted to act in such a way that other staff members would not. For example, she enters his quarters without knocking and stridently asks him about his books. Other staff members would be risking their jobs in doing this, but Stevens treasures this moment of intimacy as one of the most emotional moments of his austere life. Though Miss Kenton may not be permitted to speak directly to the audience, how Stevens portrays her in his memories and his attitude toward her shows that she was a towering figure in his life.

Miss Kenton eventually becomes so frustrated with Stevens that she accepts a marriage proposal and leaves Darlington Hall. She later confesses to him that the decision was a ruse designed to shock Stevens into action. The ruse failed; before she realized it, she lived far away with a husband and child. Miss Kenton says she did not love her husband for a long time but has learned to do so. Her frustrations with the path of her life mirror Stevens’s own period of reflection. However, by the time they meet, she has already resolved to return to her husband and help her pregnant daughter. Miss Kenton bids an emotional farewell to Stevens after their meeting. Her tears suggest that she also views their relationship as a pivotal turning point in their life, something which might have been wonderful but is now relegated to the hypothetical. Miss Kenton provides Stevens with a template for the future. Just as she teaches herself to love her husband, he decides that he will rededicate himself to his employer. Even in their last meeting, she teaches him how to deal with the realities of life.

Lord Darlington is a rich aristocrat, and for most of Stevens’s professional career, he is the owner of Darlington Hall. Darlington embodies the qualities Stevens associates with the traditional English upper classes. To Stevens, Darlington is a noble, intelligent, moral man who strives to do his best for this in his employ. As Stevens recalls, however, not everyone feels this way. While Stevens reveres Darlington, others view him as naïve and easily manipulated. The American politician Lewis accuses Darlington of misjudging the seriousness of the situation in Europe, while Darlington’s beloved godson Cardinal eventually becomes so frustrated with his godfather’s lax attitude toward fascism that they have a fierce argument. With the entire novel portrayed from Stevens’s perspective, the narration praises and defends Darlington. But criticism from characters such as Lewis, Cardinal, and Miss Kenton shows that even Stevens is beginning to have his doubts.

By the time the novel takes place, Darlington has lost a lawsuit, and his life ended in public disgrace, with everyone assuming him to be a Nazi. Stevens’s defense of Darlington becomes not just a defense of the man but a defense of Stevens’s decision to continue working for such a man. If Stevens acknowledges Lord Darlington’s flaws, he must acknowledge the hollowness of his ideas about service and commitment. Stevens defends Darlington because to do otherwise would be to admit that he has wasted his life. The flimsiness of Stevens’s defense and the strength of the other characters’ criticism create a damning portrait of Lord Darlington. For all the sincere good intentions, his sympathy for fascists translates into immoral and fascistic behavior. Even if he later apologizes to Stevens, such as when he asks Stevens to track down the two Jewish girls he asked to be fired, he never fully atones for his actions. Darlington ends his life in quiet disgrace. Not only did he waste his life, turning himself into a puppet of an evil government, but he vicariously wasted Stevens’s life.

After the death of Lord Darlington, the estate is sold to an American businessman named Mr. Farraday. In the context of the novel, Farraday exists to provide a juxtaposition with Lord Darlington. They are presented as two sides of a dichotomy: Darlington is the old world, replete with the formalities and traditions that this encompasses; Farraday is from the new world and does not adhere to the strict rituals and expectations that define the lives of the British upper classes. The dichotomy runs deeper: Darlington is old, Farraday is young; Darlington is dead, Farraday is alive; Darlington hosted grand parties with many staff members while Farraday lives a simpler life with a skeleton crew at Darlington Hall. To Stevens, Farraday is the embodiment of the modern age. His struggles to deal with Farraday’s jokes represent his struggles to adjust to this new era. The more Stevens fixates on Darlington, the more he demonstrates how he fears the future, not least because he cannot provide the high level of service that he demands of himself.

Farraday views Stevens as part of the furniture at Darlington Hall. He is a foreigner who has bought the property because he is trying to purchase a certain idea of Englishness. He wants to be the English lord, with an estate and a butler. When Stevens deviates from what is expected of a butler, therefore, Farraday is displeased. When his guests accuse him of purchasing an inauthentic, mock version of the estate and suggest (due to Steven’s lie) that Stevens did not work for Lord Darlington, Farraday is upset. Farraday’s emotional reaction shows how he views Stevens. To him, Stevens is a relic of the past. He is a commodity, a piece of furniture that decorates the kind of life he wishes to lead. This attitude from Farraday contributes to the idea that Stevens is an anomaly, showing how he is so out of touch with the modern age that he is useful only as an antique representation of a bygone era of Britain.