“A profound and harrowing study of personality, class, and culture” To what extent do you agree with this assessment of the novel?Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay Throughout “The Remains of the Day,” Mr. Stevens, the protagonist, not only explores the world outside of his beloved Darlington Hall, but also takes a journey into his own past, allowing the reader to examine his personality as well as explanations of social class and culture. The complexity of Stevens' mind is gradually exposed to the reader, who is willing to interpret his personality as either deeply depressed or endlessly frustrated. The complexity and vague nature of his feelings are typical of the postmodernist style, leaving the reader to decide whether the novel is indeed a "harrowing study of personality, class, and culture." This assessment offers the reader a partial overview of the novel's characteristics; it can be argued, however, that many aspects of the text are neither profound nor heartbreaking. The relationship between Mr. Stevens and the reader is of primary importance in the study of Stevens' personality. The amount of information he remembers freely as opposed to what remains simply "fragmented" allows the reader to observe the repression intrinsic to his personality. Stevens's account is often unreliable due to the restraint he shows in recalling certain memories, "often disguising more than he hides". In postmodernist literature, unreliable narration is used as a means of pressuring the reader to decide their version of what is true, often reflecting the confusing complexity of modern life. Because Stevens is an intradiegetic narrator, his narrative voice could be considered unreliable as he tells the story as he sees it, while existing within it. While illustrating both his knowledge and his blindness, this method of storytelling raises the question of whether the reader is ever shown his true personality. An example of the unreliability of Stevens' narration due to emotional repression is the occasion when Miss Kenton hears from her. the death of my aunt. The lexical choice of words such as "confused" and "fragment" in this passage could lead the reader to believe that Stevens truly forgot the episode. However, he also comments that the incident remains "alive throughout the years." These conflicting views are linked to Newton's observation that Stevens "travels through his memories, alternately looking and looking away." By hiding his memories, he also hides his personality from the reader or possibly shows that he is overwhelmed by certain emotional experiences. Stevens represses this particular memory, perhaps in reaction to his unprofessional conduct in not offering his condolences, or perhaps because of the regret he feels at not having comforted Miss Kenton at that time. The contrasting references to this memory illustrate the process of concealment and revelation of knowledge that makes the story so complex. He comments on the “strange feeling” that overcomes him, leading the reader to believe that he is perhaps experiencing a stifling emotion or regret. This occasion, like others in the novel, can be interpreted as heartbreaking, as the reader feels sympathy for an aging butler who lacks the ability to express himself outside of his professional boundaries. Stevens also suppresses his feelings of grief when his father dies. choose to treat the reader as hewould do it with an employer or guest and not bother him with his personal grief. The suppression of certain memories and emotions coincides with what Adam Parkes describes as Stevens's "fear of losing control." An example is that of Stevens' repressed sexual love: "Could it be that our Mr. Stevens is afraid of distractions?" Could it be that our Mr. Stevens is flesh and blood after all and cannot fully trust himself? It is clear that this suggestion, particularly coming from Miss Kenton, has an effect on Stevens because he describes her comment as "chatter". This use of metalanguage indicates to the reader that Stevens is uncomfortable with such unprofessional speech, as he fears it will harm his work. He also apologizes by noting that their cocoa parties maintain a "professional character", meaning that he fears that the reader will view him as unprofessional, in the same way that he wishes to defend his appearance to his employer. However, this leads the reader to believe that he cannot in fact "fully trust himself", because by apologizing to the reader and hiding his emotions, he is further deceiving himself in an attempt to maintain "dignity » to which he constantly strives. towards. Another incident similar to this is when Stevens defends his "incidental enjoyment" of romance novels, asking rhetorical questions of the reader such as "what shame is there in that?" By standing up for himself in this way, the reader experiences an in-depth study of Stevens' personality, as his humanity is exposed beneath his professional exterior. To conceal his fear, Stevens uses a unique narrative style that is precise and formal, masking any hidden feelings beneath his appearance. words in order to maintain his professional facade. This “butler language,” David Lodge asserts, “has no literary value. "However, the style offers a refined and elevated vocabulary that first highlights the measured nature of Stevens' personality and, at the same time, conveys to the reader that Stevens is a complex character whose narrative must be examined to determine its true meaning , a typical post-modernist motif. Moreover, each constrained sentence evokes Stevens's strangled personality because he reveals very little about himself. The narrative is, as Petry comments, Stevens' memory of the ". non-formation” of his own identity this is an observation on how throughout the novel the reader is excluded from Stevens' past, since there is no mention of his mother, of his childhood or his friends, and that he also does not seem to have a first name Stevens' work shaped his identity he excluded everything else by calling it a distraction and let his personality be formed by his profession; Obedience is intrinsic to his character, as subtly illustrated by his obedience to a travel volume at the start of his journey: "I did not fail to visit the beautiful cathedral, much praised by Mrs. Symons in her volume. » He cannot make choices himself because he is used to following orders; he only visits Salisbury Cathedral because it is suggested in his book. Ishiguro describes himself as "stuck on the fringes" because he is neither Japanese nor English. This is similar to Stevens, because although he is dedicated to his work, he does not belong to the aristocratic society of Darlington Hall nor to the society outside that he visits on his journey. Without his work, Stevens would be nothing. This personality trait is further comparable to Christopher Banks in When We Were Orphans, who fails to fit in at school and talks at length about how to gain acceptance in social clubs by becoming "well connected" to "various higher horizons of life. Banks' personality is similar tothat of Stevens in other respects: he is primarily moving toward an illusory goal, not to serve as Mr. Stevens but to "resolve" his unresolved past. Duty and love are also conflicting issues for Banks, alongside Stevens; however, unlike Stevens, he reaches a late revelation of unconditional love that need not be earned through "duty" or "dignity". Although the realization comes too late to free him from a persistent "emptiness", the reader can at least eventually feel sympathy for him, while Stevens frustrates the reader with his blind loyalty to professionalism. Ishiguro himself refers to the narrative of "The Remains of the Day" as "not random" but "controlled by the things 'that [Stevens] doesn't say'; it is this restraint that leads many readings against the deep and heartbreaking ideal that emerges primarily at the end of the novel. It can be argued that for the reader to feel emotionally obligated, they must feel that Stevens actually feels regret, and sometimes that means reading deeper into the character's personality than what he is saying. For example, readers know that Stevens feels crushed when Miss Kenton mentions that she will not return to Darlington Hall; he referred to his hopes of return throughout the novel. Of course, he never expressed his feelings to Miss Kenton and therefore does not convey his true sense of loss. Only to himself does Stevens reveal that his "heart was breaking", which is an incredibly powerful revelation from a character who has shown little to no emotion throughout of the novel. While he manages to hide his "level of grief", Stevens realizes how much better his life could have been with Miss Kenton. It's a deeply painful and heartbreaking climax to their relationship. Additional complexity in the narrative adds to this effect, since Stevens does not discuss what would constitute "Day Five." The reader must imagine Stevens wandering completely alone, his chance for privacy gone. It is unclear, ultimately, to what extent Stevens realizes that he was wrong. This ambiguous conclusion is a key motif in postmodernist literature. Stevens appears to express regret with statements such as "I suppose I was somewhat disappointed," which could refer to several things – his father's expectations of professionalism, his own ideal of dignity, or his involvement with Lord Darlington and his impact on history. events. This would suggest that Stevens finally realizes his error in judgment and feels sadness at his inability to change the past, and that the reader can finally feel sympathy for Stevens. Alternatively, readers may feel frustrated with a man who was consumed by his profession and who blindly denied the possibility of living a happy life with Miss Kenton. Even at the end of the novel, Stevens asks, "What can we gain by always looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives haven't turned out as we might have wished?" The question is particularly infuriating because the reader knows that Stevens could have taken charge of his life and achieved what he wanted but chose not to. He reflects on his situation and decides that he must strive to improve his "joking skills", ignoring the pain he feels after losing Miss Kenton. The reader gets a glimpse of the emotions Stevens may be feeling, but is then left lost when Stevens resolves that jokes, which he considers a professional task, are the "key to warmth." The irony is almost comical at this point in the novel, since the reader has just seen..