Stevens sees himself as socially inferior to the noblemen, and feels he is only fit to serve them, though strives to attain the values they ‘exemplify’ of dignity and honour. Knowing however he cannot achieve them due to his social rank he believes the best way to achieve dignity for himself is by serving the great and noble men and allowing them to operate at the “hub of the world” the best they can, as he explains to Miss Kenton he will never be satisfied until Lord Darlington has accomplished all he wishes. In his language these values are perpetuated and asserted.
One of the most obvious examples of Stevens’ style-shifting into this Victorian language is demonstrated by his choice of pronouns. Stevens’ use of the third person pronoun “One” and the personal pronoun “I” when referring to himself is interesting. He uses the pronoun “one” to objectify himself, make himself into the perfect vessel for Lord Darlington. The Victorian ideology Stevens ascribes to by using the language forces him to believe, he is at the bottom of the social hierarchy, and cannot change things. In order to make a difference he must serve someone who is great, a gentleman who can change things for the good. In the Victorian period mass politics was unheard of, the “Dark Masses” as the working class was referred to as were uninvolved in politics it was noble blood that inherited the power of the country and the masses were lead to believe these nobles were had divine right. (Culpin) Stevens believes this ideology wholly. He bases his whole identity around the idea of dignity that stems from this value system. Dignity only being attainable to ordinary men through the serving of those of noble blood. To serve completely and "never to abandon the professional being he inhabits by formulating 'strong opinion' of his employer's affairs as this would demonstrate the lack of one quality essential in all good professionals; namely loyalty."(Ishiguro)
Taking on the language of the Victorian upper-class society that has instilled this belief into him coerces him to loose his identity and restricts his life. He becomes an object to himself and others, Farraday sees him as an “Authentic old English butler worthy of an old English house.” (Ishiguro) We watch this Language destroy Stevens life, disallow him transactions on a personal level with anyone, and repress him emotionally finally leaving him crying on a pier in Weymouth miles from Darlington Hall.
Stevens’ adopted language restricts him from having personal relationships with anyone. When Stevens does find a friend, another Butler Graham with whom he speaks to at length about how to be a great butler. Despite regarding the time they spent together as one of his “Fondest memories” (Ishiguro) after Graham does not return to Darlington hall Stevens does not pursue him as he cannot find a detached way to do so “no suitable opportunity arose for (him) to gain such information” and get in touch with him, and so this friendship, like all the other emotional outlets Stevens discovers are unrealised or lost due to his failure with language, and the imposed ideology of detachment he has acquired through his adopted language.
Another example of Stevens being unable to formulate an emotional relationship is demonstrated with Miss Kenton. His love for her is clear from the start of the novel, and despite Miss Kenton creating many opportunities for them to express their emotions for one another Stevens is utterly inept. On the night Miss Kenton enters his pantry to pursue him openly Stevens becomes ‘languageless’ literally, explaining “I cannot recall precisely what I said but I remember showing Miss Kenton out of my pantry quite firmly.”(Ishiguro) At this point I can imagine Stevens ushering Miss Kenton out of the room unable to actually formulate words. It is clear Stevens has feelings for Miss Kenton as he can not use the detached language he adopts with her as this language carries the ideology of dignified people above primitive urges and emotions, however Stevens is feeling deeply embarrassed and harbours feelings for Miss Kenton, unfortunately for Stevens he has completely lost the ability to express his emotions due to adopting this Victorian ideology so religiously. His language restricts him, stopping him from having a relationship with the woman he loves. He has the lost the use of the ability to interact on a personal level with others due to his loss of personal, subjective language. This is demonstrated painfully when his father dies.
Stevens’ father suffers a stroke on the night of an important party Lord Darlington holds in the house. The Doctor explains to Stevens that his father’s condition will probably deteriorate and at this point his father attempts to break down the barrier caused by the formal detached language they address each other in. On his deathbed he reaches out to his son, “I hope I have been a good father to you”(Ishiguro) this emotional speech is blunted by Stevens’ square remark “Father needs to rest now” (Ishiguro) By referring to his father in the third person he objectifies his father in order to detach himself from his emotions for him at this crucial time in his career. Though Steven’s is obviously upset (as Lord Darlington asks him because he appears to be crying) he continues to serve the guests to the best of his ability, while his father lay dying upstairs. Stevens deliberately adopts this method of speech in order to continue with his duty downstairs not even allowing himself to say goodbye to his father. He later recounts this as the “ turning point in my life…as the moment in my career when I truly came of age as a butler” (Ishiguro) This is his “dignity in keeping with his position" (Ishiguro) It is clear to us this is an unhealthy emotionally repressive response, and Stevens manages to adopt this position through the use of language, by objectifying his father and detaching himself from him emotionally.
Stevens cannot even create new friendships with people who should be regarded as his social peers. As he talks to Harry Smith in the Inn and the rest of the town we see Stevens mistaken as a “real gentleman” (Ishiguro) due to his language and dress. They discuss the qualities of dignity with Stevens which is something he would normally enjoy, however, he finds it difficult to speak to them in any other way than his adopted language despite them being his peers they treat him as an outsider, again his language restricts him from “bantering” (Ishiguro) with them about the noise made by the landlady and therefore making general small talk in order to meet new people of his social stratification.
It is only following Stevens’ revelations (to himself, and to us) that he has wasted his life he uses his own language. Stevens’ adoption of Victorian upper-class language and therefore ideology has forced him to form his notion of dignity in this mould. Believing he will never be a great man himself, in order to do good he must serve a great man who he believes will do good. This backfires as Lord Darlington becomes a Nazi sympathizer, and as Stevens finally accepts and divulges this fact his language becomes emotional, subjective and broken.
“Lord Darlington wasn’t a bad man…and at least he had the privilege of being able to say at the end of his life he made his own mistakes…He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misjudged one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that…I can’t even say I made my own mistakes” (Ishiguro)
The amount of personal pronouns and contractions in this speech show his break from the detached language he adopts normally. The sentence is littered with commas that serve to break the speech into short outbursts of erratic dialogue demonstrating the emotion in Stevens’s voice. Stevens has utterly broke down, and this is reflected in his language. Referring to Lord Darlington as ‘he’ and not constantly repeating his full name, and the large usage of ‘I’ demonstrate Stevens thinking of himself subjectively, not only as a person in himself but also in relation to Lord Darlington whom he views as, if not a great man now, at least a gentleman. This shows Stevens’ rejection of the adopted language and ideology. In Victorian ideology Darlington in a great gentleman of noble blood whom the like of Stevens is only fit to serve, in this speech Stevens has rejected that notion and sees Darlington as a man, not a “bad man” nor a “Great man” but as his equal. As Stevens uses his own language he learns a great deal about himself and begins to develop the idea of himself subjectively, however this triumph is cut short, as Stevens gathers his composure he follows this speech with
“Really one has to ask oneself…what dignity is there is that?” (Ishiguro)
Falling back into the use of ‘one’ in order to objectify himself and detach his feelings in order to compose himself from the “Unseemly” emotions as he has just demonstrated. (Ishiguro)
The novel finally ends “heartbreaking(ly)”(Ishiguro). Stevens resolves to take the strangers advice and to “stop looking back so much” and “make the best of what remains of (his) day…because the hard reality is, surely that for the likes of you and me there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world, who employ our services. ” (Ishiguro) This can be taken two ways, we may choose to this as Stevens addressing people such as himself who are at the end of their ruined lives, or we may see it as Stevens slipping back into his adopted ideology and explaining we are not great men like Darlington and cannot make our own history and must simply follow that which they set out for us (i.e. fate)
Stevens goes on to say he feels he must be a “disappointment” to his new employer for not learning to shift his language to accommodate for “bantering” (Ishiguro) and resolves to perfect it as a skill. Depending on how we choose to read this, again we could see this as a positive step, Stevens will learn to banter, and this will allow him to adopt the American language and therefore ideology of openness and humour and he will be free to express emotions; "when one thinks about (bantering) it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in - particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth." (Ishiguro)
Conversely this could be seen as Stevens falling back into deception, he will now simply become objectified again, only this time with the skill of “bantering”. Stevens has not lost his Victorian ideology as he decides to become a more desirable object for Mr Farraday, just as he had done for Lord Darlington. It is not clear, in the end, the extent to which Stevens realizes he has deceived himself, despite revealing to himself his theories of dignity, loyalty and servitude expressed the emptiness of hierarchy and therefore his own life he continues to view himself as an object. Still referring to himself as ‘one’ he also looks upon the task of learning to banter as "a duty" expected by an employer of a "professional" (Ishiguro)
Engulfed in the Victorian ideology of hierarchy, we are left to ponder the remains of Steven’ day. Unfortunately I believe we are left with the certainty that Stevens will not change, his language is still in place in the end and even the Victorian vales of hierarchy he has just exposed as causing his life to be a failure, are still in operation within his speech. His resolve to learn to banter is simply another example of this ideology working within Stevens he cannot escape the ideology of hierarchy and his idea of 'dignity' as he has given up his identity to assume the empty vessel of a serving archaic Victorian butler.
Bibliography
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