The Revelation of Mr. Stevens as Modern Tragic Hero Timothy Sexton College

The most crucial moment in the text of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, The Remains of the Day, does not occur until almost the very end of the book. The tragic implications of everything that has taken place before can only be put into the proper context for the reader by situating his consciousness within the timeline of the awareness of the story’s protagonist, Mr. Stevens. That timeliness has revealed him to be a personification of the concept of leading a life of quiet desperation as his passivity and inability to act upon either his emotions or his intellect has kept him virtually unchanged throughout the revolutions taking place in the early part of the 20th century. His sense of duty, loyalty to his employer and unquestioned acceptance of social customs and historical traditions has resulted in his being seemingly bereft of even the capacity to act as time has passed him over, the evil of his employer has been revealed and the only woman he loved married another. Situating the most critical moment in the life of Mr. Stevens an emotionally devastating climax which is experienced simultaneously by reader and character removes the element of irony from the story and thus succeeds in transforming the Ishiguro’s simple butler into a...