The Remains of the Day

While driving his car, Stevens continues to think about the role of the butler. To Stevens, the mark of a truly great butler is one who seeks to serve in a household that is internationally renowned and capable of “furthering the progress of humanity” (84). To Stevens, such households are inherently aristocratic and noble. However, not many butlers in the contemporary world have the opportunity to seek out such households.

Noticing “a heated smell emanating from the car engine” (87), Stevens pulls up outside an old Victorian stately home in the hope that the resident chauffeur might be able to assist him. A man appears and, without much fuss, replaces the water in the dried-out radiator. Stevens notices that the furniture in the house is covered in sheets. The man explains that the owner of the house is in the midst of selling it because it is too large. The man is impressed by Stevens’s claim that he works at Darlington Hall. He suggests that there “can’t be many like you left” (88) any longer. When the man asks about Lord Darlington, however, Stevens denies that he worked for his former employer.

On the man’s suggestion, Stevens visits a local landmark named Mortimer’s Pond. While looking at the pond, Stevens admits that he has given many people the impression that he has “never been in the employ of Lord Darlington” (90). He remembers that when Mr. Farraday hosted an American couple, Stevens insisted that he had not been working at the house when Lord Darlington was in residence. He insists, however, that he is not ashamed of his past. Rather, so many scurrilous rumors and mistruths have spread about Lord Darlington that Stevens does not want to engage with such “unpleasantness” (93). In his opinion, Lord Darlington was a fine and moral man. Stevens says that he is “proud and grateful” (94) to have worked for Lord Darlington.

Stevens wakes up having spent the night in the guest room of a pub in Taunton, Somerset. The night before, he had talked to the local patrons in the pub, who he guessed “were agricultural people of one sort or another” (95). Though the patrons tried to joke with Stevens about the owner’s loud arguments with his wife, Stevens was reluctant to engage. His attempts to joke with the locals were not particularly successful; Stevens has been trying to improve his humor “to fulfil with confidence all Mr. Farraday's expectations with respect to bantering” (96). He has even been listening to comedy shows on the radio, but, given his failures, he has decided against any further attempts at humor for now.

In the morning, Stevens takes in the local sights. He sips tea in a café in Taunton and, through the window, a signpost for a local village named Mursden reminds him of a firm once located in the area. Giffen and Co. manufactured “undoubtedly the finest silver polish available” (98) in Britain in the early 20th century. Thanks to their products, butlers and servants in households across the country could polish their silver to exceptionally high standards. The silverware used during a dinner service was an indicator of the quality of the domestic staff. Stevens, like every good butler, used Giffen and Co. polish. He remembers how visitors such as George Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor would visit Lord Darlington and compliment the finely polished and presented silverware. Similarly, Lord Darlington once told him how Lord Halifax had once praised the silver during a meeting the two men had with Herr Ribbentrop, the German ambassador at the time.

The thought of Herr Ribbentrop prompts further recollections. Nowadays, Stevens knows, Ribbentrop’s reputation is low. In the 1930s, however, he was regarded as an honorable, upstanding man. Whenever he visited the aristocratic houses of England, such as Darlington Hall, he was always a guest of honor. Stevens does not appreciate that many people believe that the current view of German politicians from that era was always so obvious. People act, Stevens believes, as though everyone always knew that Ribbentrop was a “trickster” (100). Such people do not understand that many important Germans frequently visited England, just as Lord Darlington frequently visited Germany. When he did travel to Germany, Lord Darlington would stay with high-ranking Nazis, as did many other British aristocrats. Stevens does not believe that these British aristocrats—such as Lord Darlington—truly understood the horrific nature of the Nazis. The Nazi ideology and other elements of fascism were rarely mentioned at Darlington Hall. The leading British fascist Oswald Mosley did visit the house, Stevens recalls, but his three visits occurred before the “true nature” (101) of fascism had made itself apparent.

Stevens returns to the memory of Lord Halifax praising the silver at Darlington Hall. He was immensely proud of his work that night. Stevens is also proud that he worked in a house that had an influence over history. Stevens views his career as a butler as an essential part of the foreign affairs of the era. In the present time, however, he lacks the staff needed to maintain such high standards. He recalls a recent incident in which he was embarrassed when Mr. Farraday noticed a blemish on a fork, which Stevens quickly replaced. These “small errors” (102), Stevens hopes, will be resolved if Miss Kenton accepts the job offer.