Eric Maas’s Reviews > The Remains of the Day > Status Update

…in bantering lies the key of human warmth. (p. 213)

…adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? (p. 212)

Quite the confession, up to now there hasn’t been a sign of self-blame other than between the lines. Pay mind to what Stevens is not saying…

All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can’t even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one had to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that? (p. 211)

Be careful about how you spend the best years of your life, I suppose. But you’ll only recognize those years in hindsight, won’t you?

…that doesn’t mean to say, of course, there aren’t occasions now and then - extremely desolate occasions - when you think to yourself: “What a terrible mistake I’ve made with my life.” And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had. For instance, I get to thinking about a life I might have had with you, Mr Stevens. (p. 207/208)

More than serving his employer or his profession, Stevens serves the desperate wish of a little child to be but a good boy.

His uplifting sense of triumph for never to remove his clothing in public, either in front of young Mr. Cardinal or Miss Kenton is just terribly sad…

I had, after all, just come through an extremely trying evening, throughout which I had managed to preserve a ‘dignity in keeping with my position’ – and done so, moreover, in a manner even my father might have been proud of. (p. 198)

‘What do you think dignity’s all about?’
The directness of this inquiry did, I admit, take me farther by surprise. ‘It’s rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,’ I said. ‘But I suspect it comes down to not removing one’s clothing in public.’
‘Sorry. What does?’
‘Dignity, sir.’

(p. 183/184)

5. Day Three – Morning (Moscombe, near Tavistock, Devon)

Stevens among commoners

Why Stevens, you can argue otherwise long and wide, but were you just now, though ever so clumsily, flirting with Miss Kenton? I think you were! :D

’I suffered so much over Ruth and Sarah leaving us. And I suffered all the more because I believed I was alone.’

This after just unreservedly admitting how she didn’t follow up on her threat to resign out of fear. Miss Kenton has a beautiful talent for being human. She is authentic, sweet and professional all the time. And then there is Stevens…