Stevens: The Butlering Machine

"Let me make clear that wen I say the conference of 1923, and that night in particular, constituted a turning point in my professional development, I am speaking very much in terms of my own more humble standards. Even so, if you consider the pressures contingent on me that night, you may not think I delude myself unduly if I go as far to suggest that I did perhaps display, in the face of everything, at least in some modest degree a 'dignity' worthy of someone like Mr Marshall- or come to that, my father. Indeed, why should I deny it? For all its sad associations, whenever I recall that evening today, I find I do so with a large sense of triumph." (Ishiguro 110)

The amount of disregard that Stevens shows for the passing of his father in light of a positive career development is startling to say the least. His inability to show remorse, at least to the reader, reveal deep flaws in his character. What Stevens trumpets as a form of professional dignity, is in fact a human indignity. It is a basic part of human nature that when someone close to you dies a mourning of them should follow. Stevens is shown to be almost a robot, content with the singular goal of becoming what he defines as being a great butler.

Furthermore, Stevens' rationale for focusing more on the way that the night's events furthered his career than on the sadness that should have overcame following the death of his father is troublesome to the reader. His unrelenting pursuit of achieving this imagined "greatness" becomes clear to the reader as a quest that is distracting Stevens from the joys of life. The manner in which Stevens chases this goal is perhaps due to a childhood as the son of a butler. Starting at a very young age, it seems Stevens had been groomed to be a butler. As a result, Stevens developed as a sort of machine, unabashedly devoted to the service of others. It is for this reason, perhaps, that Stevens is seemingly incapable of indulging in personal feelings, even when it comes to the death of his own father.