Stevens celebrates (what he thought as) success by positioning his father as his second priority to “serving” Lord Darlington, who later dies tragically and is considered a traitor to his nation.
His new employer, Mr. Faraday, an American who bought the Darlington Hall, let Stevens use his car for a short break.
Stevens, who is still single in his fifties in the 1950s-time setting, uses this chance to meet Miss Kenton. A few years prior to World War II, Miss Kenton had resigned from her role as a housekeeper in Darlington Hall and got married.
Stevens wants to rehire Kenton, who by now has divorced her husband, and at the same time try to reignite the sparks of love that he used to bury. Both efforts turn out to be fruitless. After drinking tea and spending time together, Kenton leaves Stevens under the rain, alone.
Stevens then realizes that, for nearly forty years he has shut himself off from reality, burying his soul as a human being, for the sake of being a “professional butler.” Under the dashing formal attire that Stevens always wears, there only lies a body with a rusty soul. It has been buried for too long under the pretense of “service” which, in fact, was misplaced.
Stevens is a character in The Remains of the Day, the third novel (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Laurette in Literature 2017. In the movie with the same title, The Remains of the Day (1993), Anthony Hopkins starred as Mr. Stevens. It was a general depiction of an English butler, who suppresses personal expression for the sake of duty.
In one of his interviews, Kazuo Ishiguro, born in Nagasaki in 1954 and became an English citizen in 1983, said that we are like butlers. Doing regular jobs, putting all the effort to satisfy our boss. Fear of expressing oneself, let alone exploring all the possibilities of life, including love.
“In a political moral way, most of us are butlers,” Ishiguro said. “Even in democratic countries where we have some kind of say in how the country is run, we find ourselves oddly far removed from real power.”
How would you react if one of your team members, or a team leader under you, served you so deeply as Mr. Stevens the butler? Would you be happy because you could freely give orders? Or rather be worried, because you are facing a human-shaped creature with a mindset and behavior of machines, denying every emotion, and having no respect towards their parents — as if negating themselves—for the sake of the boss’s satisfaction?
The working culture in businesses, NGOs, and governmental institutions plays a huge role in creating ranks of butlers, people who only know how to obey, without having a clear identity — perhaps not even having a life purpose.
In a feudalistic organization which also worships the status quo, team leaders that act like butlers are usually adept in pleasing the boss, rather than standing up for the organization’s long-term interests.