The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day
Discuss the themes of loss and regret in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day.
The story The remains of the day, by Kazuo Ishiguro is filled with both aspects of loss and regret. The term Loss is an amount that one suffers due to an event and the term regret means to feel sorry for actions that have been done. These two major themes can be both seen literal and figurative over the course of the novel. The book stresses importance on the past and all that could of come from it. There are many regrets from Stevens not being able to be with Miss Kenton to never being able to be his own person. The loss in this book is heavy as well ranging from deaths to loss of happiness, and Lord Darlington’s loss of respect. The book has many flashbacks in it setting a scene of resentment in the characters fro the present. Overall both loss and regret play big roles in The remains of the day because of all the unhappiness these two ideals brought.
During the course of the novel there were many regrets when dealing with Stevens a butler, “I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one's past for such 'turning points', one is apt to start seeing them everywhere" (175). One of his biggest regrets for him was not being with Miss Kenton a housekeeper. Miss Kenton was the love of his life and he did not pursue her. He rethinks his past actions with her and realizes he could have had a better life with her with more happiness. He never acted on his feelings for her and just let her slip away to somewhere else. He feels great pain from this especially since now Miss Kenton has married. But even miss Kenton feels regretful of her decision, “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 may have had with you, Mr. Stevens” (226). She realizes too that her true love is Stevens
Discuss the themes of loss and regret in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day.
The story The remains of the day, by Kazuo Ishiguro is filled with both aspects of loss and regret. The term Loss is an amount that one suffers due to an event and the term regret means to feel sorry for actions that have been done. These two major themes can be both seen literal and figurative over the course of the novel. The book stresses importance on the past and all that could of come from it. There are many regrets from Stevens not being able to be with Miss Kenton to never being able to be his own person. The loss in this book is heavy as well ranging from deaths to loss of happiness, and Lord Darlington’s loss of respect. The book has many flashbacks in it setting a scene of resentment in the characters fro the present. Overall both loss and regret play big roles in The remains of the day because of all the unhappiness these two ideals brought.
During the course of the novel there were many regrets when dealing with Stevens a butler, “I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one's past for such 'turning points', one is apt to start seeing them everywhere" (175). One of his biggest regrets for him was not being with Miss Kenton a housekeeper. Miss Kenton was the love of his life and he did not pursue her. He rethinks his past actions with her and realizes he could have had a better life with her with more happiness. He never acted on his feelings for her and just let her slip away to somewhere else. He feels great pain from this especially since now Miss Kenton has married. But even miss Kenton feels regretful of her decision, “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 may have had with you, Mr. Stevens” (226). She realizes too that her true love is Stevens