Lit Section III: Remains of the Day Characters, Places, & Themes

Vocabulary flashcards covering character analyses, historical context, and literary concepts from the study guide on Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.

Stevens

The protagonist and narrator of the novel, who is an expert in domestic service but serves as an unreliable narrator due to his rigid adherence to his butler persona.

Miss Kenton

The former head housekeeper at Darlington Hall (later known as Mrs. Benn) who arrived in 1922 and shared a complex, emotionally and romantically charged relationship with Stevens.

Lord Darlington

A member of the landed aristocracy and former owner of Darlington Hall who engaged in appeasement with Germany, exhibited antisemitic behavior, and ultimately fell from public honor.

William Stevens

Stevens' father, who served as head butler at Loughborough House before taking a smaller role at Darlington Hall, and who served as Stevens' primary model for professional dignity.

Mr. Farraday

A wealthy American businessman who buys Darlington Hall in the 1950s, representing an economic shift and serving as a foil to Lord Darlington with his preference for bantering.

M. Dupont

A French gentleman invited to the unofficial conference at Darlington Hall, viewed by Lord Darlington as a key contact to persuade France to revisit the Treaty of Versailles.

Mr. Lewis

A cagey American senator attending the conference at Darlington Hall who expresses American isolationism and dismisses the aristocratic British delegates as 'amateurs.'

Mr. Smith

A vocal resident of Moscombe who asserts that dignity is achieved through personal freedom and working toward a better world, accessible to all people regardless of class.

Dr. Carlisle

A local physician in Moscombe who recognizes that Stevens is a butler rather than a gentleman, offering Stevens relief due to his comfort with established social hierarchies.

Wayne Booth

The literary critic who coined the term 'unreliable narrator' in his 1961 work The Rhetoric of Fiction.

Unreliable Narrator

A literary device describing a narrator whose judgments, interpretations, or reporting depart from the values of the author, encompassing memory failures, poor evaluations, or misinterpretations.

James Phelan

A narrative theorist who expanded Booth's model by categorizing unreliability across three central tasks: reporting, interpreting, and evaluating.

Kathleen Wall

The author of the 1994 essay 'The Remains of the Day and Its Challenges to Theories of Unreliable Narration,' who identified how verbal habits signal narrational unreliability.

Bantering

A light-hearted, witty style of conversation favoured by Mr. Farraday that represents an open mode of living where the personal self can exist alongside the professional self.

Appeasement

The political policy pursued by British leaders and elites to make diplomatic and territorial concessions to Nazi Germany in an effort to maintain peace and avoid war.

Munich Agreement

A 1938 treaty granting territorial concessions to Germany, including the annexation of the Sudetenland, as part of an effort to ensure peace.

Sudetenland

A Western region of Czechoslovakia that was annexed by Germany under the terms of the 1938 Munich Agreement.

Marquess of Londonderry

Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, a real-life architect of appeasement and potential historical inspiration for Lord Darlington who defended himself against charges of Nazi allegiance.

Lord Lothian

Philip Henry Kerr, a potential historical inspiration for Lord Darlington who believed Germany was unfairly treated by the Treaty of Versailles and that Britain had a moral duty to right those wrongs.

Joachim von Ribbentrop

A Nazi diplomat used by Hitler to convince British leaders and elites that Germany only sought to restore its national pride and economy after World War I.

Neville Chamberlain

The British Prime Minister who famously declared that the Munich Agreement resulted in 'peace in our time.'

Dignity (Stevens' Definition)

The professional ideal, modeled by Stevens' father, defined as a butler's total refusal to abandon or compromise the professional being he inhabits.

Dignity (Mr. Smith's Definition)

A democratic quality achieved through personal freedom and working with others toward a better world, accessible to every person regardless of class.

Landed Aristocracy

The upper echelon of British society composed of long-standing families holding inherited landed wealth, political legacy, and social titles.

Blackshirts

A British fascist movement with which Lord Darlington had a brief association before later denouncing them.

Second Boer War

A conflict fought from 1899 to 1902 between Britain and two Boer nations (referred to by Stevens as the 'Southern African War') in which Stevens' brother Leonard died.

Leonard Stevens

Stevens' brother who died needlessly during an irresponsibly commanded attack on civilian Boer settlements in the Second Boer War.

Loughborough House

The estate where William Stevens served as head butler for Mr. John Silvers prior to joining the staff at Darlington Hall.

Mr. John Silvers

The employer of William Stevens at Loughborough House who was disparaged by two intoxicated guests during a motorcar ride.

Twice a Week or More

A radio program that Stevens listens to in an effort to study its hosts' comedic style and practice his bantering skills.

Precast Structure of Subjectivity

A phrase used by scholar Graham MacPhee to describe the predetermined social identity and role that Stevens was unable to escape.

Verbal Habits (in Unreliable Narration)

Textual cues identified by Kathleen Wall—such as repeated phrases, omissions, or disproportionate emphasis—that signal a narrator's unreliability.

Understatement (in Narration)

A form of unreliability where a narrator minimizes the true personal or emotional significance of an event, exemplified by Stevens framing his relationship with Miss Kenton as purely professional.

Overstatement (in Narration)

A form of unreliability where a narrator exaggerates the worth or nobility of a person, exemplified by Stevens defending Lord Darlington as a 'great' man.

Ian Kershaw

A historian quoted in the text who analyzes the motivations of British elites pursuing appeasement and defines it as 'offering concessions from a position of weakness.'