The Remains of the Day

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Teachers notes LEVEL 6
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About the author
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954. His
parents moved to Britain when he was five and he grew up
there, attending the University of Kent and the University
of East Anglia. His first novel A Pale View of Hills is
a powerful and disturbing account of a middle-aged
Japanese woman living in England who, after the suicide
of her daughter, recalls her life in Nagasaki shortly after
the atomic bomb had fallen. This novel was awarded the
Winifred Holtby Prize by the Royal Society of Literature
and Kazuo Ishiguro went on to write three other prize-
winning novels, including The Remains of the Day. In
addition to writing, Kazuo Ishiguro has done community
work in a poor area of Glasgow and has worked with
homeless people in London. He now lives in London with
his wife and children.
Summary
The Remains of the Day is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, one
of the most successful young novelists writing in English
today. It was the winner of the 1989 Booker Prize, the
biggest literary prize in Britain and in 1993 was made into
a successful film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma
Thompson.
Chapter 1: Staff Plans Mr Stevens, the butler at
Darlington Hall has difficulties running the house with
few servants. His new master, an American, meanwhile
suggests he should go away for a few days and offers to
lend him a car. Stevens intends to use the trip to talk to
a previous housekeeper of the Hall, hoping she might
agree to come back. We see that the relatively modern
values and conversation of the American, Mr Farraday,
are difficult to understand for an old-fashioned butler like
Stevens.
Chapter 2: Unfamiliar Territory Three months later,
Stevens sets out; he has not left the area for many
years. He stays at a guesthouse in Salisbury, and worries
about meeting Miss Kenton (now Mrs Benn) again. We
understand that he is always thinking about what makes
a good butler. We discover that Miss Kenton is now
married but separated, and that it is twenty years since she
left Darlington Hall. He thinks back to those days in the
1920s, when England was so different and he was running
Darlington Hall with 28 staff.
Chapter 3: Small Errors Back in 1922, Stevens employed
Miss Kenton as housekeeper and also employed his own
father, an experienced but aged man, as under-butler.
Stevens and Miss Kenton have a disagreement over
whether she has the right to address his father by his
first name. Stevenss father begins to make small cleaning
errors, which to Stevens are a very serious matter. He tries
nevertheless to ignore them.
Chapter 4: An Embarrassing Fall Stevens recalls a
conversation he had in 1923 with Lord Darlington, who,
he insists, was a good man with a good heart. Darlington
is concerned that Stevenss father is making more mistakes.
The lord is particularly concerned since an important
conference of friends of Germany is soon to be held in
the house. Stevens explains to his father stiffly that he
must only do more simple jobs from now on.
Chapter 5: The Birds and the Bees Miss Kenton is rather
ill-tempered with Stevens. Meanwhile the first guests
arrive for the conference. One of them has brought his
twenty-three-year-old son, who is engaged to be married.
The young mans father has not been able to talk to his
son about sex. Darlington asks Stevens to explain the facts
of life to the young man, a job Stevens does not find easy.
Chapter 6: The Conference During the conference,
Stevenss father falls seriously ill. Despite his serious
illness, he is only concerned about the work in the house
being well done. He tells his son he is proud of him. A
little later, Stevenss father is obviously dying, but Stevens
continues to worry only about Lord Darlingtons guests.
Chapter 7: Silver Back in the present (1956) Stevens is
staying in Taunton and thinking about the importance
of polishing silver correctly, as a butler. He talks of the
visitors to Darlington Hall admiring the silver. These
visitors include Ribbentrop, a Nazi leader. It becomes clear
that Darlington was close to friends of Hitlers. Stevens
excuses Darlington, saying that in the atmosphere of the
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
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time, Darlingtons attitude was understandable. Stevens
is hoping very much that Miss Kenton will want to come
back to work again with him.
Chapter 8: Sarah and Ruth Stevens remembers an episode
where Darlington ordered that all Jewish staff should be
dismissed. Stevens agrees, but Miss Kenton objects and
threatens to leave. In the end she stays. Darlington, one
year later, reconsiders his decision.
Chapter 9: Lisa One of the non-Jewish replacement maids
is called Lisa. Miss Kenton accuses Stevens of finding the
girl attractive, an accusation that he cannot reply to. In the
end Lisa decided to marry one of the other servants and so
is obliged to leave her job.
Chapter 10: A Lonely Hill Stevens continues his 1956
journey, running out of petrol and having to stay the night
at a farmhouse.
Chapter 11: Secrets Stevens puts himself in a difficult
situation with his hosts at the farmhouse. Later, Stevens
goes back to his memories of the past and particularly of
the time when his relationship with Miss Kenton began to
go wrong. After Miss Kenton saw Stevens reading a love
story, Stevens decided relations between them had become
too familiar. He was also, the reader understands, jealous
about the fact that Miss Kenton is clearly seeing a man
she is interested in romantically. Stevens decides that he
and Miss Kenton should no longer meet over cocoa in the
evenings. We understand that he now feels he missed an
opportunity to have a much closer relationship with Miss
Kenton.
Chapter 12: Miss Kentons Aunt Stevens remembers
another episode, when Miss Kentons aunt dies, and he
only showed interest in errors in cleaning rather than
showing he cared about how Miss Kenton was feeling.
Indirectly, again, he shows that he had dreamed of a
different kind of relationship with Miss Kenton.
Chapter 13: A Difficult Evening Stevens now recounts
a most uncomfortable situation he has experienced the
previous day with his farmhouse hosts. His host and
friends feel privileged to have a gentleman to stay. They
discuss what it means to be a true gentleman. Stevens
cannot resist saying he has met Mr Churchill, Mr Eden
and Lord Halifax, but does not say that it is as a servant
that he met them.
Chapter 14: Dignity Stevens thinks back to another
episode when upper-class gentlemen chose to humiliate
him by asking him his opinions on international affairs
he does not understand. Stevens was in no way offended,
and in fact was incapable of having an opinion different
from that of his master. Darlington explains to him shortly
afterwards why he believes fascism is the solution to
Englands problems. We learn that Darlington will later
be known as a failure, a fascist, and a traitor.
Chapter 15: The Rose Garden Hotel Stevens is taken by a
doctor to get some petrol. The doctor sees instantly that
Stevens is a servant, not a gentleman. Stevens is now very
much looking forward to meeting Miss Kenton again.
Chapter 16: Events of International Significance Stevens
thinks back to 1936 one night important international
visitors are staying, whose identity the butler is not
allowed to reveal. The same evening, Miss Kenton tells
Stevens that a man has asked her to marry him, but that
she has not yet made a decision. Stevens says nothing,
but is clearly upset. Stevens is unable to react rationally
either to his masters fascist activities or to Miss Kentons
expressions of affection.
Chapter 17: Old Friends Mr Stevens meets up with
Miss Kenton (now Mrs Benn) for tea, and they talk.
It turns out that her marriage with Mr Benn is now
going better, and she is not looking to come back to
Darlington Hall. Stevens tells of the very bad reputation
Lord Darlington had after the war. Just before leaving,
Mrs Benn explains that she might have preferred to
be with Stevens all these years, rather than with her
husband. Stevens is uncharacteristically heartbroken,
but characteristically says nothing.
Chapter 18: The Best Part of the Day Stevens speaks to a
man on the pier, and muses to himself in a melancholy
way, feeling his life has not in fact been very dignified.
He feels perhaps he should have a slightly lighter, more
emotional approach to life, and looks forward to being a
good butler for a few years more.
Background and themes
Life as a servant: Most of the events described in the
novel take place in the years between the two world wars.
At this time the English aristocracy lived in great houses
with a large staff of servants to run the house and look
after their every need. Outside of these great houses,
employment opportunities, particularly for women, were
few, and it was common for the children of working-class
families to go into service as soon as they left school. Girls
The Remains of the Day
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would start as parlour or kitchen maids and, if they were
bright and worked hard, might one day aspire to become
housekeepers. Boys might start out in the stables or
working as footmen. For them, the highest ambition was
to become a butler. The strict class structure of society in
general was reflected in the hierarchy which governed the
staff of a great house and it was important for everyone to
know their place and to respect those above them.
British fascism and appeasement: In the 1930s, when
Hitler took power in Germany, there were sections
of British society who looked quite favourably on his
attempts to run society without democratic rights. The
very high levels of unemployment and social crisis in
Britain left some people desperate enough to be attracted
by similar ideas. Oswald Mosley and the British Union
of Fascists organized throughout the thirties mass
meetings and demonstrations. In 1936, Mosley organized
a provocative demonstration through the streets of a
large Jewish neighbourhood in East London. He was
opposed by the mobilization of trade unions and left wing
organizations at Cable Street. The fascist demonstration
was dispersed, and Mosleys organization demoralized.
In a parallel phenomenon, sections of the British
aristocracy who had never been at ease with democracy
admired Mussolini and Hitler because of their capacity
to impose order in their countries. Lord Londonderry
in particular made friends with Hitler and worked hard
to bring the British government into an alliance with
Germany. Some parts of the British government, unsure
of their ability to run another all-out war only twenty
years after the previous one, were sympathetic to different
attempts to improve relations with Hitler. This was known
at the time as appeasement. After the war, all those
involved in appeasement were severely criticized since
they were seen as having been blind to the true nature of
Hitlerism.
Discussion activities
Before reading
1 Discuss: Tell students that this book is about a man
who has spent many years working as a butler, a
servant in a large house. Put them into small groups
and ask them to discuss the following questions, then
discuss with the whole group. What was life like for
servants to the English aristocracy in the 1920s? How
often did they go on holiday? How many hours a week
did they work? What were the duties of a butler, and of a
housekeeper? What other kind of servants existed? What
happened when a servant wanted to get married?
Chapters 12
2 Write: A letter of application. Ask your students
to imagine that they want a job as a housekeeper,
as a maid or as a footman, in Darlington Hall in the
1920s. They should write a letter to Stevens asking for
a job. Remind them to write as formally as they can.
3 Imagine a conversation: Ask your students to work
in pairs. One of them should act the part of Stevens, a
formal, old-fashioned butler. The other should act the
part of his American master, Mr Farraday. The master
jokes and makes informal conversation; the butler
attempts to respond.
Chapters 34
4 Role play: A job interview. Ask your students, in
pairs to role play the interview between Stevens and
Miss Kenton when she applies for a job in Darlington
Hall in the 1920s.
5 Write: Miss Kentons letter. Ask your students to
work in small groups. They should find all the places
in the first four chapters where Stevens refers to Miss
Kentons letter and make notes on what the letter
said. They should then write the letter. They should
begin Dear Mr Stevens, it must be a surprise to you
to receive this letter after so many years without
hearing my news
6 Role play: Ask the students to work in pairs. They
should read the scene where Stevens tells his father
about the reduction in his duties. They should then
rewrite it to make Stevenss explanation gentler and
more sensitive. Finally they should act out the
conversation.
Chapters 56
7 Write and discuss: What makes a good butler? Ask
your students to imagine Stevens was asked, in the
1930s, to write a list of the most important rules of
being a good butler. They should work in pairs, and
each pair should write five rules. The pairs should
then meet in groups of four and defend their choices,
finally choosing in the group of four, three most
important rules. Finally the whole class should choose
one Golden Rule for being a good butler.
8 Write: A letter of invitation. Ask your students to
imagine they are Lord Darlington. They should write
a letter of invitation to the conference, addressed to
selected English lords and businessmen.
Chapters 78
9 Write: Ask your students to imagine that Miss
Kenton keeps a personal diary during her time at
Darlington Hall in the 1930s. They should write
the entry in her diary for the day after she discovers
that Stevens is going to fire Sarah and Ruth, on
instructions from Lord Darlington.
The Remains of the Day
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Teachers notes LEVEL 6
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10 Discuss: So British. Ask students to discuss in
groups the presentation in the book of national
characteristics. Guide them with the following
questions: What in the book do we imagine as
typically British? What typically American
characteristics are shown by Stevenss new employer?
How much truth is there in these stereotypes of the
British and the Americans? What do foreigners often
think of as typical of your country? Do you think it
is true?
Chapters 910
Before reading
11 Discuss and predict: Ask your students to discuss,
in small groups what might happen if a maid whom
Stevens finds attractive is employed at Darlington
Hall. Guide them with the following questions: How
will Stevens show he finds the girl attractive? Given what
we know about his personality, how will he talk to her?
How might Miss Kenton react? How might this affect the
relationship between Stevens and Miss Kenton.
After reading
12 Write: A love letter. Lisa has been noticed by one of
the other servants, who finds her very attractive. He
writes her a love letter. Ask your students to write the
letter. Remind them to write in a relatively traditional
style.
13 Role play: Ask your students to work in pairs. One of
them is Lisa, the maid. The other is a good friend of
hers. Ask them to role play the conversation. Lisa is in
love and would like to get married, but she knows she
will lose her job if she does, and is worried about this.
Her friend listens and gives advice.
Chapters 1112
14 Write: Imagine you are Miss Kenton and it is 1935.
Write a letter to your aunt in which you describe your
present life and your feelings towards Stevens.
15 Discuss: Is Stevens guilty of self-deception? Ask your
students to work in small groups. Ask them to discuss
the personality of Stevens and the reasons he gives for
his different reactions throughout the first part of the
book. Guide them with the following questions:
Notice what Stevens says about his reasons for visiting
Miss Kenton, about his attitudes to Sarah, Ruth and
Lisa, about his reasons for reading love stories. Is he
always honest with himself ? Why/why not? Does he
understand his own motives? Do you think there are
really people like this?
Chapters 1314
16 Role play: Passing for a gentleman. Put your
students in groups of four. Ask them to act out the
scene where the country people are saying how
privileged they feel to have a gentleman to stay, and
Stevens is boasting about the important people he has
met. The country people want to know more and are
impressed. Stevens doesnt want to say he is a servant,
but doesnt want to actually lie, either. Then ask some
of the groups to act out the scene in front of the
whole group.
Chapters 1516
17 Discuss: Ask your students to discuss the following
questions in small groups: Stevenss reaction to Miss
Kentons news that her friend has asked her to marry
him is formal and businesslike. What evidence is there
that he is emotionally upset by the news? Do you think
Miss Kenton would have agreed to marry Mr Benn if
Stevens had showed any sign of love for her? What
evidence is there that she is hurt by Stevenss apparent
indifference to the news?
18 Write: When the conference happens in 1936, a
journalist friend of the family tries to discover what
the conference is about. Ask your students to imagine
they are that journalist, and that they successfully
discover the identity of the guests and the subject of
the conference. They should write a newspaper article
entitled Secret conference at Darlington Hall where
they give a dramatic account of what they discover
and how. They should begin One of our reporters
succeeded in getting through the tight security at
Darlington Hall yesterday evening and made astonishing
discoveries
Chapters 1718
Before reading
19 Predict: Ask your students, in small groups, to
imagine what is going to happen when Stevens finally
meets Miss Kenton. Guide them with the following
questions: Will Stevens be disappointed? What might
have happened to Miss Kenton over the last few years?
What questions will Stevens ask her? Will he be able to
deal with the situation? Will he say she is breaking his
heart?
After reading
20 Role play: Put students in pairs and ask them to
imagine a conversation between Mrs Benn (Miss
Kenton) and her best friend the day after she meets
with Mr Stevens. She should explain how she was
feeling and what she said, and ask her friend for
advice. Her friend should be sympathetic. Then ask
some of the pairs to act out the situation in front of
the class.
21 Write: It has become clear in the story that after
the war, Lord Darlington had been accused of being
a traitor because of his close contacts before the
war with friends of Hitler. Angered at the accusation,
he had gone to court to sue for libel. Tell your
students to pretend they are journalists and to write a
newspaper article from 1946 when Lord Darlington
decides to go to court. They should invent the details.
They should begin The case opens today in court of
Lord Darlington, suing the Mirror newspaper for libel,
since they wrote
The Remains of the Day
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22 Write: Ask your students, in pairs, to write a different
ending to the story, in which Stevens admits his love
for Miss Kenton.
23 Discuss: The best part of the day. Put students into
small groups. Guide them with the following
questions: Why does Stevens talk about evening as the
best part of the day do you think its possible that the
best part of Stevenss life is in front of him?
Extra activities
24 Write: Ask your students to imagine it is five years
after Stevenss holiday and his visit to Mrs Benn.
He writes a diary. Ask your students to write a diary
entry. Guide them with the following questions: Has
Stevens changed? How has he managed with his new
master? Has he learned to banter? Does he still think
about the past?
25 Write: A parody. Explain to your students how
parody works. In this book, Ishiguro does not make
us laugh at Stevens, but takes him seriously. Divide
your students into two groups. One group should
write a parody of the scene where Stevenss father dies.
The other group should write a parody of the scene at
the end of the book where Stevens meets Miss Kenton
(now Mrs Benn). Then each group should present
their parody to the other group.
26 Discuss: Heroes. Ask students to discuss Stevens as a
hero. Guide them with the following questions. What
characteristics do you need to have to be the hero of a
novel? Is Stevens a hero? What is an anti-hero? Could
Stevens be seen as an anti-hero? How much sympathy
does Ishiguro want us to have for Stevens? Can you think
of other heroes of novels or films who are similar?
27 Write an obituary: Show your students a short
obituary in English. Ask them to imagine that, some
years later, Mr Stevens dies. Ask them to discuss in
pairs and then write an obituary for Mr Stevens
explaining what was important in his life.
28 Debate: The good old days. Divide students into
two groups. Tell one group that they must defend
the values of the old world of the English upper class,
and they must find reasons to claim people were
happier and society was healthier. The other group
must find arguments to say exactly the opposite, that
the disappearance of this world was an excellent thing.
Then have the debate in class.
29 Research and present: Servants in todays world.
Ask students to do research at home or on the
Internet, about servants in todays world. Guide them
with the following questions: Do some people still have
maids, butlers, and footmen? How good are the wages
and the working conditions? What kind of arrangements
do richer people make today if they do not have servants?
Why do you think there are far fewer servants these days?
You can encourage them to consult, along with other
sites, the site www.butlersguild.com
30 Artwork: Ask students to design a new cover for the
book. They may draw or paint it, or make a collage.
They should try to ensure it corresponds to the
atmosphere of the book.
31 Research and present: Retirement and pensions. In
the book, we see that Stevens father, though old, has
little choice but to go on working. Ask your students
to research, on the Internet, the situation of old
people in Britain in recent history. Guide them with
the following questions: When were the first old age
pensions introduced in Britain? What is the retirement
age in Britain today? After what date did old people
without money no longer have to live in the workhouse?
Then ask them to present their findings to the class.
32 Debate: The moral of the story. Put your students
into groups of three. Together they should make a list
of the three sentences below they feel are closest to
what they see as the message of the book, and the
one sentence that is furthest from the message of the
book. Each group then should defend their choice in
front of the whole class, and the whole group should
discuss to discover what they think is the one most
important message of the book.
It is a pity that traditional values are disappearing. The
best way to be happy is to do your job well. Traditional
values destroyed the personal life of those who were not
rich. If you live like a slave, you think like a slave. The
old world was much simpler than the modern world.
Act on your feelings before its too late. Money doesnt
make you happy. It is important to be understanding
about those who sympathize with extreme ideas.
33 Research and present: British fascism. Put your
students into four groups. Ask them to research at
home these people events or organizations from the
history of the far right in Britain: Oswald Mosley,
Lord Londonderry, Cable Street, the Anti-Nazi
League. Then in class they should present what they
have found to the whole group.
34 Research and Present: heritage films. The Remains
of the Day became a successful film. It is one of a
series of films which show the life of the upper classes
in England in the past. These films are sometimes
referred to as heritage films. Ask your students to
find other films of this category and to present them
in class.
35 Discuss: Following on from Activity 34, divide your
students into small groups and ask them to discuss
the phenomenon of heritage films. Guide them with
the following questions: What do these films have in
common? Why are they popular? What kind of people
like them, in your opinion, and why? What kind of
people do not like them, in your opinion, and why not?
Vocabulary activities
For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to
www.penguinreaders.com.