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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
The style Ishiguro employs in The Remains of the Day is largely dictated by the voice and character of his first-person narrator, Stevens. English butlers as buttoned-up and formal as Stevens are often humorous side characters in other stories, but in this novel, Ishiguro gives Stevens a rich inner world. Stevens's dialogue and his narration are often stylistically similar: he speaks the perfectly correct British English of the upper class, complete with multi-syllable words and exacting politeness. He often refers to himself in the generalized third person (i.e., "one has to" or "one should").
Stevens's fastidiousness is reflected in his manner of narration: he will qualify earlier statements to make sure he doesn't say anything factually incorrect, and he chides himself for generalizing or speaking about things he feels he doesn't understand. He describes the world around him with brief but exact imagery, usually without metaphorical language. His narration is not cruel or rude, but he can be judgmental of those around him, especially the lower classes. The novel meanders into lengthy digressions and memories, but it also follows a chronological present-day journey, which Stevens seems to be writing about in a personal journal.
When Ishiguro writes the dialogue for other characters, he inhabits their worlds and manners of speaking just as fully. Class stratifications and nationalities are evident from each character's dialect. Ishiguro is also capable of revealing a wealth of information about a character's inner life in just a few words of description. This sparse but effective style leaves the reader room for interpretation while also suggesting a whole world of perspectives outside of Stevens's.
Related Themes:
