A man named Stevens embarks on a journey to the west country at the end of the prologue. Stevens, a model English butler narrates the novel in such a way that shows if he is expressing his emotions, or concealing them. Stevens' solitary journey reveals more to the reader than it does to himself, which creates an unreliable narrator out of Stevens. For example, Stevens believes that he is making his trip to visit miss Kenton for professional reasons in order to offer her a job at Darlington Hall. However, the underlying meaning, seen in Stevens's emotionless concealing language, is that he has more than professional feelings for Miss Kenton. Stevens does his best the convince himself as well as the reader that his intentions are strictly professional, saying "I would of course have to write to Miss Kenton to tell her I might be passing by" (20).
Steven Soderbergh and Cate Blanchett
English: Stevens Park Bandstand
English: George Stevens' Memorial. A gem tucked aw...He puts his emotions aside and states "I can see no genuine reason why I should not undertake this trip" (20).
The early career of Stevens was spent moving between households, trying to achieve his goal of becoming a great butler. He holds his father in the same light as butlers such as "Mr Marshall of Charleville House and Mr Land of Bridewood" (34), saying they are "two great butlers of recent times" (34). Stevens describes his father, saying "he not only knew all there was to know about how to run a house, he did in his prime come to acquire that 'dignity in keeping with his position', as the Hayes Society puts it" (35). The idea of dignity, and what it means to have dignity is very important to Stevens, and can be described by him by using his father. Stevens says "if I try, then, to describe...