The story revolves around the relationship between Stevens (the hero) and Darlington (the Lord), Miss Kenton (the housekeeper), and Stevens Sr. (the hero's father), with Darlington interspersed in the middle. Some of the Lord's activities after World War I and before World War II. The relationship between Stevens and Darlington is simpler, the relationship between master and servant; the relationship with old Stevens is the relationship between father and son, teacher and student; the relationship with Miss Kenton is more complicated, which is also the continuous development of the film plot. The main line, the two are colleagues, and the housekeeper has always been unrequited to Stevens. All three sets of relationships revolve around Stevens' identity as "butler," that is, around his work. To a certain extent, it is also because of the job of "butler" that the relationship between these three groups is a little distorted or even perverted. Stevens' ultimate pursuit of the "dignity" of the "butler", as well as the characteristics of Lord Darlington and the old Stevens, made Stevens more focused on his work and intensified. Miss Kenton, as Stevens' admirer, eventually develops into a victim.
Night is the best of the day, a phrase that appears in movies and novels. The novel is spoken through the mouth of passers-by, and the film is spoken through the mouth of Miss Kenton, which is the finishing touch. In the time of day, the counterpart of night is day. For Stevens, the day was his job, the butler, the part of his relationship with the Lord, Miss Kenton, and his father; the night was his spare time, ideally, In his spare time he may have been Darlington's sweetheart, Miss Kenton's lover, old Stevens' dutiful son. However, until the end of the novel and the curtain call of the film, Stevens did not directly comment on the idea that "the night is the best part of the day", even though Darlington was used by the Nazis, disgraced, and died of depression; Love is buried deep in my heart, never to meet; only a few hundred steps away from my father have yet to see the last time. But Stevens made his own choice with his own actions.
Maybe we never got to choose. Even if Liu Jianming was given another chance, he would not be a good person. At the end of the novel, Stevens' inner monologue goes something like this: I should have had high hopes that when my master returns, I will be able to surprise him to his satisfaction; the final shot of the film goes like this: Stevens sees They flew to the sky and closed the windows by themselves. He didn't make a choice, and things just happened one after another. The choice at a particular moment may not have that great significance, but he just gave it some meaning artificially. To quote a quote from a novel, when one benefits from hindsight and begins to look back in time to find such "turning points," he is astonished to find such "turning points" everywhere. If the "tipping point" is everywhere, is it still a "tipping point"? Are there any other options? What is the meaning of choice?
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