Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day(1989)

times in whose hands civilization " has been "entrused" (116), Stevens contends
that "a butler's duty is to provide good service. It is not to meddle in the great
affairs of the nation" (199). For "it is, in practice, simply not possible to adopt
... a critical attitude towards an employer and at the same time provide good
service"; a butler "who is forever attemping to formulate his own 'strong
opinions'on his emplyer's affairs is bound to lack one qaulity essential in all
good professionals: namely, loyalty" (200). Stevens's sacrifice of his "political
conscience" to his "professional loyality" is revealed no more clearly than when he
remembers that Darlington alone made the decisions "while I simply confined myself,
quite properly, to affairs within my own professional realm"(201).
Stevens's political capitulation might have remained insignificant, at least
morally speaking, were it not for Lord Darlington's flirtation, in the early 1930s,
with anti-Semitism, and his decision," for the good of his house"(146), to dismiss
two maids from his staff purely on the grounds that they are Jewish. Naturally, it
falls to Stevens to do the firing, forcing him to "cross the fine line between the
loyalty that is the essence of his professionalism and the blind obedience of 'just
following orders''."38 And while Stevens claims that "my every instinct opposed the
idea of their dismissal," he nevertheless also reasons that "my duty in this
instance was quite clear... there was nothing to be gained at all in irresponsibly
displaying such personal doubts. It was a difficult task, but... one that demanded
to be carried out with dignity" (148). Raising the matter with Miss Kenton in a
"businesslike" way, Stevens counsels her, "we must not allow sentiment to creep
into our judgment" (148): "our professional duty is not to our own foibles and
sentiments, but to wishes of our employer" (149).
As for Darlington himself, its is hinted that his "going to bed with Hitler"
(politically speaking) is motivated by his homoerotic feelings for the aristocratic
German Herr Bremann. Bremann, we read,

first visited Darlington Hall very shortly after the [Great] war while still in his
officer's uniform, and it was evident to any observer that he and Lord Darlington
had struck up a close friendship... He returned again... at fairly regular
intervals... It must have been towards the end of 1920 that Lord Darlington made
the first of a number of trips to Berlin. (71)

Further, when Darlington talks about his German friend, his voice resounds "with
intensity" (73). Although this German officer is apparently married, Darlington is
never able "to discover the whereabouts of any of Herr Bremann's family" (74). And
Stevens describes Darlington's international conferences by reference to the
"unbroken line of gentlemen in evening suits, so

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