Like Deven in Desai's In Custody, Stevens acts in bad faith because he lacks the strength of character to control his life. He foolishly believes that as an English butler he will change the course of history. He cannot express emotion, make choices for himself, nor make commitments. He constructs a mask based on the English notion of dignity to avoid political and social responsibility. Behind this mask, Stevens enslaves himself to the English system of professionalism.
Stevens's definition of dignity is in itself bad faith, as it denies people of their humanity and freedom:
'Dignity' has to do crucially with a butler's ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits. Lesser butlers will abandon their professional being for the private one at the least provocation. For such persons, being a butler is like playing some pantomime role; a small push, a slight stumble, and the facade will drop off to reveal the actor underneath. The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmost; they will not be shaken out by external events, however surprising, alarming or vexing. They wear their professionalism as a decent gentleman will wear his suit: he will not let ruffians or circumstance tear it off him in the public gaze; he will discard it when, and only when, he wills to do so, and this will invariably be when he is entirely alone. (Ishiguro 42-43)
By hiding behind his suit of professionalism, he escapes responsibility.
This suit keeps Stevens from reacting compassionately to his father's illness and death. On his death bed, his father approaches Stevens with final fatherly words, emotional words, and Stevens responds, "I'm afraid we're extremely busy now, but we can talk again he in the morning" (Ishiguro 93). When he learns that his father passed away, he responds similarly, without emotion, "�I see'" (Ishiguro 106). He justifies his lack of sentiment: "�Please do not think me unduly improper in not ascending to see my father in his deceased condition just at this moment. You see, I know my father would have wished me to carry on just now'" (Ishiguro 106). Stevens's father hid behind the same mask of professionalism and dignity, never showing emotion or love for his son. Stevens believes that his father wanted him to behave this way, as it embodies English so-called professionalism.
His obligation to his employer, or more accurately, his master, Lord Darlington, drives Stevens to overlook his father. He treats Darlington with unconditional devotion and loyalty:
If a butler is to be of any worth to anything or anybody in life, there must surely come a time when he ceases his searching; a time when he must say to himself: �This employer embodies all that I find noble and admirable. I will hereafter devote myself to serving him.' This is loyalty intelligently bestowed. What is there �undignified' in this? Once is simply accepting an inescapable truth: that the like of you and I will never be in a position to comprehend the great affairs of today's world, and our best course will always be to put our trust in an employer we judge to be wise and honourable, and to devote our energies to the task of serving him to the best of our ability. (Ishiguro 201)
This loyalty blinds him from seeing Darlington's Nazi sympathetic political role. When Darlington's so-called mistakes are brought to Stevens's attention, he responds:
How can one possibly be held to blame in any sense because, say, the passage of time has shown that Lord Darlington's efforts, were misguided, even foolish. . . It is hardly my fault if his lordship's life and work have turned out today to look, at best, a sad waste -- and it is quite illogical that I should feel any regret or shame on my own account. (Ishiguro 201)
Stevens accepts no responsibility for his lordship's failings; behind his mask, Stevens justifies his own actions with the excuse, "I was just following orders." Ironically, he pinpoints his career's the turning point as the March 1923 conference where Lord Darlington proved himself a fool.
Stevens not only fails to take political responsibility, he also fails to act on his feelings for Miss Kenton. Although Ishiguro creates a sexual tension between Stevens and Miss Kenton, Stevens's professionalism prevents its realization. When Miss Kenton informs Stevens of her wedding engagement, he responds, "'Indeed, Miss Kenton. That is very interesting'" (Ishiguro 215). Miss Kenton shocked at Stevens's lack of interest in her marriage, exclaims, "�Am I to take it that after the many years of service that I have given in this house, you have no more words to greet the news of my possible departure than those you have just uttered'" (Ishiguro 219)? Like Stevens, Oscar never acts on his love for Lucinda because he believes that God controls his soul. Because Stevens lacks control over his life, he lies to himself. On his trip through the English countryside, Stevens visits Miss Kenton to convince her to return to Darlington Hall, as she is the staff plan's missing piece. In reality, she is the missing piece from his life, representing love and human interaction. He hides behind his mask telling himself that her presence in Darlington Hall would improve the household's upkeep. When Miss Kenton rejects his offer, Stevens never even resists.
Because Stevens links detachment with dignity, greatness, and nationalism, he takes pride in the aloofness which he maintains in all of his human interactions. (Adrienne T. Chisolm, "English Detachment, Dignity, and The Remains of the Day," Postcolonial web) He believes that "continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race are capable of" (Ishiguro 43). He hides behind this so-called English charm preventing potential relationships from being realized. Like Stevens, Lily and Chen from Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet hide behind the gender roles within their culture's communication practices: "When she [Lily] first put the idea to Husband [Chen] she had been expecting resistance or at least an explanation why she shouldn't go�It was his function to oppose, part of the natural order of things, the cycle of constant fruitful opposites" (Mo 45). Whereas Mo finds Lily and Chen's interactions amusing, Ishiguro finds those of Stevens inauthentic. Stevens lacks enough self-knowledge to recognize that English communication customs prevent him from acting. He regrets that he never shaped these relationships: "There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable" (Ishiguro 179). This regret never motivates him into action.
Although Stevens rarely acknowledges his bad faith behavior, he experiences a few moments of epiphany. While talking to a stranger, Stevens confesses that he wasted his life:
After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the like of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of the great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took? (Ishiguro 244)
Like Deven, Stevens rationalizes his failure. Like Omar in Salman Rushdie's Shame, he has worn his peripheral status as a shield to protect himself from the responsibilities of critical thinking and independent action. "For Stevens, the confession is a brave and painful expression of self-knowledge that has been kept submerged for years. Like Omar, he must confess to �only-doing-my job'" (Jen Chapin, "Self-Realization in the Characterization in Ishiguro," Postcolonial web). Using techniques of characterization such as dialogue, personal thought, other characters' reactions, and background, Ishiguro molds Stevens into the embodiment of the British empire's failure to act with strength. Like the British empire, he wasted his life by never committing himself to a worthy cause. Once critic says:
As memories reverberate in Stevens's solitude, he is forced to look at the implications of his obedience, to face the truth about the employer he revered for not only his breeding but his virtue, and to realize that, along with his butlerine perfection, he has sold his soul. (The Servant, Rhoda Koenig, New York, October 16, 1989)
Stevens represents the segment of the English population which is denied its sense of self. His relationship to his Lord/Master parallels the colonizer's relationship to its colonized subjects. By hiding behind the veil of so-called dignity, he loses opportunities to experience political, sentimental, and human interactions.
