st question his Lord’s greatness and the meaning of his service. The farther Stevens travels from Darlington Hall, it seems, the closer he comes to fully understanding his life, then sets in the regrets. Upon arriving to the conclusion of Stevens’ journey, literal as well as meaningful, does one encounter the passage by Ishiguro, which ties up the all the loose ends and completes Mr. Stevens life chapter labeled “Past Regrets.” In the passage Mr. Stevens claims that there is little choice other than to leave our fate in the hands of great gentlemen at the hub of the world. It is this blind loyalty with which Stevens gratifies his employer and unables himself to look closely at what his employer really thinks or does (symptoms of “dignity”). His doctrine states: “It is, in practice, simply not possible to adopt such a critical attitude towards an employer and at the same time provide good service. It is not simply that one is unlikely to be able to meet the many demands of service at the higher levels while one’s attentions are being diverted by such matters; more fundamentally, a butler who is forever attempting to formulate his own ‘strong opinions’ on his employer’s affairs is bound to lack one quality essential in all good professionals: namely, loyalty.” (Ishiguro, 200) But the loyalty doctrine denies Stevens his own thoughts on, for instance, Darlington’s letting-go of the Jewish maids, or whether or not the “great” guests he has the honor or serving in his capacity as a “great” butler are really so great after all. Stevens’ detachment ultimately is chilling, for the distance that he believes is a necessary aspect of dignity, instead distances him even from the fact that this attitude of detachment is not great, but unhealthy. This sets a butler’s dignity above human dignity, he realizes at the end, and human dignity ...
