ask oneself- what dignity is there in that?” (p. 201) Stevens believed in the end that he had made his life a waste by placing it in the hands of his social betters. He was engulfed in a system of hierarchy that, in the end, forgot about him completely. He does not define himself outside the boundaries of his subordinate position of Lord Darlington and, just as the territories of the British Empire, he finds himself colonized and unable to change. The hierarchy, which brings “dignity”, is the very same system that strips autonomy from its subjects. ...
