The Illusion of Professional Dignity: Unreliable Narration and Self-Deception in The Remains of the Day

Abstract

The Remains of the Day is one of the representative works of Kazuo Ishiguro, a British author of Japanese origin. This paper takes
The Remains of the Day as its research object and explores how the protagonist, Stevens, constructs his professional dignity through unreliable narration, revealing the essence of self-deception behind this construction. As the butler of Darlington Hall, Stevens devotes his life to the
pursuit of professional dignity, closely linking his self-worth to the service of a great gentleman. However, through selective memory and
rhetorical manipulation, he beautifies Lord Darlingtons Nazi sympathies while repressing his personal emotions, attempting to conceal the
emptiness of his career and emotional deficits. This symbiosis of unreliable narration and self-deception not only leads to Stevens dual loss
in emotion and morality but also mirrors the collective disillusionment of post-World War II British society, which fell from imperial glory to
a state of reality. By analyzing the unreliable narration in the novel, this paper further explores the psychological mechanisms and tragic consequences of Stevens construction of professional dignity, revealing the identity crisis of individuals in the face of historical change and the
complexity of human nature.