The Butler Has Feelings

Lo and behold, the butler has feelings!   Not only does Lord Darlington notice tears on his face during his father's final evening, he reads romance novels.  Of course, he has reasons for allowing himself to feel emotion -- something that simply does not fit into his concept of a butler.   

The tears that Lord Darlington sees are the only evidence of his grief as his father is clearly dying.  The last conversation he has with him is as formal and stilted as any other up to this part in the book.  Is he remembering the conversations accurately, or is he portraying himself the way he wishes his audience to see him?   His actions that evening show that his job took precedence over his grief, but I can understand that in a way.  When my father died, I only took one day off from classes simply because being at the university distracted me; I could not stay home and allow the grief to swallow me.   I had to deal with those feelings eventually, but it was easier to only allow them space in small increments of time.  However, Mr. Stevens, the butler, does not seem to go back and deal with any of his dismissed and denied emotions, unless it is throughout the course of this narration.

Just as he put his grief aside, he pushes anything he feels for Miss Kenton so deep that he can deny that he feels anything at all beyond a professional respect.  Even that respect is limited as she never quite measures up to his view of a perfect housekeeper.  May only Data from Startrek could be a perfect servant, completing tasks efficiently and thoroughly without letting those pesky feelings get in the way.

One also has to question Mr. Stevens' loyalty to Lord Darlington.  He constantly defends him, but lies about having worked for him.  He provides reasons for Darlington's pre-war allegiances, but not all of them ring quite true.  I find myself wanting to know more about what happened after the war and whether all the other nobles who criticized him were really inviting the same people to be guests at their table.

The romance novels that Mr. Stevens read are the oddest twist so far.  He claims to read them in order to improve his English.   I read cheap romance novels as a way to improve my German, but German was my second language; at that time even the newspaper was still challenging to read for me, but the novels were written at a far lower level.  Mr. Stevens clearly already had the language skills so one must believe that he was a romantic at heart.  

I read a poem by Robert Graves earlier this year about repressing his sexuality.  This theme is also apparent in his autobiography.  Here it is again in this novel.   I know this is a stereotypical view of the English, but I don't know that the English are any different from the Germans and Americans that I know.  All traits appear to some degree or another in every culture that I've encountered.  It will be interesting to see how this novel continues and whether Mr. Stevens finds true love at the end of his journey.