The Evolution of Stevens Towards The Remains of the Day

This chapter by Shinya Morikawa investigates the development of Stevens, the butler in The Remains of the Day, with an analysis of his precursors who are featured in Ishiguro’s earlier works archived with some unpublished ideas in the Ishiguro Papers. Morikawa follows the process through which the butler narrative was constructed from ‘A Profile of Arthur J. Mason’ in 1983 to ‘Service in Japan’ in 1987. Morikawa’s discussion, which focuses on the frequent revision of these separate works with different characters and settings, demonstrates the development of the restrained butler language that describes his wasted life. In addition, he presents some evidence of Japanese factors in the construction of these very English traits. The descriptions in the unpublished drafts named ‘Plans Butler in Japan’ and ‘Service in Japan’ establish definitively the relationship between Englishness and Japaneseness that had only been hinted at in the published works.