Narrative technique - The Remains of the Day

The narrator of the novel is Stevens. As a narrator, Stevens is unreliable, because he tells the reader about his past in the way that he wished his past would have been. As a consequence, he fools himself, but not the reader.

A good example which supports this claim is when Stevens' relationship with Miss Kenton starts to deteriorate. Routinely, the two characters used to meet at the end of each day to drink cocoa and converse. The meetings ceased because of reasons that the narrator earlier describes, such as the disposal of the Jewish maids and the dispute over another maid, Lisa. Miss Kenton thought it was immoral to fire the two maids because they were Jewish, but Stevens valued his professionalism higher and obeyed Lord Darlington.

'I suppose I have tended to spend much time pondering just why it was our relationship underwent such a change. For change, it certainly did [...] In fact, by the end, we had even abandoned our routine of meeting over a cup of cocoa at the end of each day. But as to what really caused such changes, just what particular chain of events was really responsible, I have never quite been able to decide.'

This quote shows that Stevens might know why these meetings came to an end, but here he refuses to realise the actual reasons.

Stevens uses flashbacks as part of his narrative technique, mainly focusing on three years; 1922, 1923 and 1936. 1922 was the year of Stevens' father's and Miss Kenton's arrival at Darlington Hall. 1923 was the year of the big international conference and 1936 was the year that Miss Kenton left Darlington Hall to get married.

The imagined reader is probably someone of the same social level as Stevens, such as a fellow servant or his dead father. He uses expressions like; 'as you might expect', indicating that the imagined reader understands him and his profession.