The most pivotal moment in the text of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, The Remains of the Day, does not occur until almost the very end of the book. The tragic implications of all that has happened before can only be put into the proper context for the reader by situating their consciousness within the timeline of the consciousness of the story's protagonist, Mr. Stevens. This news revealed that he was a personification of the concept of leading a life of quiet desperation, as his passivity and inability to act on his emotions or his intellect kept him virtually unchanged throughout the revolutions that took place at the beginning of the 20th century. century. His sense of duty, his loyalty to his employer, and his unquestioned acceptance of social customs and historical traditions rendered him seemingly devoid of the capacity to act as time passed him by, his employer's evil was revealed and that the only woman he loved was marrying another. Locating the most critical moment in Mr. Stevens' life, an emotionally devastating climax experienced simultaneously by the reader and the character, removes the element of irony from the story and thus succeeds in transforming Ishiguro's simple butler into a modern tragic figure of almost mythical dimension. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This transformative moment begins the moment Mr. Stevens finally decides to conduct an investigation into the current state of the marriage former Miss. Kenton. His very language, marked by a propriety close to the old-fashioned, is indicative of his detachment from emotional commitment. “I was just wondering if you were being mistreated in some way. Forgive me, but like I said, this is something I've been worried about for a while" is only superficial and lacks the deeper meaning that he just can't get him to state explicitly. The terminology is aimed at the reason why Miss Kenton temporarily left her husband on several occasions. A tragic implication may be found in the fact that even at this late stage of his life, when he has been so terribly disappointed, Mr. Stevens cannot help but retain his appropriate and studied sense of reserve. What he is asking here is not whether her husband mistreated her, but whether her husband gave her sufficient reason to leave him permanently and come join the man who loved her from afar and so deeply. . The discipline continues with her response after learning that her husband was not, in fact, particularly abusive towards her. His response that this knowledge "takes a load off my mind" is betrayed by emotions so raw and so close to the surface that all his training and commitment to emotional distance cannot keep them entirely hidden. In that moment, Miss Kenton detects a note of humanity in Stevens despite her best efforts to suppress it. His investigation requires essential follow-up. The question “You don’t believe me?” » It's a question that his well-constructed sense of dignity could never have left unanswered. In this question lies an aspect of suspicion of his motives and a distrust of his complete veracity. A man who has made a lifelong commitment to engendering trust and remaining true to that stance to the point that that stance erases every other aspect of his personality has no choice but to respond. So he responds, but in a way that must be excruciating for most readers, his response retains his sense of decorum at the very moment when his emotional state most demands decorum be damned. Instead of opening up and telling the whole truth about how he feels, he hides these.