What Does the Concept of Dignity mean to Stevens?

St compensates is a unique character whose c beer evolves solely astir(predicate) his profession and how he can both detect his lordliness and effect recognised by his work. The c formerlypt of self-respect has ruled his entire deportment and he believes it his duty to remain dignified in all pile in companionship to be classed as a broad pantryman. His metaphorical journey even so reveals that in trying to accomplish this, he has lost the vital element which must be sustained in life, clement warmth.Stevens defines arrogance as, Something one can meaningfully get through for throughout ones career, compared to Mr Grahams views that gravitas is something one possesses, which seems more(prenominal) reasonable from the subscribers point of view. The amateur Richard Locke asks what dignity there is in non making ones own mistakes and refers to the resultant sorrow and remorse that assumes, saying such rueful wisdom practically be retrospective. This certainly ex plains Stevens unemotional behaviour in his mission to get wind dignity because he has since regretted non making his own mistakes and life history life to the fullest.Instead, he delicately portrays his Fathers views, who was indeed the embodiment of dignity, because he is not able to conceive his own opinions having followed nobleman Darlingtons orders all his life. Furthermore, Stevens has incorporated the hay Society perspectives of dignity and related them to that of his father stating that he had, Dignity in keeping with his position, again proving that he can not ready his own views and has again had to use someone elses.Stevens is so concerned with dignity and just his misinterpretation of it, together with the emphasis his father put on it, has left him unable to calculate his own ideas on what dignity rattling is and has frankincense naively lead him into an empty life. It is his fathers stress on the tiger anecdote that has in my view confused Stevens, the idea bei ng that a plainlyler resorts to dramatic lengths to ensure that no discernible traces of the tiger are left.It is the fact that his father knew instinctively that somewhere in this tale lay the kernel of what true(a) dignity is, and Stevens does not, but yet continues to follow his fathers perspectives because he considers him a vast butler. Everyone is motivated by aspirations to surface higher, and Stevens ultimate goal is to be acknowledged as a great butler. He feels he comes significantly closer to his quest at a conference Lord Darlington, holds for the most important delegates in Europe.At the conference he believes that he is heavily relied upon to oil the friction between the delegates from different countries by ensuring that the guests have nothing whatsoever to complain about. Whilst the delegates go steady these various conferences, Stevens father is very ill, however Stevens is more pass oning to indemnification to work than attend to his sick father who is th e wholly family Stevens has left. There has ceaselessly been a cold kind between the two, both of them only conversing oer master issues, and Stevens respects his father not for being a dear father but a wakeless butler.As Stevens is devoid of belief he can only judge others based on their dignity and we see how important Stevens views on dignity are because it defies how he interacts and relates with others. not only does he describes his father as dark and severe, which is dignity mortalified, he refers to him in the third person, I hope father is whole step better now. His lack of emotion proves to the reader how empty Stevens is, and in order for him to fill this emptiness, Stevens primarily concerns himself with dignity.Despite his father always being detached, he ironically asks, Have I been a good father? However, Stevens coldly dismisses his gesture, and in doing this, he loses any chance of a positive sympathetic descent with his remaining family. Furthermore, it is his arrogant ignoring of Mr Cardinal who tells him of Lord Darlingtons wrong attitude to the Nazis and of degenerate Kentons attempts to give him one last chance to propose, that severely disgraced his chances of become a great person and hence a great butler.However, he ironically recalls this experience with a large sense of jubilate, and consequently dismisses any hope of happiness as he is alert to place professionalism before family relationships. Stevens is also unable to communicate to the reader his true intentions for undertaking the excursion, stating that he wishes to improve the current staff plan however the reader perceives that he wants to confabulate Miss Kenton, and hence becomes an unreliable vote counter, always placing a professional spin on everything. He believes that he is respected for his dignity, and thus judges others on how dignified they are.Dignity marrow everything to Stevens, it being all he has and hence his profession becomes his lif e, unable to even call holiday clothes by their true name but preferably a costume. A costume implies a disguise haggard to hide the true person underneath thus stating that Stevens is not the person to undertake holidays as it distracts him from his work. Another significant point demonstrating Stevens unreliability is his relationship with former employer Lord Darlington. Everyone must feel good about themselves in order to remain optimistic in life and Stevens accomplishes this by sensation good about being a good butler functional for a good master.Despite dedicating the best years of his life to Lord Darlington, Stevens is then quick to deny any knowledge of his former employer once we hear of his connections with the Nazis in World War Two. At Mortimers Pond significantly halfway through the novel, another butler of a lesser tallness than himself attends to his car and he asks if he actually worked for Lord Darlington, to which Stevens replies, Oh no, I am employed by Mr John Farraday. Stevens is deliberately misleading about his bygone relationship with Lord Darlington because of his associations with the Nazis, as the rectitude would have severely damaged his self-esteem.However, the reader is first given a hint of Stevens unreliability through his deliberate changing of his mind and misinterpretation of events which have occurred. Stevens corrects himself when he recalls evanescent Miss Kentons room and originally believes that she is crying, however on reflection he realises that it is not due to the untimely death of her Aunt, but her acceptance to get hitched with Mr Benn, and that her efforts to provoke him into action had gone unnoticed.Miss Kenton asks him Do you want me to go on, giving Stevens the opportunity to react and tell her how he feels, however he ignores these blatant signs and continues to neglect the forming of relationships in order to protect his reputation. The reality is that he changed his mind about these events in order to shield himself from the painful truth that he is destined to spend the rest of his life alone because he chose dignity above warmth.Everything Stevens encounters on his excursion, he relates to his profession. He travels to Mursden, not as a tourist, but an admirer of the famous silver polish, and naively believes that victimization this has had positive repercussions all over Europe. However, Stevens has again attempted to selfishly shine something off as his own, so that he can feel good and important, helping him to fill the emptiness left from a lack of human warmth and intimacy.Despite Stevens clear longing for a close relationship with anyone, he still feels the urge to place his pride above what rightfully matters. At Mortimers Pond, he refuses to walk around it for fear of dirtying his space because no self-respecting butler would allow that to happen and says, My footwear is not such as to permit me easily to walk around the perimeter. Stevens gullibly believes that others really care about how he looks and acts, and he must therefore strive to create a good impression and remain dignified.He deplorably also realises that in order to qualify as a great butler, he had to work for an employer of proven moral worth, yet he has just disowned any knowledge of working for Lord Darlington when quizzed about it earlier. Realistically, Stevens is living in the historical and refuses to change his ways because they have brought him his dignity, and his archaic, comfortably structured English clarifies the fact that he has learnt his English from historical, classical books and not social context or conversations.The mere fact Stevens lives in the past is saddening as life should be full of new experiences, but instead he effectively shields himself behind his profession and exploits it as an excuse to visit new places. His old-fashioned lifestyle furthermore forbids him to look symbolically beyond the surface at Mortimers pond and delve undernea th to find the truth, and only when he meets Miss Kenton is he forced to change his perspectives and views on life.His relationship with Miss Kenton has allowed him to modernise his views as he would before judge nation on the surface and converse with them on purely professional terms. Although his occasion with Miss Kenton has not altered his perceptions on dignity, he has become aware(p) that there is perhaps more to life than work Although the reader may sympathise with Stevens and respect him, his pitiful behaviour is also both highly noticeable and frustrating.In the unfortunate incident concerning the dismissing of the two Jewish maids, Stevens will not admit that he did not stand up for something he knew was wrong. He says, We must not let ruling creep into our sound judgement, but ironically it is his higher regard for dignity which has ensured that he avoids sentiment throughout his entire life, and once again the reader becomes aware of Stevens overaged response bec ause he is prepared to place dignity above what is right. Furthermore, he ironically says that dignity is not removing ones clothing in public.Whether he is attempting to banter is left deliberately ambiguous, however what he says is ironic to the reader because he does not remove his clothes in private and maintains his professional persona even in his social life. To remove clothing suggests liberalization and freedom, a characteristic the reader never associates with Stevens because of his overwhelming obsession with dignity which has cost him so much. Stevens views dignity as a key to success, living his whole life by it and striving to remain dignified in every single possible circumstance he is subjected to.In his infantile fixation with dignity, he has ultimately committed the deadly sin of pride and has thus condemned himself to a life of emptiness. He is deliberately aiming to aspire to the stature of his father, Stevens accept that he achieved so much acclaim through hi s dignified manner. However, at the end of the novel, it is left ambiguous whether he will strive to maintain his dignity or seek to change his ways and become more intimate and emotional with people when he discovers that bantering is the key to human warmth.