Butlerhood/Butlerspeak- unreliable narration. Flashcards
A Quarterly for the Gentleman’s Gentleman
professional prestige lay most significantly in the moral worth of one’s employer.
Butlers only exist in england
Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race is capable of. (stevens shows this)
Stevens uses ‘you’ to incorporate the reader who he believes to be a fellow butler.
‘You will no doubt agree’
‘I hope you will agree’
he pretends that he ‘drifts,’ his drifting involves the most important parts.
‘But I drift’
“You will understand”
the use of ‘I’ to distance himself.
he constantly looks at retrospective.
‘But perhaps one should not be looking back to the past so much.’
few words
‘I should perhaps say a few words here…’
defensive questioning, why?
‘why should I not admit this?… that in making my decision to end those evening meetings once and for all, I was perhaps not entirely aware of the full implications of what I was doing…key turning point;’
introspective.
‘But I see I am becoming unduly introspective, and in a rather morose way.’
questioning again why he should not admit his emotional feelings in this pinnacle moment.
‘Why should I not admit it? – at that moment, my heart was breaking.
using third person to distance himself from what he ‘thinks about’
‘When one thinks about it, when one remembers’
The turning point of his career is marked by his ability to suppress his emotions, he is commending his suppression of his emotions when in reality it is a failure in terms of his emotional life.
I often look back to that conference and, for more than one reason, regard it as a turning point in my life. For one thing, I support I do regards as the moment in my career when I truly came of age as a butler.
