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Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Prologue: July 1956
Explanation and Analysis—A Roll in the Hay:
In the Prologue, as an example of his new employer's love of banter, Stevens mentions a time when he asked Mr. Farraday whether a visitor's wife would be coming along with him. Farraday responds with a quippy reply, complete with idioms. Rather than having the intended humorous effect, the joke ironically leaves Stevens embarrassed and flustered.
‘God help us if she does come,’ Mr Farraday replied. ‘Maybe you could keep her off our hands, Stevens. Maybe you could take her out to one of those stables around Mr Morgan’s farm. Keep her entertained in all that hay. She may be just your type.’
For a moment or two, I had not an idea what my employer was saying. Then I realized he was making some sort of joke and endeavoured to smile appropriately, though I suspect some residue of my bewilderment, not to say shock, remained detectable in my expression.
Obviously, Farraday is hoping the visitor's wife won't come, and he idiomatically asks Stevens to "keep her off our hands," or occupy her so she won't be around the rest of the visitors. Farraday then plays off another common English-language idiom, "a roll in the hay," which means the act of having sex. Farraday links this idiom to the literal hay in the nearby stables and suggests Stevens distract the wife by seducing her.
Farraday is not being serious (although his disdain for the visitor's wife seems genuine), but it takes Stevens a moment to pick up on the joke. Even when he does, he's shocked. Rather than making Stevens friendlier or bringing out a more casual nature in him, as Farraday might've intended, the joke has come closer to offending the butler. The situational irony lies in this discrepancy between the intended response (and how the reader might expect a reasonable person to react to a clear joke) and Stevens's actual response.
Explanation and Analysis—Foot the Bill:
In the Prologue, when Stevens considers the logistics of driving through England to see Miss Kenton, the reader gets an excellent example of two distinct dialects of the English language. The first is Stevens's narrative voice, which is not only upper-class British in dialect but also precise and formal in tone. The second is Mr. Farraday's American English, which Stevens subtly draws attention to by encasing it in quotation marks when he repeats it.
There were, in any case, various aspects to the matter I felt I needed to clarify to myself before proceeding further. There was, for instance, the question of cost. For even taking into account my employer’s generous offer to ‘foot the bill for the gas’, the costs of such a trip might still come to a surprising amount considering such matters as accommodation, meals, and any small snacks I might partake of on my way.
Farraday uses an idiom—"foot the bill"—to express his willingness to pay for fuel for Stevens's trip. Possibly, this expression came about because English speakers referred to the bottom of a page as a "foot" (think of footnotes), and after adding all the charges on a bill, the sum goes at the bottom—the foot. The person adding up the charges was probably also the person getting ready to pay. Additionally, Farraday refers to the car's fuel as "gas," an Americanism, whereas Stevens and the other Britons in the novel refer to it as "petrol."
Farraday's casual, American English is contrasted against Stevens's formal, upper-class British English. Stevens's manner of speaking is almost incongruently formal considering he's discussing a road trip and the snacks he might buy for it. Some situational irony is generated here between what Stevens is talking about and the fastidious way he speaks of it. Stevens's particular manner of speaking will often seem ironic during the novel given the events he discusses.
Related Themes:
Day Three: Evening
Explanation and Analysis—Village Evening:
In Day Three: Evening, Stevens's car runs out of fuel (petrol, as he calls it in his British dialect), and he explores the area on foot. He describes the beautiful but desolate English landscape around him with visual imagery:
On the other side of the gate a field sloped down very steeply so that it fell out of vision only twenty yards or so in front of me. Beyond the crest of the field, some way off in the distance – perhaps a good mile or so as the crow would fly – was a small village. I could make out through the mist a church steeple, and around about it, clusters of dark-slated roofs; here and there, wisps of white smoke were rising from chimneys.
First, it's worth noting that "as the crow flies" is an English-language idiom that has spread to both sides of the Atlantic. It means the speaker indicates the shortest distance between two places on a map, rather than the actual distance a walker or driver would have to take. A crow doesn't need to follow paths or account for terrain, but simply flies from one location to the next in a straight line.
Once again, Stevens describes the subdued but lovely landscape he encounters. The land falls off so steeply that it looks like he's peering off a cliff, and further away the field rises up again. Then he sees a mist-covered village.
It was not a happy feeling to be up there on a lonely hill, looking over a gate at the lights coming on in a distant village, the daylight all but faded, and the mist growing ever thicker.
This time, similar imagery is used to a despondent effect as Stevens contemplates the encroaching night. Note the similarities between this passage and one in Day Six: Evening, when Stevens watches the lights go up on the dock during the evening. During this scene, the sun is also setting, and this sight causes Stevens considerable apprehension. By the time the final chapter rolls around, Stevens has made his peace with the metaphorical end of the day (the final years of his life) and does not feel concern at its approaching. Of course, this scene offers no indication that evenings will later serve a larger symbolic purpose at the end of the novel, but it offers a kind of foreshadowing for that later significance, especially because Stevens has spent the novel thinking about his past and legacy.
Day Four: Afternoon
Explanation and Analysis—Deep Waters:
Stevens recalls an uncomfortable conversation he had with the younger Mr. Cardinal, who was Darlington's godson but disagreed strongly with his political decisions. While Darlington facilitates a meeting between the German ambassador and English heads of state in the other room, Cardinal describes how he sees Darlington's situation with a metaphor.
His lordship is in deep waters. I’ve watched him swimming further and further out and let me tell you, I’m getting very anxious. He’s out of his depth, you see, Stevens.
"Out of his depth" is a common English-language idiom used to mean someone cannot handle the situation they're in. Here, however, Cardinal expands it into a metaphor. With his association with and promotion of the Germans, Darlington is "swimming further and further out," possibly much further than he can survive. It's not clear what Cardinal thinks will happen to Darlington if he gets lost in these "deep waters," but it won't be good. Although Stevens says he trusts Darlington's judgement, Cardinal tries again to convince him of the danger:
I remember this American chap, even drunker than I am now, he got up at the dinner table in front of the whole company. And he pointed at his lordship and called him an amateur. Called him a bungling amateur and said he was out of his depth. Well, I have to say, Stevens, that American chap was quite right.
Here Cardinal references Mr. Lewis, the American who tried to conspire against Darlington during the "unofficial conference" held at Darlington Hall to discuss an upcoming meeting about lessening the burden of the Treaty of Versailles. In Stevens's telling, Mr. Lewis was duplicitous, but Cardinal seems to think Lewis was correct—politics shouldn't be Darlington's realm, because he's a "bungling amateur" who does not have the skill level necessary to handle the sensitive situations he's in, just as a poor swimmer could fail to have the skill to return from the water they swam into.
Related Themes:
