Authenticity, Performance, and Self-Deception Theme Analysis

Stevens thinks of his identity as a butler as his full, authentic self. But there is also a deeply performative aspect to his role as a servant at Darlington Hall, as well as to the roles of the other employees at the estate. The novel examines how performance and authenticity are not, in fact, always in opposition: indeed, Stevens is an extreme case of the notion that performing a certain self can lead to becoming that person.

The performances required to maintain formality and dignity in the aristocratic household lead to some of the few moments of humor in an otherwise nostalgic, even tragic novel. For example, when Stevens is asked to instruct Lord Darlington’s godson in the facts of sex, he struggles to figure out how to do so while continuing to perform his regular duties of discretion and dignity. Other servants, like Miss Kenton, tend to think of their duties more as performances than as identities; that is, they can turn off their work behaviors once they are alone or away from the extravagant public spaces of the house. The duties they perform are not their “real” selves.

In some ways, Stevens’s view is more “authentic,” in that he cannot be one person in some situations and another person in others. But while that might mean he is always his real self, it might also mean that he is deceiving himself by always performing—and, more troubling, that he cannot tell the difference between the two. Miss Kenton, in particular, strives to unmask Stevens’s prim, proper exterior, yearning to connect with him on a deeper level. At certain points, Stevens, too, seems to want the same thing. But his difficulty in communicating with Miss Kenton ultimately seems to stem from the fact that the only way he knows how to act (or to be at all) is through the performance of his professional role.

Stevens continues his performance even to the reader. Although the novel is structured as a diary, Stevens often addresses the reader as “you,” as if asking the reader to confirm the way he views his own past and the conclusions he’s drawn from it. This narrative choice allows Stevens to avoid confronting his memories alone, on their own terms, as he seems to prefer to address the past in the presence of an audience, which indicates a troubling insecurity. Even when Stevens remains within a first-person narration, he toggles between self-knowledge and self-deception. Stevens sometimes relates a memory through his own eyes, inviting the reader to believe him, but then later acknowledges that things actually happened differently. Without an “objective” source other than the narrator, it’s difficult to know how much to take Stevens at his word, even though he seems to yearn for greater honesty over the course of the novel. This yearning—and his difficulty in fulfilling it—seems damning to the role he has played for so many years, implying that it has irrevocably shaped him into someone unable to confront (or even identify) reality and without a deeply-rooted self.