A Study Of Tragedy In The Remains Of The Day

Tragedy, as a traditional literary genre, features The Remains of theDay. The novel covers a wide range of subject matters including elitepolitics, world history, loyalty, depressed love, dignity and greatness, lossand regret, orient intelligence, cultural conflict, English landscape thatcontribute to the tragic theme of the novel. There have been many criticalessays about Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day in Englishspeaking countries as well as Asian countries because of his orientalheritage. Some critics comment it in the light of post-colonial theorywhile others comment it on its ambiguous writing style. There are alsosome essays that emphasis on the causes of Stevens’ tragedy, such as hisclinging to the past and his repression of emotions. This thesis, in thelight of Aristotle’s and Nietzsche’s theories of tragedy, not only revealsStevens’ blind trust on his master, pure illusion of being a great butler, aswell as the pursue of greatness that cause his tragedy but also elaborateson the conflict between Dionysus and Helios spirits, Peripeteia and Anagnorisis which form the process and the climax of a tragedy.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter of this thesispresents a literature review of the novel concerning comments that criticsmake on The Remains of the Day and elaborates on some perspectivesfrom which readers or critics read this novel. The second chapter mainlydeals with the theoretical framework which includes key concepts fromAristotle’s Poetics and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. This chapteralso makes a comparison between Aristotle and Nietzsche in their viewsof tragedy such as the cause of tragedy, the function of tragedy, the tragicfigure as well as their emphasis of tragedy. The third chapter explores thecontrast between the Helios spirit and Dionysus spirit with LordDarlington and Mr. Farraday as representatives respectively. The fourthchapter discusses the Peripeteia and Anagnorisis that form the climax ofthis tragedy.This study comes to a conclusion that faced with his life tragedy, theprotagonist tries to transcend the tragic sense by seeking a meaning in hisfuture life.