On The Ironies In The Remains Of The Day

As the 2017 Nobel laureate in literature,Kazuo Ishiguro wins increasingly attention from the readers.His placating and plain language style brands his works and beneath the insipid language there always conceals tremendous emotional power.In his works,the contrast between the plainness of language and the vehemence of emotion leads to an infinite tension which creates space for the interpretation of his work.His early works typically bears this feature,especially the third one—The Remains of the Day which wins him the Booker Prize in 1989 and is generally regarded as an excellent embodiment of language art.The novel is narrated in the first person of the protagonist Stevens,an English butler who has served the Lord Darlington for over 30 years and sacrificed his love and his family affection in order to pursue his dream of being a great butler.Through the description of a personal story,the novel demonstrates an immense panorama of political and historical aspects of Great Britain as well as its cultural tradition and ideologySince the creation of Socratic irony,along with the development of time and literature,the concept of irony evolves and keeps embracing new connotations.Irony not only refers to a rhetorical device but also a principle for literary creation.In The Remains of the Day,Ishiguro applies irony in different aspects,including the irony as a figure of speech,the dramatic irony,the cosmic irony,the general irony and so on.The application of ironies adds to the novel the artistic effect,enriches its interpretation and embodies the writer's attitude and understanding of life and history.This dissertation aims to discuss the ironies in the novel from different aspects exercising theories of Paul de Man,Wayne Booth and D C Muecke etc.The first chapter analyzes the function of verbal irony in characterization.The second chapter analyzes dramatic irony,focusing on how the unreliable narration works in the novel,and its effect on the interpretation of the novel.The third chapter analyzes the ironies in the life experience of characters in the novel.Stevens's change of self-recognition,Lord Darlington's belief in the values of British gentleman and his end as a failure and Reginald Cardinal's superficial ignorance and intrinsic intelligence,all the subversion and irony of their fate constitutes the framework of the novel and makes it attractive.The fourth chapter discusses the general irony.Based on the historical events,Ishiguro represents the change of the world situation and collisions and hybridity of American and English cultures after the Second World War.With the construction and description of the paradoxical fate of Stevens and Lord Darlington,Ishiguro shows his ironic attitude and understanding of life and history.