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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2023

Impact Factor: 7.301

Id, Ego and Super Ego in Stevens’ Personality

Sagar Vyas
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Science & Humanities
Sankalchand Patel College of Engineering, Sankalchand Patel University, Visnagar, India

Abstract: The mixing of literary theory or criticism with many different literary texts is one of the most
interesting changes in the field of research in the modern era. In modern times, literary theory's critical
lens is used more and more to explain how a wide range of texts should be read. This trend has become
increasingly widespread. The conduct of research in the modern era necessitates innovation; specifically,
this refers to the procedure by which a specific theory infiltrates the territory of something that is referred
to as a "text." The turbulent times of the post-war period made the 1960s an ideal time for the emergence of
the theory of psychoanalysis, along with two of its father figures, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. This
period was perfect for its emergence when taking the 1960s into account. This theory vividly depicted the
complexities of the mind and the repercussions of thoughts, and most importantly, it captured what would
have otherwise remained hidden: the complexities of human nature. The problems that are associated with
the human mind are, without a doubt, the most important ones in psychoanalysis, despite the fact that
numerous other issues have established themselves as important components of the theory of
psychoanalysis. The novel The Remains of the Day, written by the renowned Japanese author Kazuo
Ishiguro, who was born in Japan and won the Nobel Prize, exemplifies, without a doubt, the complexities
that are associated with the main character of the book, Stevens, the butler. This book has traditionally
been classified as either post-imperial or post-colonial, which has resulted in the inherent presence of the
theory of psychoanalysis being relegated to a secondary role in critical discourse. There are a lot of events
that take place in the book that seem to point in the direction of this theory. With the help of
psychoanalytical theory, the purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to bring to light the inner thoughts
that were going through the mind of Butler Stevens. This paper will adhere to the hypothesis that this novel
can, in fact, be read in a manner that is comparable to that of a psychoanalytic novel

Keywords: Id, Ego, Super ego, Psychoanalysis, Literary theory.

I. INTRODUCTION
Judith Butler, in her famous book, Gender Trouble remarks,
“there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very
‘expressions’ that are said to be its results” (Butler 2006:34).
The line before it fits perfectly with the main character of the play, an old butler named Stevens who works at
Darlington Hall, which is near Oxford. Stevens embarks on a journey through the English West Country that lasts for
six days and takes him from Salisbury to Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall before finally bringing him to
Weymouth. This one person's personality is much more impressive than that of any other character in the book. The
eccentric old butler who carries this book, to be more precise, steals the show by having the pendulum of his life
become stuck between the simple but potent words "dignity" and "duty”. He does a great job of making sense of what
Judith Butler was trying to say with that line. He played his part, he did what he needed to do, and none of these things
were enough to deter him from the path of serving, or more accurately, from the path of fulfilling his responsibility as a
butler. He made his own world of duty with skill, one in which the idea of helping others was ingrained in his mind
from the start. This again is something that says a lot about the English society of the time.
When Stevens's journey itself starts to look like it's carrying more than a few hidden meanings, that's when the narrative
really starts to get going. This journey also represents his attempt to come to terms with the fact that his long years of
professional service, from which he has drawn enormous vicarious satisfaction, have been devoted to a man, Lord
Darlington, whose political naivety and moral weakness were utterly destructive for his own country. This journey also

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 ISSN (Online) 2581-9429
IJARSCT
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2023

Impact Factor: 7.301

represents his attempt to come to terms with the fact that his long years of professional service have been devoted to a
man who has drawn enormous vicarious satisfaction from him. Stevens' years of long and devoted service provided him
with ample material for his various thoughts, which once again highlight the theory of psychoanalysis. In one sense,
Stevens's entire life becomes a pure dedication to Lord Darlington, regardless of the nature and character of the latter,
and in another sense, it becomes a denial of his own existence. Regardless of the nature and character of Lord
Darlington, In other words, the dedication shown by one side demonstrated the other side's resistance to the influence of
materialism. Numerous psychoanalytical aspects are brought to the forefront by the telling of the gripping and equally
captivating story of the butler in the context of a narrative structure that alternates between the past and the present.

II. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following objectives will be envisaged for the research work:
1. To address the different workings of the mind in the personality of Stevens which in a way contributes to the
incoherence or the distortion of the basic plot. This fact drives home the point that human memory is always
correlated with various events which can be interpreted at various personal and historical levels. Having said
so, this very assertion also replicates the point that this text is not a mere fiction but something which has
traces of the personal life of the main character.
2. To portray that Stevens was the inherent victim of his own sense of “dignity.” The refinement or the politeness
which he always stressed on proved to be his nemesis at the end. To substantiate, it was seen that Stevens was
never able to come out of his sense of “duty” to lead his “own” life.
3. To show the amalgamation of literary text and literary theory thereby contributing to the fact that there are
numerous inherent psychoanalytical elements in the text.
4. To bring to the fore various ramifications of psychoanalysis in the text. Although the term “psychoanalysis”
appears to be a hidden term in relation to the text, the paper will aim at proving the depiction of the traits in the
character of the butler, Stevens to be falling under this umbrella term.

III. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Even though the main focus of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day is on Stevens's story of his own
memories, the book is full of psychoanalytical and other theoretical ideas. The problem of ignoring or overlooking
major issues, such as the novel's setting of July 1956, the year when the Suez Canal was nationalised, the location of
Darlington Hall, the six-day road trip of the butler Stevens to Compton, Cornwall, and the sense of "dignity" and "duty"
as shown by Stevens towards someone who was not a gentleman in the real sense' of the term, is one of the significant
problems associated with previous research on this novel.
After looking into the above issues in depth, we can say for sure that the novel has clear signs of psychoanalytical
criticism. This is because we have left no stone unturned in our investigation. As a result, the focus of this thesis is on
the fundamental question of addressing these components and bringing them to the forefront, which, if successful,
would demonstrate that the novel is purely psychoanalytical in its nature. The problem of not addressing these issues
has a negative impact, not only on the complexities of the novel but also, simultaneously, on the research that should be
done on the novel. This research is an attempt, albeit a humble one, to bring to the forefront the many different
psychoanalytical elements that are present in the novel. In doing so, it unearths the various historical events that are
revealed to have direct connections with the life of Stevens, the butler.
It is a well-known fact that people, whether they are aware of it or not, have a lot of thoughts and ideas that are really
just illusions. This is true whether the thoughts and fancies are entertained consciously or not. These illusions, in a
sense, play an important part in relieving the inner complexities of the mind as well as the internal stress that comes
along with them. A psychoanalytic school of thought, of which Sigmund Freud is the towering colossus, would be the
most appropriate framework for analysing such a state of being in an individual. Freud's psychoanalytic theory can be
considered a science to some extent because it focuses primarily on the unconscious (id) and the conscious. These are
the two most important components of the theory (ego). It is impossible to understate the significance of Freud's
contribution to the development of contemporary psychoanalytic theory. The fundamental concept underlying

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 ISSN (Online) 2581-9429
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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

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Impact Factor: 7.301

psychoanalytic studies is that the conscious state of any given human being may either be present or absent at any given
moment, and that the initial state of any mental being is that of unconsciousness.
The whole story of the butler Stevens can be seen as a clumsy attempt to save something valuable or at least defendable
from a life he thinks has been wasted because his life of dedicated service to Lord Darlington was not worth the person
he served. In other words, the story of the butler Stevens is a clumsy attempt to save something good, or at least
something that can be defended. Taking this situation into account, it's possible that the real meat of the book is
Steven's attempt to put his past together and make it fit with his present. The fact that it is a very plausible interpretation
lends credence to this claim. The author of the story merely uses the journey he takes from Darlington Hall to the West
Country to dramatize a more significant journey that the protagonist makes on the level of consciousness. Ishiguro
reaffirms this point by situating all of the significant action in the past and revealing it solely through the recollections
and conjectures of the reflecting narrator. Ishiguro continues the covert assault on dramatic content that is also visibly
present in his other works in this way. This can be seen in all of his writings.
The random and illogical way that things happen in the book makes it easy to understand this attack in particular. This
is a trick to get the reader's attention away from what's going on in the narrator's mind, which is the journey Stevens
thinks he's on, the detours he takes to hide the fact that he's really on a different path, and the stops, starts, and
hesitations he uses to show the reader he's lying, even though he himself is still fooled. To be more specific, the story of
the mind is the primary focus of the book, which tells its tale. The lines that follow illustrate very clearly the state of
mind that Stevens was in when he was depicting the various scenarios.
“In the summer of 1956, Stevens, an ageing butler, has embarked on a six-day motoring trip through the West Country.
But this holiday is disturbed by the memories of his past service to the late Lord Darlington, and most of all by the
painful recollections of his friendship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. For the first time in his life, Stevens is forced
to wonder if all his actions were for the best after all ... A sad and humorous love story, and a witty meditation on the
democratic responsibilities of the ordinary man” (Ishiguro, p.2).
It is generally accepted to take the concept of unconscious mentality into account in terms of its role in relation to the
mind-body theories presented in William James' The Principle of Psychology. According to James, mind stuff theories
are theories that regard normal mental states as compounds that can be numerically analysed. These theories are
implicit in James's definition of mind-stuff theories.
“Unconsciousness may be perceived as entirely composed of, or at least as including some ideas that were not
originally conscious but that could become conscious” (Sears, 1943).
When taking into account the amount of pressure that human beings put on themselves as a direct result of their
illusions, there needs to be a barrier or "defence mechanism" that can protect an individual from the strain that they put
on themselves. A defence mechanism, to put it more succinctly, is a kind of unconscious mechanism that assists
individuals in overcoming their stress and anxiety. Although Freud was the one who first proposed this idea, his
daughter, Anna Freud, was the one who developed it further. In her 1936 book "The Ego and the Mechanism of
Défense," she outlines a variety of internal defence mechanisms for the ego. This particular fact can be connected to the
life of Stevens, whose journey into the past is not only a journey into Stevens' own past, but also a journey into the past
of England. Investigating the "facts" of the past of England is not the only thing that needs to be done in this regard.
The Remains of the Day, like the other novels, shows a larger interest in the relationship between personal identity and
national consciousness, as well as the relationship between individual and collective memory, and how these
relationships are shown in the form of a historical narrative. This book also addresses a specific worry about how
English history and literature have pictured or made up the past of Ishiguro's home country.This is a concern that is
voiced throughout the novel. Ishiguro finds a way to express both his interest in universal human themes and his
engagement with equally pressing, though more local, problems of English politics and English literary form in this
novel, which suggests that this literary and historical tradition has been a major vehicle of a national consciousness. In
this sense, the novel itself implies that this literary and historical tradition has been a major vehicle of national
consciousness.
Freud's model of the human mind shows how the id, the ego, and the super-ego all work together. Each of these levels
influences the other two. An individual's most fundamental aspirations are often referred to as their id. The id is the
driving force behind every desire that a living being has. The super-ego is the opposite of the id in that it is the
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 ISSN (Online) 2581-9429
IJARSCT
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2023

Impact Factor: 7.301

repository of all the events that occur in the outside world, including feelings of guilt and theories that are socially
constructed. Because it is nothing more than reality itself and serves as a balancing link between the id and the super-
ego, the ego gives off the impression of being the most important of the three apparatuses. In a society in which one's
social standing was determined solely by one's birth family, Stevens, a loyal butler, devoted his entire life to serving
Lord Darlington. The rigidity of the stratification caused people at higher levels to put more distance between
themselves and those at lower levels. It was ingrained in the mind of Stevens that they were made to serve the
Englishman, and this very state of mind was enough for them to serve, even if it meant relegating their personal life to
the backseat. The position of a butler, to be completely honest, was not a privileged position at that time. We can
deduce that Stevens took pleasure in his role as a butler from the following sentences:
It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist in England. Other countries, whatever title is actually used, have only
manservants. I tend to believe this is true. Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of
the emotional restraint which only the English race are capable of.…. In a word, 'dignity' is beyond such persons. We
English have an important advantage over foreigners in this respect and it is for this reason that when you think of a
great butler, he is bound, almost by definition, to be an Englishman” (Ishiguro, p.32-33).
The significant aspect of the novel is that the primary source of interest is not what happens, but what the narrator says
and why he says. There is a sense of an inherent verbal release in the novel. Stevens speaks like a man who has waited a
long time for an opportunity to express himself. Now that he has his chance, Stevens hardly indulges in an uncontrolled,
decorous, restrained. Stevens very well appears to be a methodical when he speaks as when he performs his duties as a
butler. His language is pure “butler-speak,” as David Lodge has called it- a language that in itself “has no literary merit
whatsoever […] completely lacking in wit, sensuousness and originality.” Stevens holds our attention, however,
because his language repeatedly confesses its own shortcomings as a means of telling his story. The very way of telling
his story is greatly structured within his workings of the mind.
In Stevens’s mind, the night when he rejected Miss Kenton’s advances is inextricably connected with his memory of
one of Lord Darlington’s most important conferences, which brought together several high-class people. It is typical of
Stevens that he brushes off Miss Kenton by insisting that he must attend to his duties because “events of global
significance are taking place in this house at this very moment” (Ishiguro, p-218). This vividly highlights the fact that
Steven’s commitment to professional duties repeatedly serves as an excuse for evading the deeper emotional issues of
his life. This very well indicated that he has ingrained the idea of service towards his master in his mind.
The nature of this evasion also prepares us for the second significant change of perspective on Stevens’s part- a change
that concerns his attitude toward his employer. Stevens, as we have noted, is utterly devoted to Lord Darlington, and
refuses to doubt him even when young Cardinal states quite plainly that he has become the “pawn” of the Nazis (p-
222). To this statement Stevens blatantly remarks, “I’ sorry, sir, but I have to say that I have every trust in his lordship’s
good judgement” (p-225). By the closing scene on Weymouth pier, this trust has evaporated, taking with it both
Stevens’s idealized image of Lord Darlington and his own self-respect:
“Lord Darlington wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t a bad man at all. And at least he had the privilege of being able to say at
the end of his life that he made his own mistakes. His lordship was a courageous man. He chose a certain path in life, it
proved to be a misguided one. He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he
can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lordship’s wisdom. All
those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can’t even say I made my own mistakes.
Really- one has to ask oneself- what dignity is there in that? (Ishiguro, 243).
From these lines, it seems like Stevens realises that by being loyal to Lord Darlington without question, he has doomed
himself to a fate that is even worse than his master's, because he has become a pawn of a pawn by living a life of
pretend. This is because Stevens has given Lord Darlington his unquestioning devotion to Lord Darlington. During this
moment of partial self-recognition, Stevens is forced to accept the fact that the idea of dignity, which he has built his
entire life around, is completely without substance. The novel's Butler-narration of Stevens establishes Stevens as a
figure representative of the Everyman. Steven's constant reordering of the past in the very act of recalling it, as well as
his Prufrockian rationalisations and self-deceptions, merely confirm his extraordinary ordinariness. What are, in the
end, utterly normal ways of thinking and feeling are given expressive shape by the various contours and dimensions of
the narrative, as well as its obsessions, repetitions, and ironic reversals. What the book reveals to us are the emotions
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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2023

Impact Factor: 7.301

and thoughts of a character who is completely unremarkable and who suffers because he does not have profound insight
into his own life.
The pretext for Stevens’s inquiry into the meaning of dignity is his attempt to answer the question, “what is a great
butler?” (Ishiguro, p-31). In order to find out the answer of this very question, Stevens turns to the fictitious Hayes
Society, which asserts in the pages of the Quarterly for the Gentleman’s Gentleman that a butler of “the very first rank”
is distinguished by a “dignity in keeping with his position” (Ishiguro, p-33). Stevens contends that dignity may be
acquired “over many years of self-training and the careful absorbing of experience” (Ishiguro, p- 33). We also find how
Stevens explains that dignity “has to do crucially with a butler’s ability not to abandon the professional being he
inhabits” in the following lines:
Lesser butlers will abandon their professional being for the private one at the least provocation. For such person, being
a butler is like playing some pantomime role; a small push, a slight stumble, and the façade will drop off to reveal the
actor underneath. The great butlers are great by virtue of their inability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to
the utmost; they will not be shaken out by external events, however surprising, alarming, or vexing. They wear their
professionalism as a decent gentleman will wear his suit: he will not let ruffians or circumstance tear it off him in the
public gaze; he will discard it when, and only when, he wills to do so, and this will invariably be when he is entirely
alone” (Ishiguro, pp-42-43).
Ishiguro has claimed, somewhat misleadingly, that Stevens, as the "perfect butler," is a metaphor "for someone who is
trying to actually erase the emotional part of him that may be dangerous and that could really hurt him in his
professional area." A very minute observation of the novel indicates otherwise. Stevens’s preoccupation with
professional dignity, which is reflected in his efforts to maintain a controlled and reserved narratorial demeanour, serves
to repress personal feeling. The novel thus reflects the emotional and psychological cost of a dignified style for a man
who is consumed by his professional role.

IV. CONCLUSION
Overall, The Remains of the Day has the potential to be interpreted as the first-person retrospective account of an ageing
narrator. This interpretation is certainly plausible. The lucid and tightly controlled narrative, which is remarkable for its
deftness and a beguiling simplicity of surface that expresses subtly interwoven themes of pain and loss, is however
what first grabs the reader's attention. The title of the book is a complete secret, and that much is clear. On one level,
"the remains of the day" refers to what is left of Stevens's life: the final years, where the reflections are supposed to be
the best of all, because it is then that one is able to put one's feet up and look back with satisfaction at a life that has
been well spent. On another level, "the remains of the day" refers to what is left of the day. This again points to another
of the title's implications: what is meant by "day" is the glorious past, when Lord Darlington's fame was at its height
and Stevens himself was at the peak of his professional career.But Stevens' life has a sneaky irony that makes us think
about interpretations that aren't quite as grand. When Stevens tells us that he has had glorious days or that his days have
been well spent, our level of scepticism rises. We could look at the "remains" of Stevens' day and see them as the ruins
or the corpse of his previous life, but we could also take them to mean what survives or endures from his previous life.
The entirety of Stevens's narration could be seen as a bumbling attempt to salvage something valuable, or at the very
least defensible, from a life that he believes has been wasted. The novel is notable due to the captivating narration of the
mind, which is grippingly adorned with psychoanalytical ramifications. The novel is shown to be an all-encompassing
whole by the vivid portrayal of the thoughts going through Stevens minds, which also justifies the research problem and
the hypothesis. This demonstrates how good the novel is.

REFERENCES
[1]. Auden W.H., Mendelson E. (1991). The Collected Poems. UK: Vintage Books.
[2]. Butler, Judith. (2006). Gender Trouble. London: Routledge.
[3]. Freud, A (1936). The ego and the mechanisms of Defense. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-
Analysis.
[4]. Ishiguro, Kazuo. (1990). The Remains of the Day. London: Faber and Faber.
[5]. James W (1890). The Principles of Psychology. New York: Dover Press, 1890.
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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT)

Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2023

Impact Factor: 7.301

[6]. Sears R.R. (1943). “Survey of objective studies in psychoanalytical concepts”, Social Science
[7]. Research Council Bulletin, No. 52.

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