Melancholia & Metaphor in Kazuo Ishiguro\u27s \u3ci\u3eThe Remains of the Day\u3c/i\u3e

Critics widely acknowledge the psychological grounding of Kazuo Ishiguro\u27s writing. His 1989 novel The Remains of the Day presents a central character deeply afflicted by his inability to acknowledge his condition. Both literal and figurative loss proliferates throughout the novel, and turning to Sigmund Freud\u27s influential essay, Mourning and Melancholia, allows us to understand how loss influences Stevens\u27s narrative. In this essay, Freud explores conditions that result after the loss of person or an ideal. For Stevens, the lost object is the myth of pre-war English traditions. Freud\u27s theories regarding melancholia provide a crucial insight to Stevens\u27s inability to acknowledge the larger significance of the many losses he experiences. Instead, Stevens relies on a certain set of metaphors to avoid confronting his loss and critically examining his limited subjectivity. By reading Stevens as a Freudian melancholic, we can better understand how and why Stevens constructs a narrative that fails to provide a moment of revelation