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Theme Of Loss In The Remains Of The Day

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The two novels “The Remains of the Day” and “Atonement” both illustrate the theme of loss and grief throughout their novel. In my own words the definition of loss is described as losing someone or something, and the definition of grief is described as how someone reacts to a loss. Whether it’s through anger, guilt, sadness, or restraint. In the novels each character expressed their emotions in diverse ways when dealing with loss and grief. In the novel The Remains of the Day Stevens loses his father, Miss Kenton loses her aunt, Lord Darlington loses friends and his godson, Stevens and Miss Kenton loses each other. I will be explaining how the protagonist Stevens dealt with the loss of his father. As well as evaluating the relationship between …show more content…

Whether fulfilled or not. For instance, Stevens and Miss Kenton unsuccessful love story. Equally, Cecilia and Robbie’s tragic love story they had obstacles. I will be addressing two important intimate relationships as I mentioned above. Moreover, Miss Kenton and Stevens, both dealt with the loss of each other by not pursuing a relationship/marriage. Both characters allowed their professionalism to stop them from expressing their true feelings. There have been many encounters throughout the novel with Stevens and Miss Kenton that show that they expressed some emotion towards one another. They both showed a characteristic of being jealous about each other. Later in the novel they meet for the last time and shared their real feelings while they worked for Lord Darlington. In the words of Miss Kenton, “when you think to yourself: 'What a terrible mistake I've made with my life.' And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had. For instance, I get to thinking about a life I may have had with you, Mr. Stevens. And I suppose that's when I get angry about some trivial little thing and leave” (239). I would consider that quote connecting to the theme of loss. As she “moved on” with her new life and husband, she never really forgot about how her life could have been with Stevens. They both suffer from not pursing …show more content…

It seems as if his dignity gets in the way of things. He doesn’t grieve over life hardships the “normal” way. Cecilia embraces the loss of not being with Robbie to create a stronger relationship between the two. For Briony and the Tallis family, we get to see the views point from Briony on how her sister disowned the family. Both novels cope with some sort of “love lost” although they were both portrayed in similar but separate ways. For instance, Stevens was the Butler and Miss Kenton was the housekeeper. They both choose not to fulfil their love for each other because their profession was more important. Differently, in Atonement Cecilia was the daughter of the of the Tallis family and Robbie was the maid’s son. The two tried to hide their love for each other, but eventually expressed their love for one another. The difference between these two novels are that the characters in The Remains of the Day does not want to deal with loss and grief therefore they try to suppress their feelings. On the other hand, in Atonement the characters learn how to deal with loss and grief. They allow it to help build a stronger relationship, and to make other relationships non-existent all through the eyes of

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