I really loved this movie! I never read the book (maybe it would explain) but why didn't Stevens admit his love for Miss Kenton? The question is: Did he really love her? What happened to him (maybe in his past private life) to be so scared to love?
sharePerhaps it is NOT knowing the reasons behind Stevens' inability to relate to Miss Kenton/Mrs. Benn that holds the intrigue.
We observe Stevens in his role at the head of the service staff and see the manner in which he is respected and obeyed. Stevens evidently holds himself to, and no doubt achieves the highest standard of his calling. He's perfect in that department.
Yet we also see just how undeveloped and inept he is in interpersonal matters.
Maybe it is better that we don't know why Stevens throttles his emotions so completely. After all if the underlying cause were revealed it might be anticlimatic, like being told how a magic trick is done.
Just thinking out loud...
I think he did love her, but was completely at a loss on what to do about it.
If he did love her he displayed no indication of this whatsoever.
Especially in the book scene where she was so obviously flirting with him and you just wanted him to grab her and start kissing her. Now I can see him being too shy and reserved to act on his desires, but the way he kept asking her to please leave so he could have his time alone.....why would you insist that someone you were in love with leave you alone? He could have at least appeared happy to be alone with her.
This scene kind of threw me a little.
I think because he probably held his idea that no one, not even the people you love, should ever see a "proper butler" let down his guard. I think his dedication and blind following in that idea is what stunted his potential for growth in other areas, like expressing love for someone else.
shareYep, you nailed it. He was afraid that the closer Miss Kenton gets, the more likely he was to do something un-butlerish. In fact, the rare occassion we see him act like a normal human being is when he says "Dammit" after he breaks a wine bottle just after being informed by Miss Kenton's of plans to leave.
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And also, in addition to not wanting to get too close to Miss Kenton, one who reports to him, he seemed to have been rather raised that way...keeping a stiff upper lip, and never wearing your heart at all on your sleeve. While his father was laying sick, he was still telling his son not to tend to him, but rather, return to work. "There's always something that needs settling"...or words to that effect. I think Stevens Jr. was raised thinking that work is practically everything. Even though his father did get married, and made time for love (but later fell out of love for his wife), Stevens, Jr. took it to an absurd extreme. Especially his not having any opinions about politics or the ways of the world. Or at least, not having the confidence to express any of his views. It was maddening watching him. But, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this film. On the DVD, interviews with the actors provide insights which will confirm your more than probable already-held interpretations of what is going on between the two main characters.
But to answer the original poster, I think he definitely did love her..he just couldn't admit to himself that he did. And therefore, couldn't even begin to express it to her. Their "love affair", instead, took the form of many little arguments, in which one can also sometimes enjoy a type of unspoken sexual tension.
Their final argument, when she's brought in by the police and they both can only show their disappointed love by hurting each other, always blows me away. It's just so "real" and there's so much tension.
shareI just rewatched this today after not having seen it again since it was in the theaters, and finally felt like I got the key to Stevens character (or at least one of the keys) when I really listened to his father's pre-deathbed speech. His father knew he was dying and said that he had to tell his son something. He said that he had fallen out of love with his wife, and so she strayed, and he caught her with someone else...then there is an unspoken gap, and he says he tried to be as good a father to Stevens as he could have been.
At first viewing, I probably thought that he meant that his wife left him and so he raised Stevens as a single parent. But now I think that due to the older man's deathbed urgency, that he was saying (but not saying) that Stevens was illegitimate, and out of guilt for driving his wife to the affair, they stayed together and he tried to raise the boy as if he was his own...not always succeeding as well as he wanted to, afraid that he didn't do enough. This would explain the odd mix of caring and isolation they had between each other, and it would explain why Stevens was in no rush to get back to his dead father's bedside. Hadn't processed it yet. Also, it probably made Stevens, as a boy, sublimate all his emotions in order to be the perfect servant(and son) that he thought would impress his father and make the man love him. Completely warped his young character.
Ahhhhhhh thanks ! No I understand why the bottle breaking scene was included.
It was his reaction to Miss Kenton's departure. That is all his "military" training as butler would permit his to express his alteration.
Exactly - he suffered from a form of 'institutionalization'.
*See: 'Chance the Gardener'.
"If he did love her he displayed no indication of this whatsoever."
Actually, he does, but Hopkins does it so subtly. And since Stevens is a man raised by a father "in the service" and devotes himself to its duties with a monastic fervor, it makes sense that he can't relate to her, or anyone, on a raw, human level. You have to look between the lines for clues.
The book scene you mention: He's actually a bit flippant when it begins (well, for Stevens anyway). However, when she closes in and tries to get the book from his grasp, watch his eyes: he stares at her longingly the entire time but unable to bring himself to act. He doesn't even try to stop her. He WANTS her that close.
Watch his reaction when she tells him she's accepted Mr. Benn's marriage proposal: he's at a complete loss and simply hides behind his facade, smiling stupidly while wishing her congratulations. But his expression behind it clearly indicates he's flummoxed and worried.
He acts like a spurned lover when he confronts her at the door when he has to vouch for her employment at the manor to the police. The second the door is closed, his back is to her while he snidely hopes she had a good night off. He's upset she's been off with Mr. Benn, rather than near him in the manor.
In later years, when he announces he's "wooing" Mrs. Benn back into service, it is as if he's hoping to turn back the clock and give himself a chance at finding love with her. That's what makes the ending so bittersweet.
There are many other indications of his affection for her. But that's what makes this story so wonderful is how it defies convention. It doesn't spoon feed.
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Kazuo Ishiguro said about the novel (and I think this is also relevant for the film) that it's not only that Stevens represses his feelings because he's afraid that they'd be a danger to his profession, but that deep down he's profoundly afraid of emotions and thus uses his profession as a shield behind which he can hide, an excuse not to face his feelings.
It's great how in the novel as well as the film he can only ever voice his feelings for Miss Kenton in professional terms, i.e. when he says what a great housekeeper she is and how he'd be lost without her.
I think this can be seen quite well in the scene where Miss Kenton admits that she's afraid to leave (after the episode concerning the Jewish girls). Mr Stevens says to her, "Miss Kenton, you are very important to this house." That's the closest he can to come to telling her how important she is to HIM, and you can see him struggle mightily to say even that much.
I don't understand why Mr Stevens even thinks that love and marriage are incompatible with a career in service. The poor man is practically a machine; a wife like Miss Kenton would bring him to life. Mr Stevens Sr was married, and it didn't seem to ruin his long career. I feel tremendously sorry for our Mr Stevens, yet I also want to clout him upside the head a few times and wake him up.
~~"Oh shut up, you two. And listen, you're not to say nowt."~~
I always conclude that Miss Kenton "settles" for Mr Benn, one of the first men to show her interest outside of her line of work, because she figures that her love is to be forever unrequited. Even later on, when circumstances have changed so drastically, she realises it will always be too late for him to show his true feelings. All those years went by and he never visited - only in the matter of work did he appear. This is the final telltale sign that he will never be able to connect with her as she would want, even though both finally know that it could have been so much more.
It is a shame because the two demonstrate a chemistry - thanks to stellar turns from Thompson and Hopkins - which goes far beyond friendship. If the movie were set some years hence i.e. a society where women are more liberated, she could have pursued him further and perhaps weakened his resolve, leading to a happily ever after. Personally I like off-kilter romantic plots (Eternal Sunshine and Gattaca spring to mind) so I'm glad the ending is so heart-wrenching; it seems more real this way. I'm sure everyone has had some version of the relationship depicted in the film, although perhaps not over such a period of time and told so well.
when she closes in and tries to get the book from his grasp, watch his eyes: he stares at her longingly the entire time but unable to bring himself to act. He doesn't even try to stop her. He WANTS her that close.That was the HOTTEST scene I've ever seen Hopkins do on film. I was like wow!!! What sex appeal!! I wanted him to kiss her! His look into her eyes and then to her forehead and hair, oh, hot damn, that was hot!! I was let down that they never admitted their love for each other. She is obviously miserable with her future husband and he refuses to admit his true feelings. I can't imagine going through life "trapped" like that. The ending of the film is very fitting. At first I didn't like it, but when I saw it again the other night, I related him to that pigeon, however the pigeon was freed. Stevens wasn't.
Stevens was completely thwarted by his father's example, by the expectations that were placed upon him, and the expectations he placed upon himself. He simply could not bring himself to breach the retaining wall of his dignity and express his love for Miss Kenton, and because of this, he was a prisoner.
Each expression of beautiful manners and decorum was like another bar in a jail cell.
But it kept him safe from risk. And what a tragedy that was in the end.
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I think Stevens really did love Miss Kenton but felt that because of his responsibilities towards the house as butler that he could not devote the time to her and the house. I also thought that he was extremely insecure in terms of that he doesn't deserve and that he is too good for her.
shareWell this is the question of the entire film... I think yes, he did love her. A lot of British men are like Stevens, it is very typical. I actually have a relationship like this, with, yes, a British man, emotionally distant. When they do let down their guard, it is just like leaving these tiny little clues, they let down their guard in spite of themselves...Then, when they realize that they have revealed too much, the wall goes back up, even stronger than ever.
It is very heartbreaking... This is such a wonderful, beautiful, and realistic film. I love it. This is really I think the best Merchant Ivory film, and might even be Anothy's best, even though I love Silence of The Lambs... This performance is, well, superb... Love this film..
Why do you think he loved her? Could it be wishful thinking? What sign did he give that he might have?
shareYes, he did love her, but he wouldn't and couldn't do anything about it, poor fellow. He didn't know how, and he was clearly terrified of his feelings toward her.
My real name is Jeff
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Is it all really him though? When did she come out to say she loved him and what she wanted? How was he supposed to know?
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