Comparing Remains Of The Ancient Mariner And Heart Of Darkness

Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is a lyrical ballad. It is a narrative poem which recounts the Mariner’s struggle with accepting the truth of religious resistance as the poem resists theological framework. On the other hand Conrad’s ‘The Heart of Darkness’ is a colonial novella. Imperial colonization is at the center of the novella as Marlow struggles to understand his experiences with colonization within the Congo. Both of these texts differ to Ishiguro’s ‘The Remains of The Day’. This is a pre-world war II historical novel whereby Stevens struggles with the knowledge that he has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington. Stevens is aware of his anti-Semitic views. Whilst all three texts differ due to their genres

In ‘The Remains of The Day’ intradiegetic narration is used as Stevens narrates himself. “It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination for some days”. Ishiguro’s use of the first person ‘I’ allows Stevens to narrate himself. This gives him the ability to construct his own thoughts and feelings as the story is told from his perspective with no other narrator’s input. This has the effect of presenting subtle unreliability within the narrative as the readers are unsure if the feelings presented by Stevens are the feelings that he is actually experiencing or the feelings he would like to experience. 21st century literature critics such as Sam Jordison have described Stevens as a “singularly unreliable narrator”. In my opinion this is ironic given that the use of first person narration is deemed as a revealing narrative opposed to a narrative which concealed his emotions in an unreliable way. I agree with Jordison as there is evidence to support Stevens as an unreliable narrator and this can be seen as Stevens describes Lord Darlington as an “employer [who] embodies all that I find admirable and noble”. The use of

Therefore Stevens’ emotions towards Lord Darlington could be seen an unreliable. This is because he holds onto a rose-tinted image of his employer as Stevens struggles with accepting the truth of Darlington’s Nazi past. The truth of Darlington’s past is that he believed “Herr Ribbentrop [was] an honorable gentleman and developed a working relationship with him”. This suggests Darlington’s involvement with the Nazi party and foreign minister Nazi leaders such as Ribbentrop. However Stevens narrates that “I am today proud to have given my best years of service to [Lord Darlington]”. The use of the adjective ‘proud’ suggests that Stevens is deeply satisfied with his achievement of serving Darlington, however the fact that Darlington was a politically immoral character may question the extent of Stevens’ satisfaction with his achievement. Therefore the readers may question whether this pride is an emotion that Stevens is truly feeling or an emotion Stevens narrates to evade the truth in an attempt to defend himself. He might chose to defend himself as he struggles to accept the truth that he has sacrificed his life to serve this man. David Lodge discusses the fact that “the truth Stevens is trying to