"The Remains of the Day" : Kazuo Ishiguro's Sonnet on his Blindness = "Lo que queda del día": El Soneto sobre su ceguera, de Kazuo Ishiguro

Abstract

Looking back on a life lived and coming to terms with one’s destiny is the pervading theme of both Milton’s Sonnet XIX and Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day”. The sonnet and novel show striking parallels in both form and feeling, as they have at their center a man examining his life and, after reviewing the way things have turned out, accepting his fate. Although over three centuries separate the writing of both works, Ishiguro appears to take up and develop in narrative form vital themes already considered in the sonnet. This paper will examine The Remains of the Day in the light of Milton’s Sonnet XIX, commonly referred to as the “Sonnet on his Blindness”, to reveal similarities between both literary masterpieces. On the one hand, it will analyze parallel themes such as the idea of waiting and the concept of service, the experience of a physical or metaphorical blindness, as well as provide a reflection on what is due to one’s master. On the other hand, the narrative technique used by Ishiguro is also shown to be a development of the principal formal characteristics of the sonnet, particularly in its economy and the use of allusions, emphasizing on a formal level the relations between these two works.