of affect.  Stevens does not embrace the primacy of emotional connection.  He does not view life though an inner dimension.  This makes it very difficult to connect with him, something that Miss Kenton knows all too well.  Stevens believes that one's duty defines the human being.  He saw this with his father and his brother, men whose professional responsibilities established their places in the world.  Such an emphasis on obligation makes it difficult to sympathetically identify with Stevens.  

Where Stevens generates sympathy is in his myopia.  As the narrative progresses, Stevens comes to understand that a reliance on one's professional role in life tends to block out emotional frames of reference. For example, Stevens reflects on the crucial conference held at Darlington Hall as a success.  Yet, it is clear that the conference helped to advance the policies of Nazism, something that could hardly be seen as a triumph.  This limited view of the world is a significant part of Stevens's character: 

How can one possibly be held to blame in any sense because, say, the passage of time has shown that Lord Darlington’s efforts were misguided, even foolish? Throughout the years I served him, it was he and he alone who weighed up evidence and judged it best to proceed in the way he did, while I simply confined myself, quite properly, to affairs within my own professional realm.

As the novel advances, Stevens is to be pitied because of his view of the world.  He recognizes that the emphasis on professionalism might have cost him dearly as a human being.  This is something Stevens approaches, but not something he is ready to admit early on in the narrative. It is difficult to sympathize with someone who is unable to understand emotions as a part of their identity.

In some regards, Stevens is like the English countryside in that he views emotion as something that does not need to be "shouted."  This mutes him in terms of his initial identification with the reader. However, Ishiguro is deliberate in Stevens's characterization.  He wants the reader to understand all of the dimensions that define Stevens, something that Stevens himself is not fully aware.  The need to see the world without blinders is a pressing one for Stevens.  It is why he makes the voyage to Miss Kenton.  As he leaves her, Stevens recognizes that he has lived his life in a closed way.  To ensure this lesson is affirmed to the reader, Ishiguro creates a central character with whom we might not immediately identify.  However, as we see the narrative progress, we learn more and are forced to reevaluate our initial positions. This is a trait Stevens never really acquires until it is too late.  Ishiguro is suggesting that we avoid Stevens' fate in our approach to the novel's main character and in our lives. 

By the end of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day, we certainly do see the character Stevens as fully human.

At the end of the story, we hear Miss Kenton, now Mrs. Benn, confess to Stevens that, even though her husband is a good man she has grown to love, she has trouble in her marriage because every once in a while, she starts thinking about what her life would have been like had she married Stevens instead. When she accepted her husband's proposal many years ago, she had thought of it as just a means of tricking Stevens into proposing himself. But when he again refuses to rise to the occasion, she finds herself married to Benn and needing to get used to him. Soon, getting used to him led to feelings of love, regardless of still being in love with Stevens. As a result of not getting to live her life with Stevens, she feels she has wasted her life.

Similarly, Stevens shows us his very human side by confessing that, "at that moment, [his] heart was breaking." And, just like Miss Kenton, he too feels he has wasted his life. Yet, the same qualities of his character and the same personal beliefs that prevented him from expressing feelings of love to Miss Kenton when they still worked together continue to prevent him from expressing the same feelings of love and regret in this same moment that Miss Kenton just expressed. He continues in pride and dignity to encourage her to remain steadfast in her marriage and to not let thoughts of him dissuade her from her marriage.

Despite the fact that Stevens is still unable to express emotion as he should, the reader is convinced of his human essence due to his confession to the reader that his heart is breaking. Since the reader knows he is truly human, the reader can empathize with Stevens and feel his heart ache along with him.

In the sense that the reader is given a final moment to hear Stevenson confess his human feelings and to empathize with him, we can certainly agree that Ishiguro created a character in Stevens that allows us to value the character the more we understand him.

However, we might disagree that Stevens moves from being unlikable to being likable the more the story reveals him to be human. One might argue that Stevens has always been likable. From the start of the story, the reader understands that Stevens has not allowed himself to express his emotions because he feels it is his role as a butler to always display a sense of dignity, and dignity excludes human emotions. While the reader does not agree with his beliefs or choices, we clearly understand his behavior. Therefore, it can be argued that Stevens is as likable at the end of the story as he was all along, and our heart breaks for him because we see that he is still unable to shake his belief that his role excludes expressing emotions. All in all, Ishiguro created a very heartbreaking story that remains heartbreaking through to the bitter end.

The relationship between Stevens and Lord Darlington is instrumental in analyzing the quote by the author.

Lord Darlington was a wealthy gentleman who sympathized with the Nazis and got involved in questionable activities, for instance, firing the two Jewish servants. These lapses in judgment damaged his reputation. Stevens on the other hand was committed to become the best butler to the best lord. However, this objective became difficult to achieve because of Darlington’s reputation. Stevens admitted that Lord Darlington was constantly manipulated by fellow colleagues and developed misplaced sympathies for the Nazis, which emanated from the harsh terms in the Treaty of Versailles.

Although Stevens did not like the changes in Lord Darlington, he grew to understand the man and his reasons for the changes. He further concluded that, in spite of his failings, Lord Darlington was not a bad man. However, Stevens is unhappy because he invested almost all his time in serving Lord Darlington and overlooked the need to develop himself. The relationship helped Stevens understand who he was and the role he played towards his own failures. This further provided him with an opportunity to meet his life goals and consider changes in his life towards becoming a better individual. Thus something was gained because by understanding Lord Darlington he was able to understand himself.