Student Essay on Contrast the Use of Humour in "the Remains of the Day" and "a Room with a View"

In both Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day and E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View, humor is used to lighten the mood of serious social commentary. However, the humor in The Remains of the Day takes the form of tragi-comedy, underlining a more deeply rooted sadness in Stevens' character; whereas the humor in A Room with a View is much less tragic, displaying social class difference and the absurdity of upper class pretensions.

Humour within both 'The Remains of the Day' and 'A Room with a View' is not a theme imminent, as it would be in other texts, but both novels contain a certain humour at times, sometimes at the very absurdity of situations.

Humour in 'The Remains of the Day' is often shown through Stevens' unusual understanding of situations, and frequently the absurd situations he is put into. There is an almost farcical atmosphere throughout 'Day Two - Morning', where Stevens has been tasked with introducing Mr Cardinal to the 'facts of life', which is amusing in Stevens' typically British discomfort with the topic: 'with the arrival of spring, we will see a change - a very special sort of change - in these surroundings', as well as the introduction of M. Dupont, almost a caricature of a.....