Closeted Queerness in Remains of the Day

There was a change in the atmosphere when Miss Kenton cornered Stevens, “almost as though the two of” them “had been suddenly thrust onto some other plane of being altogether.” That atmospheric shift is clear both in the novel and in the film; Miss Kenton’s tacit flirtation and Stevens’s refusal to match her intimacy creates a thick sexual tension. In the director and producer commentary track for the film, Emma Thompson observes that Stevens looked at Miss Kenton’s mouth, and that his hand was positioned so it looked as if he was about to caress Miss Kenton’s hair. Stevens was on the precipice of action here, but as Thompson puts it, he “just can’t bring himself to do it”—he must restrain himself from expressing his desire to maintain his exacting portrait of professionalism.