Hank Refuses the Dean Position at the College of Arts and Sciences

William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s refusal of the dean position is a choice between the pleasure of greater power and the cost that accepting it would impose on Jacob Rose. The offer briefly opens an enticing possibility: William Henry Devereaux, Jr. imagines taking his disruptive style beyond the English Department. But he decides that the appointment would look like a reward to a friend and an act of defiance, placing Jacob at risk. The refusal is therefore neither simple indifference to advancement nor pure self-denial; it emerges from an uneasy mixture of temptation, loyalty, and resistance to becoming an administrator.

The Offer Between Friends

The conversation follows William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s apology for trying to hurt Jacob’s feelings since entering his office. Jacob brushes the apology aside by invoking their twenty-year friendship: he knows that William Henry Devereaux, Jr. often does not understand why he behaves as he does. Their long acquaintance gives the scene a familiar, teasing register, but it also makes the offer consequential. This is not a distant administrator proposing a promotion; it is Jacob, a friend who knows the recipient well enough to anticipate his appeal to mischief.

Jacob is preparing to become chief executive officer and proposes William Henry Devereaux, Jr. for dean of liberal arts. Their exchange briefly casts the two friends as prospective leaders, each moving into a position of greater authority. Jacob’s confidence that William Henry Devereaux, Jr. could do the job meets an equally generous assurance that Jacob will make a good chief executive officer. The mutual praise makes the possibility feel real before the refusal interrupts it.

The Attraction of Greater Reach

At the window, William Henry Devereaux, Jr. watches the last tethered donkeys being led up a ramp into the women’s gym. Their procession coincides with his private calculation of what power might allow. He recognizes that Jacob may have had the same thought: together, in senior positions, they could have fun. The scene’s comic image of donkeys being moved through a gym sits beside a genuine prospect of influence, keeping the offer’s institutional stakes in the book’s deliberately unruly register.

The office appeals in part because it would enlarge the arena for behavior William Henry Devereaux, Jr. already enjoys. He takes pride in rattling the English Department’s cage and imagines a promotion as a wider field of play. He has also been proud of wreaking havoc from any position on the game board; the dean’s office would not replace that impulse so much as give it a larger reach. His temptation is therefore specific: the attraction lies less in conventional advancement than in the chance to carry his disruptive style into a more powerful role.

Yet he distinguishes that momentary fantasy from a wish to take the job. He indulges the possibility, then puts it away, saying to himself that he does not want the position. The passage lets both facts stand: he is tempted by the scope and amusement the office might offer, and he refuses to treat that temptation as a reason to accept. The choice is not presented as effortless or as proof that the prospect holds no appeal.

Why He Refuses

William Henry Devereaux, Jr. decides that the appointment would cost Jacob more than Jacob can afford. He considers how the department would read it: as arrogance and defiance, and as a desirable position handed to a friend. In his assessment, the political appearance of favoritism would make the choice uniquely damaging to Jacob. He contrasts it with other decisions Jacob has made, which he expects colleagues to regard as justified or kind: no one, in his view, will miss Orshee; few will challenge Jacob’s decision concerning Finny; and Billy Quigley’s reassignment will be seen as an act of kindness. Appointing him, by contrast, would invite a different judgment.

Jacob also makes the practical cost explicit. If William Henry Devereaux, Jr. becomes dean, Jacob will lose Marjory, who is going to hit the links, and will need a replacement to make him look competent. He intends to take Rachel, whose work has nearly made William Henry Devereaux, Jr. look competent. He proposes that their department colleagues elect Paul Rourke chair, after which the two friends can take turns abusing him. The offer thus comes packaged with a reordering of staff and departmental power, as well as a promise of continued mischief. William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s refusal rejects not just a title but the particular arrangement Jacob has imagined around it.

He thanks Jacob anyway and declines. His explanation is not that he could not do the work, nor that he has no interest in influence. Instead, he treats Jacob’s exposure to the consequences as decisive: making him dean would put their friendship and Jacob’s credibility into an appointment likely to look self-serving. Loyalty here takes the form of refusing an opportunity that might be personally enjoyable but politically costly to the friend offering it.

The Refusal’s Immediate Consequences

Jacob stares at him, then erupts. He says he knew William Henry Devereaux, Jr. would refuse and demands to know what is wrong with him. His questions turn the moment from a negotiation over a job into an accusation about character: what kind of man is content to be a fly in other people’s ointment, and what pleasure does he take in that role? The refusal confirms Jacob’s existing view of his friend as someone who prefers disruption to responsible participation, even when a position of authority is available.

As Jacob continues, William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is overtaken by nausea. He has to sit down, fears he may pass out, feels tingling at his fingertips, and sees the edges of his vision blur. Jacob appears unaware of his physical distress. That bodily interruption complicates the sharpness of the exchange: the refusal has been made, but the conversation does not end in a composed agreement or an easy joke. Jacob’s criticism of William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s conduct shifts to Lily, whom he pities for spending a lifetime with a bonehead like her husband. The episode closes with the friendship’s frankness exposing its sting: Jacob’s affection and familiarity do not soften the force of his judgment, and William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s choice leaves the personal conflict unresolved.