An Essay on Devotion

Devotion in Jane Eyre, As I Lay Dying, and The Color Purple
Molly Ackerman

Devotion, by definition, is the “earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/devotion). However, particularly in literature, devotion can represent a variety of emotions and intentions. One can experience sincere devotion, conflicting devotion, unwanted devotion, even selfish devotion. Regardless of the type, devotion is a connection that links one person to something of great importance, whether it is another human, a time, a place, a memory, an inanimate object, or anything they feel bonded with. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker are all incredibly different novels, in theme, genre, and tone. However, they do share at least one common motif: devotion. The devotion illustrated in each of the three novels is by no means identical, or even similar. It is, nevertheless, devotion, and the comparative and contrastive uses suggest something significant about the word. Perhaps devotion, as a whole, can not be defined. But rather, it is something that requires further characterization and description in order to be truly understood.

On more than one occasion in Jane Eyre, a character is set up to make a difficult life decision that involves a choice between what is right and what is desired. As it is in a typical situation, the desired of the two is the one often felt most devotion towards. The strain to make a decision between the two is most justly characterized as conflicting devotion: when the object one feels devoted towards pulls them in a direction opposite the way they feel their life is supposed to travel. There is, most obviously, one character that falls at the hands of this struggle in the novel: Jane. The conflict of the entire novel, as well as the main problem of her life, is the decision between passion and sacrifice. Passion is, naturally, relative to devotion- and her passion is directed towards Rochester . She spends a part of the novel embracing her attraction, passion, devotion, yet at the moment a reason to abandon it is presented, she leaves, to live a life she feels obligated to. Her vow and obsession with living a selfless and divine life counteracts her desires and, vice versa. However, at the end of the novel, she is magnetized back to him. In chapter 32 of the novel, Jane confesses “…reader, to tell you all, in the midst of this calm, this useful existence- after a day passed in honourable exertion amongst my scholars, an evening spent in drawing or reading contentedly alone- I used to rush into strange dreams at night: dreams many-coloured, agitated, full of the ideal, the stirring, the stormy-dreams where, amidst unusual scenes, charged with adventure, with agitating risk and romantic chance, I still again and again met Mr. Rochester, always at some exciting crisis; and then the sense of being in his arms, hearing his voice, meeting his eye, touching his hand and cheek, loving him, being loved by him- the hope of passing a lifetime at his side, would be renewed, with all its first force and fire. Then I awoke.” No matter how hard Jane tries to escape indulgence, there is no escaping her devotion.

In As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, a different sort of devotion is illustrated. Anse, the father and the most antagonistic character of the novel, devotes himself, his well being, and the well being of his children to burying his wife’s body in the ground. The journey to do so, is somewhat portrayed as Anse’s obedience to Addie’s dying wish. However, his persistence is a perfect example of selfish devotion: when one is obsessed with an object, solely for the benefit of themselves. Shortly after Addie’s death, when the reader first embarks on the journey to Jefferson , Anse’s goals seem, above all, admirable. It is his passion to succeed that dubs it devotion, but it is the gruesome lengths to which he does and will go, that make the intentions on the journey questionable. In the conclusion of the novel, Addie is buried and Anse, satisfied. However, the family he was designated to lead, and the children he was obligated to set an example for, fell apart because of his refusal to fail. He, understanding the results of his irrational decisions, walked away without remorse or regret, but rather the satisfaction of a new smile and wife, two things he had undoubtedly anticipated from the beginning.. At one point in the novel, Anse reacts to how the family looks on their journey to bury Addie. “I told him not to bring that horse out of respect for his dead ma, because it wouldn’t look right, him prancing along on a durn circus animal….How many times I told him it’s doing such things as that that makes folks talk about him.” He did not care about Addie’s wishes- it was always about him, how he thought people viewed him, how he was to others. There was nothing to prevent Anse from reaching Jefferson , not the love of his children, his responsibility to them, or the guilt that should have come with his wife’s death. But, he was not going to put her to rest peacefully; he did not care enough. He was, similarly to Jane in Jane Eyre, devoted. Nothing stood in his way, but for a much, much different reason.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker portrays several relationships with underlying feelings of hatred and betrayal. There is one relationship, amongst the insincere, that remains true and genuine, connected by the natural security of familial ties. Nettie and Celie, through their separation and hardships, after thinking Nettie to be dead or that Celie may never read a single letter sent, make every attempt possible to stay in contact. Nettie’s devotion to Celie, in writing the letters when there stands only a small chance she would ever read them, can most greatly be described as eternal and hopeful devotion. That type of devotion to something that does not guarantee, or even make probable, the rewards at the end of a struggle. This is the most sincere type of devotion there is. In one letter written by Nettie, she says, “I wrote a letter to you almost every day on the ship coming to Africa . But by the time we docked I was so down, I tore them into little pieces and dropped them into the water. Albert is not going to let you have my letters and so what use is there in writing them. That’s the way I felt when I tore them up and sent them to you on the waves. But now I feel different.” Nettie, similarly to Jane in Jane Eyre, in Anse in As I Lay Dying, will not be stopped. However, her reason to persist is different. She has an undying hope, one that can not and will not be impaired by any probabilities.

The definition of devotion states a truth that does, in fact, exist in every type. However, in one simple definition, one cannot identify the different specifications that exist within devotion. There are endless variations and its descriptions are infinite. However, among all of the different devotions that have been encountered, there remain two similarities. It is an “earnest attachment” as stated in its definition, but it is also persistent. There are no obstacles that it fails to triumph. Devotion is not a definite word, but rather a category that can be further classified. It exists within literature, quite commonly, but its uses are scattered, and by no means the same.