Rose for Emily the Characterization

¶ … Rose for Emily

The Characterization of Tobe

Thesis Point 1: Tobe represents Southern gentility and its dependence on the oppression of Blacks

Thesis Point 2: Tobe is not fully characterized as a fully rounded human being but used as a symbol

African-Americans in Southern society

Tobe in relation to Miss Emily

Tobe in relation to other Southerners

Faulkner's use of Tobe as a symbol rather than a human being

The characterization of Tobe Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

When reading William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," it is easy to forget Tobe, Miss Emily's manservant. Tobe is a relatively retiring character in a story filled with outlandish and colorful characters like Miss Emily and her father, Captain Sartoris. Tobe is only mentioned by name once, when Miss Emily calls him "Tobe" after her tax hearing. Tobe is usually called "The old Negro." However, Tobe performs an important function in the tale. Tobe represents the oppression of African-Americans in Southern society that makes Emily's unhappy but aristocratic lifestyle possible. Because Faulkner includes Tobe in the tale as a symbol, he does not devote much time to actually making Tobe a memorable character, which deflates Faulkner's purpose in including the man in the story.

When Tobe lets the Alderman of the town into Miss Emily's bedroom after Miss Emily has refused to pay her taxes, Tobe is described as old, even though he began the tale as a young man. Clearly, Tobe has served Miss Emily for most of his life, and perhaps even Miss Emily's father before her. His life is bound up with a family that has done nothing to improve the lot of African-Americans. But he seems to have little choice in life other than to serve. The first thing we learn about Miss Emily's father is that Captain Sartoris is that he issued an edict "that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted," underlining Black's servile status in relation to White.

People other than members Emily's family see Tobe as nothing but a servant as well. "After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man -- a young man then-going in and out with a market basket." The ladies criticize Tobe as a poor housekeeper because of the smells emitting from the house. Later the reader will discover the smell is the rot from corpses, first Miss Emily's father, then her dead suitor. But the women's comments, even when the reader is unaware of the corpse in Emily's home suggest that the women regard Tobe as less competent than a female run home, with a husband and wife -- here, Tobe is regarded in their eyes as a symptom of Miss Emily's eccentricity and solitude, but still not as a character himself.

Faulkner does not present the reader with Tobe's feelings about Miss Emily and her father's oppression of his race or himself, though. Even when Tobe acts, it is in a very muted and decorous way. "When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray." Unlike Emily, Tobe's actions are not strident or particular to him as a character; rather his presence underlines Miss Emily's class.