William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” is written from the perspective of the people of her small town. They wonder and marvel at her odd behavior, reclusive existence, and eventually at the horror of the corpse in her bed. The story’s setting of post-Reconstruction Mississippi, the mention of Miss Emily Grierson’s ancestral claim to Antebellum aristocracy, and her romance with a northern carpetbagger could call for a close African American Critical Theory reading of the story in and of themselves. But where this critical theory could best be applied in this story is to the oft-overlooked character of Tobe.
Tobe is described as Miss Emily’s servant who does her shopping, her gardening, and the housework. He is also her intermediary at times with the curious townsfolk when they dare not approach the imperious woman directly. Where Tobe is the most compelling is in his role as Miss Emily’s secret keeper. When Emily poisons Homer Barron and keeps his body in her own bed to lay beside until her own dying day, Tobe does not call the authorities. In fact, Tobe himself may have played a role in the man’s demise. Faulkner tells us, “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening” (“A Rose for Emily”). When Emily dies, Tobe admits the authorities to the house and quietly flees, never to be seen again.
Some scholars have suggested that perhaps Tobe didn’t like Miss Emily enough to stick around for her funeral. They overlook some of the crucial factors that African American Critical Theory asks us to examine. The politics of the era in which this story is set are complex.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, southern slaves found themselves “freed” in a south where the war had ravaged the economy and families. With few viable options for employment, some remained with their prior owners in the homes and on the land that may have been the only they had ever known. Tobe is described in the story as being elderly, so not many avenues of employment would be available to him. He may have been the Grierson family’s slave and was likely the child of slaves. Tobe’s options for other places to go were extremely limited, as no mention is made of him having family. He also may have wisely feared repercussions for his role in Homer Barron’s death.
It is telling, too, that it doesn’t seem to have occurred to scholars or the townspeople in the story that it was possible that Tobe and Miss Emily were more than boss and servant, or murderer and accomplice, or co-conspirators. The fact that it does not occur to many that Tobe and Miss Emily may have been lovers is also a reflection of the politics of the time in which the story is set and even the biases of the time in which we now live. Tobe’s steadfast loyalty, refusal to divulge secrets to the townspeople, and disappearance upon her death could certainly be interpreted as the actions of a man who loved her.
“Fringe” characters like Tobe, without whose participation the events of stories like this could never happen are too often overlooked. Scholars have a responsibility to reexamine texts like these through the lens of African American Critical Theory. Because without characters like Tobe, there is no story.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” A Rose for Emily, American Studies
at the University of Virginia,
Creative Reading 