In William Falkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator’s word choice and attitude towards Emily gives us good insight into the character of Tobe, Emily’s faithful servant that had been with her for many years up until her last breath. He was the last connection Emily had with the outside world after shutting herself in the house. Coincidently, we are still given insight into Emily’s actions despite the rest of the town not being able to go inside of her house. It is then safe to assume that the Narrator is close to Emily and is next to her most of the time. The only person that would fit that category would be Tobe. Not to mention that the Narrator also refers to her as Miss Emily, which is how a butler would normally address the people they are serving. So, it is safe to say that the Narrator is Tobe himself.
Various arguments can be developed to support that point. Firstly, Tobe expresses his thoughts towards Emily quite often throughout the story and even goes against the townspeople’s thoughts but still makes them seem like their real feelings. Tobe often puts Emily on a pedestal and even goes as far as to call her a “fallen monument” (Falkner). We are never really given a reason why Emily would be considered a monument by the townspeople, especially since whenever the townspeople actually speak about Emily, it is almost always done from a negative perspective. For example, the first time that we are given dialogue of the townspeople, it is them arguing with Emily to pay her taxes, and the second time is the townspeople complaining about the awful smell that comes from her home. Despite these sensible reasons to be angry or upset with Emily, Tobe still gives her the name “Fallen Monument,” emphasizing Tobe’s admiration and obsession with Emily (Falkner).
This is further reinforced when Emily meets Homer, a Northerner who started working near Emily’s house. Tobe may have perceived Homer as a poor Northern man who was unworthy of Emily. When the townspeople begin spreading rumors of Emily committing adultery with Homer, Narrator immediately defends her in the next paragraph. “She carried her head high enough – even when we believed that she was fallen” (Falkner). As if to emphasize that she would never do such a thing and that she still stood firm. Despite Tobe being in the house and witnessing almost everything that goes on, Emily is somehow still able to kill Homer with arsenic. Any man with common sense would try to stop this murderer; however, it still happens and isn’t discovered until the men enter Emily’s house after her death and open the attic door. Actually, Tobe may have played a role in that murder, as there is no way he could not notice the closed door and the putrid smell that even the people from nearby houses detected. However, it remains questionable why he did not dispose of the body, thereby helping his mistress avoid problems.
Another point to mention is that before Homer’s disappearance, he is last seen with Tobe. “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron” (Falkner). This supports the point that Tobe played a role in this murder, further emphasizing that he had never liked Homer in the first place and hadn’t seen him as a worthy man for Emily to the point where he helped to kill him. Towards the end of the story, we notice a change in Tobe’s words: the use of “they” (Falkner). Throughout the novel, Tobe deliberately groups himself with the townspeople’s thoughts and makes it seem as if his thoughts are everyone else’s as well; however, when the townspeople decide to break down a door in Emily’s house, he quickly switches to “they” (Falkner). It seems as if Tobe did not want that door to be opened, and there’s an apparent reason why and that’s because Homer’s body is in there.
Tobe’s character is talked about specifically, but through the Narrator’s choice of words and their thoughts on Emily, we can deduce who the Narrator is and get a better understanding of Tobe’s character overall. Tobe admired and obsessed over Emily enough to the point where he was even willing to help in the murder of Homer because, in his mind, he just wasn’t good enough for Miss Emily.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.