Tubbs|Euphus Tubb

The jailer in the three novels set in mid-20th century Yoknapatawpha is a man named "Tubbs" in Intruder in the Dust and Requiem for a Nun, and "Euphus Tubb" in The Mansion. In the first novel he is described as a "snuffy untidy pot-bellied man with a harried concerned outraged face" (51); although when Lucas Beauchamp is brought into his jail accused of killing a white man, he complains about having to risk his life "protecting a goddamn stinking nigger" "for seventy-five dollars a month," he is nonetheless faithful to his "oath of office" (52). In the second, he is one of the small cast that actually appears onstage in the dramatic portions of the text; as "JAILOR," "a typical small-town turnkey" (206), he is talkative and deferential to the jail's visitors, but also and unintentionally insulting to visitors and prisoners alike. His racist and fundamentalist opinions are inextricably mixed with what he hopes to be courtesy. In his final, minor appearance he is described as a man who "spent most of his life being surprised" (66). (According to the "Corrected Texts" that Noel Polk edited for Vintage International, Faulkner spelled "jailer" with an 'e' in "That Evening Sun," Intruder in the Dust and "An Error in Chemistry" but with an 'o' in "Monk," Requiem for a Nun and The Reivers. "Jailer" is more standard in American usage, but when when we quote texts we follow their spelling.)