Because of the death of her father, Miss Emily has become a hermit of sorts. ... Her appearance has changed, now she is "bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water" "perhaps that is why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her". (29) The changing of times has also caused anguish for Miss Emily. ...
Faulkner uses this isolation of the main character to filter the facts and influence us, the readers, into thinking and feeling exactly what he intends. ... In doing so, we become attached to the town because we can relate to what they feel for poor, unfortunate Emily. ... With nearly all the facts surrounding the life and death of Emily in place the reader has been given a script of what to feel for her. ... Emily is immediately transformed from a lonely old woman who died with little or nothing in life but room for sorrow, to a murderous psychopath, hermit that wasted her life lying ...