Arthur Kinney argued that "Miss Emily's delusions, especially about her father's death, develop as a defense mechanism for the death of her father represents the death of the old order and of herself as well." Emily was a disturbed, fearful individual that did not want to separate herself from a deceased loved one. .
Her house represented decay and death itself, as it lifted its "stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps – an eyesore among eyesores" (Faulkner 1). Her own decay transpired throughout the story as well. Once a "slender figure", transformed into a bloated girl with a "vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows – sort of tragic and serene" (Faulkner 3). Her evil nature is unraveled when the townspeople discover a ghastly smell coming from her house and when she tried to have her taxes exempted. It is believed since Miss Emily was secluded from reality she did not know what taxes were. She tried convincing the Colonel that she had no taxes in Jefferson. When the townspeople received free postal delivery, Miss Emily refused to let them attach a mailbox to her house. However, the townspeople's judgmental speculations did not seem to bother or phase Miss Emily. The townspeople constantly gossip and wonder about what Miss Emily is doing with her life. She is pitied, "poor Emily", and is viewed more as a "tradition, a duty, and a care" or small town legend, rather than an actual human being (Faulkner 3). .
Unable to cope with the loss of a loved one, she is believed to have an affair with a northerner laborer named Homer Barron, but then is soon seen trying to buy arsenic. "In her relationship with Homer Barron, Miss Emily is quite indifferent to public censure and her attitude sparks off a second set of reminiscences, the purchase and delivery of the poison, where she had been equally intransigent" (Skinner).