In the eyes of the Mississippi town she lived in, Miss Emily Grierson, living in isolation with her butler, was the embodiment of the decaying South, an object of gossip and ridicule, the town's communal obligation, and the symbol of the rigid past of Southern aristocracies. After her death, her secret is revealed, and it looks like it had been a desperate attempt to gain some control over her life.

Faulkner cloaks Emily in a mysterious and musty Southern Gothic aura, but still manages to create a fully-fledged character whose motives and position as a representation of the past could be discussed endlessly. Because her years as a typical puppet of old-fashioned values, rigid social codes, and her controlling father (whose motives for over-protection aren't explained either) contributed to her struggles, Emily comes across as a tragic (and possibly mentally unstable) figure rather than someone who should be despised or judged.