Question

In an interview, faulkner described the conflict of miss emily: she "had broken all the laws of her tradition, her background, and she had finally broken the law of god too. . . and she knew she was doing wrong, and that's why her own life was wrecked. instead of murdering one lover, and then to go on and take another and when she used him up to murder him, she was expiating her crime." how might this story be seen as expiation?

Answer 1

The story is narrated by a plural demotic narrator , and the fictitious world will be described taking into account the perspectives of every citizens the narrator can be a witness because he heard comments or witnessed the facts.

For a sad, depressed person such as Emily, love and possession go completely together and there is not another form of possession than death, the only one capable of suspending time. Death was the only possible outcome for Emily's sad and melancholy loves because only she gave him a definite form of possession.

The story has a much, much deeper scope. Emily is a symbol not only of the  woman of the south, but also of the South and of her cult raging for a past that is dead and, therefore, it can't be recovered.