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Miss Emily Use Of Fear

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Another way we see Emily using the town for her own personal gain is when a few of the men go to fix the smell that begins to exude from her house. Miss Emily is so isolated from the town that no one wants to confront her about the smell. After a couple of complaints, one particularly adamant man approaches the judge in complete distress and says, “I’d be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we’ve got to do something” (Faulkner, 518). This man represents the town in a special way because he shows their fear of her. They are either terribly frightened of her or incredibly intimidated by her or they maybe even think she is too fragile to take what they have to say, but either way they are too scared to confront her directly. Instead, they have to sneak in the middle of the night in order to avoid her. …show more content…

She manages to call them out on their ludicrous actions without ever speaking to them at all. The story says, “As they recrossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol” (Faulkner, 518). Emily not only knows that people are sneaking around her house in the middle of the night, but she also shows them that she knows by turning the light on and making herself visible in the window. This image of her adds to the overall idea of Emily in the town; she is isolated from the rest of them while still always being there and it allows her to get away with things she normally would not be able to. In this moment, she is able to maintain a status of being something other than the rest of them while also getting them to fix a problem for her. The men of Jefferson are literally helping Emily cover up a murder while she sits in her house

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