According to William James, "As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors." This is one of the main reasons why people in the town thought of Emily as a good, sad lady. Since Emily's family was a respected one in the town, people did not question nor became suspicious of her actions. Another reason why the town thought of her as a good person was because Emily stayed all day inside her house, she had little contact with other people in the town. In addition, they felt sorry for her due to the fact that her father died and the only thing she had was the house. This is how Faulkner wants the reader to view Emily Grierson, a poor lady with no friends, solitary. However, Emily was not the good lady everybody thought she was. She was a murderer and persuaded the whole town so they would never notice her criminal acts.
             Faulkner short story begins when Emily is already dead. The whole town is gathered in her funeral because it seems that she was a very important and respected lady in the community. The author makes a comparison between the respect that the town had for her, with "a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument," (459) once she is dead. Further more, William writes: "Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town" (459) since her father was a close friend of Colonel Sartoris, the mayor in the town, and the person "who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron" (459). In addition the mayor invented a "tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of busines
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