Paying close attention to every detail of Miss Emily it becomes evident that the ending of the story is the only plausible one. Faulkner recounts Miss Emily's sad and disgusting condition after her father's death not to make the reader feel sympathy for her, but to make them recognize that Miss Emily may not be the mentally healthy old woman they predicted. Telling about a woman who stays next to a corpse for three days shows the reader a character capable of being a little crazy and incapable of letting go.