In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the setting hurts Miss Emily Grierson's emotional state. The story takes place in a county in Mississippi during the decline of the Old South after the Civil War. This is important because her family represents the decline itself. Her father dies leaving her penniless and alone. Emily is a victim of the circumstances surrounding her, of society, old costumes and her own father. This contributes to her psychological abnormality; the disfiguration of her emotional state.

After Emily's father dies the ladies in town say "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away." According to Freudian psychoanalysis sexual repression often causes psychological damage. Fallowing old southern costumes Emily's father was to choose a suitor for her; however he found that none of them were good enough for her daughter and therefore chased them away. In his eyes, they are...