Conflict in A Rose for Emily

My reading of “A Rose for Emily” this semester came with new connotations and appreciations. In high school I generally understood this story to be symbolic of the conflict between the North and the South, the old and the new. Even more so, I recall it being argued that the conflict in the story was between good and evil. I researched this interpretation to see if it was the focal point I once believed it to be and I found some very interesting insights given by Faulkner. When questioned about “A Rose for Emily” in an interview he says that the conflict of the story was “not between North and the South so much as between, well you might say, God and Satan.” I came to interpret this in several ways. My first instinct was to trust Faulkner’s words and locate a more personal, internal conflict rooted in Miss. Emily. Then I remembered how often Faulkner alludes to the opposite when speaking of his works. Ultimately I felt the conflict of the North and South was present, however, I also found it to be less intentional than his main objective which was curiously more personal. Faulkner says, “I was simply trying to write about people.” I find the aforementioned to be all too evident in this bone chilling story, which exposes the internal conflict within the mysterious Miss Emily by way of describing her surroundings.

I was wondering what other people thought about this story in terms of the conflict; that is, does any one see the conflict between God and Satan? Is it important?