Vindicated
“So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all her chances if they had really materialized” (page 9).
The definition of vindicated is to uphold or justify by argument or evidence. From Dictionary.com
The word vindicated within the story means that the people felt justified to feel the way they did about Emily because her and her family had always held themselves in such high regard that the people felt that her failings made it alright to feel the way they had about her.
The word helps to us understand how people in the town felt about Emily and her family.
I believe that Faulkner chose this word to show depth in which these people felt about Emily and how seeing her failure and troubles only gave them the justification for how they felt instead of helping them to understand that she too was only human. Knowing the definition helped me to understand what Faulkner was trying to show about the relationship between Emily and the people of the town.
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