WOW! This is a very interesting question. At first, I, too, thought, what a wierd comparison. But slowly, as I mused upon this question, it began to dawn on me. So here are some of my thoughts.
Both are stories about lonely women.
In Joyce's story, Eveline is a quiet girl, deprived of love or affection, the caretaker of a home sans warmth and paternal care. She has to take care of everything: cook, sow, tidy-up; and when the evening invaded the avenue (to quote Joyce himself), stand forlorn at her window. Like a later day, Lady of Shallot, Eveline saw life outside from inside.
In Faulkner's Emily ( a name that also starts with an E like Joyce's protagonist) is also lonely; in fact, she is more than lonely. She is alone! And alone, she goes about her own life, completely shutting out the outside world -- the Soul selects her own society! We go about reading the story, muttering to herself, what a wierd woman she is, etc, until we discover, to our alarm, that she has been nourishing the dead body of her husband!
Evelyn finally gets a chance to end her solitary, utterly domestic and boring life, by running away with a man she had befriended by her window-side. But she can't. In the last minute, the crowded steamer, the hustle and bustle, the noise, the smell, all become too much for her. She wrenches her hand away from the man and runs back -- home!
Emily is the quiet, upright, taut, silent woman who insists on her dignity, notwithstanding the ghoulish behavior. The police come and remove the body; but Emily is the same: unrepantant, haughty, completely out of touch with society.
What strikes me about your question is how two great writers -- Joyce and Faulkner -- were able to communicate to us about how society can have devastating effects on people, particularly women. Both Eveline and Emily are products of their times. They are expected to be dutiful, obedient ladies, doing what society expects of them. Eveline does, and at what cost. Emily does, too, but only apparently. Evline looks after her father, a no good man who just lives off his daughter's labor. Emily is a dutiful, loving wife -- except that the husband she insists on taking care of has been dead long ago! In Freudian terms both are passive aggressive, Emily far more than Eveline.
I hope this helps.
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