The shift from a first person plural to a first person singular point of view would change the tone of the story as well as the character development. Let’s take Tobe’s perspective for example. As Emily’s dutiful servant and connection to the outside world, he is seen as the only one that truly understands Emily’s behavior and actions. Unlike the townspeople’s perception of Emily as an eccentric recluse, Tobe would drastically change the sympathetic tone to one that is more understanding and argumentative. His initial step may be to rearrange the fabula in re-telling the story. Instead of describing the townspeople’s attendance in Emily’s funeral in the beginning, Tobe will first describe her past, when the impact of her father’s death and sweetheart’s desertion bereft her the love she deserved in life, and later be used to justify for her isolation and murder of Homer. In addition, he will be likely to include personal accounts of Emily’s life because the townspeople’s vision only offers their interpretations of her through the glimpse of her window, whereas Tope provides a solid, reliable account of the exact happenings inside the house. The change of perspective will be more subtle in the descriptions of her outside the house because those are true facts witnessed by the entire community. These moments may include her defiance in paying tax, determination to buy poison, and her affinity for Homer. With a different narration, Emily’s character is stretched and more round, enabling readers to formulate the reasons behind her transformation and the intentions of her actions. However, the ending scene with Homer’s corpse will be vague. Whether the murder is Emily’s strategy to preserve the love of her beloved one, Tobe leaves this ambiguity without a clarification. The shift somewhat still preserves Faulkner’s theme of mysterious death because the causes of Homer’s death remains unsolved. Tobe’s perspective simply proposes more facts, leaving readers a bit less room for imagination.
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