In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the protagonist does not reveal much of himself in terms of appearance or his name. There is not much to learn about from the main character. The protagonist although has two separate conflicts one external and one internal and does not think that he is crazy as portrayed by others. In the end, the narrators guilt over killing the old man forces himself to believe that the old man's heart is beating and turn himself into the police.
The protagonist does not reveal his appearance. The narrator is not described in any detail because he is telling the entire story from his point of view, and he does not take the time to describe himself to the audience. So, there is no way to tell what the character looks like.
The character's personality is odd. The character is emotional, but he is not rational. He is neither shy nor outgoing. He thinks that he is skillful. He tends to be depressed. He does not seem to be caring, but he does state that he loved the old man. He is dishonest because he hid the body, and he was not going to confess to the crime until he thought that the police heard the heart beating.
The character deals with two different conflicts: external and internal. The internal conflict is that the narrator's guilt over killing the old man forces him to believe that the dead man's heart is beating. The external conflict is the eye itself, he feels that the old man's eye is always watching him. .
The narrator described how he loved the old man and the old man had never wronged him. However, the old man's "vulture eye" is what drove the narrator to murder him. After murdering the old man, the narrator is consumed with guilt. Realizing what he has done, the narrator tries to fight his guilt by constantly telling the reader how he is not crazy but clever. However, in the end, the narrator's guilt is too overwhelming and this forces him to believe that the old man's heart is still beating and that the police can hear it.
