Since Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his dark and profound tales, he developed several characters within his collection of short stories. Although the stories are limited in length, Poe adequately developed the characters in his stories to give the impression of the characters he intended. Poe created his characters and represented them in similar but different ways. Poe ultimately used the development of his characters to reveal his writing style and push towards the Gothic side of romance. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe did a great job in developing the character of the narrator. The narrator can mostly be characterized as a wreck. From the beginning to the end of the story, the narrator was full of nerves. Ultimately his nerves led him to his personal fate within the story. The narrator was a lonely, paranoid man who was seen on the verge of illness and madness. His behaviors have been very disrupted throughout the story; it was as if there was always tension on his conscience and his feelings. Poe used the narrator's behaviors to emphasize his mental stability and reveal the theme of the power of consciousness. The main conflict in the story was that the narrator felt angry towards the old man who lived in his house. The old man's eyes had the ability to drive the narrator to madness, although the man was never wrong. The narrator was very upset because of her cryptic eyes which made him feel cold. The narrator's character developed when Poe showed the narrator as a madman when he sneaked into the old man's room for seven consecutive days. His reluctance to kill the old man during those seven days proved that his conscience was a strong counterforce... at the center of the card... possible because he manipulated Fortunato into wanting to follow him. Montresor's thoughtful plan in his revenge involved Fortunato drinking wine on the way to the catacomb. This proved that Montresor was very evil in taking revenge by hurting his countryman. The way Montresor handled his revenge on Fortunato was cruel and revealed that his character was extremely brutal. Fortunato ended up nailed to a wall that was also covered when Montresor built stone walls to keep him away from society. Montresor's unsympathetic characteristic was revealed when he left Fortunato there to die in the catacombs. Montresor's unethical way of resolving his conflict with Fortunato revealed that human nature can be guided to a large extent in the act of revenge. Poe used Montresor's psychological anger to represent the theme of revenge and darkness in humans.