Jennifer Dowdle

Mr. Thompson
English 1302.10
20 September 2016
Tragic Flaws (Rough)
As humans it is only natural to dwell on flaws. Whether it is our own or anothers these
thoughts seem to torment the mind. In literature, we find that the tragic flaw of a character,
particularly the protagonist, can be intriguing enough to want to submerge ourselves into a
character analysis. In addition, it is not only the protagonist that can have tragic flaws but also
the antagonist and sympathetic characters. An analogous character analysis depicting the tragic
flaw of the protagonist, antagonist and sympathetic characters of A&P by John Updike and
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe has become necessary to comfort these
contemplations.
By enveloping ourselves into the analyses of the protagonists the tragic flaws become
relevant. A&P introduces Sammy. He is a young man, nineteen to be exact, who lets his
hormones control his actions more than he should. Updikes imagery of the girls as seen by
Sammy leads into his teenage angst. Still with that prim look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of
the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. The jar went heavy in my hand. (Updike 19)
The reader imagines his hands sweaty and heart racing as Queenie pulls her money from the
center of her bathing suit top. Ultimately, Sammy finds himself saying, Iquit to Lengel quick
enough for them to hear, hoping theyll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. (Updike 19)
Tragically, he is left alone and jobless thus revealing his tragic flaw; teenage angst. Likewise,
there is a tragic flaw for the protagonist of The Tell-Tale Heart. Here the protagonist is viewed
as the caretaker, a flat character who leaves a lot up for interpretation, except his tragic flaw; his
paranoia. If it werent for the constant sound. a low, dull, quick sound- much such a sound as a
watch makes when enveloped in cotton. (Poe 39), that shrouded his mind, the paranoia would
not have heightened. In due course, his paranoia forced him to reveal his unsightly deed They
heard! They suspected! anything was better than this agony here, here! -it is the beating
of the hideous heart. (Poe 40).
When considering literary works the antagonist is hardly ever viewed as having a tragic
flaw. Nonetheless, on both accounts the antagonist does indeed possess flaw. Updike develops
the antagonist as Lengel, an uptight, Sunday school teacher, who is also Sammys manager
(Updike 19) Lengels tragic flaw is his actual need to point out what he thinks is wrong, in this
case it is the girls attire. It was they who embarrassed us. (Updike 21) Lengel made his point
clear and found himself having to take over for the young man who decided to quit over it.
Looking back into the windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawm furniture
stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through.
His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if hed just had an injection of iron (Updike 21)
Correspondingly, Poes antagonist, the eye of the old man, has a tragic flaw. It is hard to conceive

an eye to be the antagonist although, clearly the man is merely an appendage of the eye. The eye
is flawed with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones (Poe 38) perhaps
to make the eye evil and vulture like were also its tragic flaw. The discoloration drove the
caretaker to want to rid himself of the eye. Which is exactly what he does by killing the old man.
The eye in turn to be closed forever.
Sympathetic characters or those whose charcters noted for their ability to be identifiable
and possibly cared about by the reader such as Queenie from A&P and the old man from The
Tell-Tale heart even find themselves with their own tragic flaw. Queenie who is the leader of the
three girls holds her head high as she parades barefoot in a bathing suit thru the aisles of the
A&P. She obviopusly holds great pride in her appearance to walk with bare feet and bare
shoulders in such an era. Perhaps it is this pride that leads to her confrontation with Lengel.
The old man is also a sympathetic character, being but an appendage of the antagonistic eye. He
has done nothing wrong yet his tragic flaw is being attached to the eye.
Flaws are what humans are made of, what brings characters to life, and tragic flaws help
bring literature to life. Similarities between two drastically different stories in this case A&P
and The Tell-Tale Heart can be seen when looking at the protagonists, antagonists, sympathetic
characters, and their tragic flaws.