“The Man of the Crowd” has a fairly simplistic plot: a man becomes intrigued by a mysterious stranger and follows him through the streets of London in an attempt to discover his secrets. Compared to some of Poe’s other short stories, where murderers confess their deeds, men are buried alive, and women presumed to be dead rise from their graves, the ending of “The Man of the Crowd” is relatively anticlimactic. The tension that drives the story comes entirely from the narrator’s curiosity and the suspense created by his seemingly never-ending pursuit of the old man into the darkest depths of the city.

Unlike a lot of Gothic fiction, “The Man of the Crowd” does not include murders, ghosts, monsters, or other horrific revelations. Instead, this story centralizes on the fear of the unknown. At the beginning, the narrator is characterized as an intellectual: He opens with philosophical musings on the nature of secrecy and guilt, and he repeatedly alludes to authors, artists, and scholars as he tells his tale. His diction and syntax are often complex, and he prides himself in his ability to see and understand things that others cannot, such as recognizing pickpockets.