How is "The Tell-Tale Heart" plot structure nontraditional?

In a traditional plot structure, there are seven steps or stages, as identified by the German writer Gustav Freytag. You may have heard of Freytag's Pyramid; it often looks like an isosceles triangle but missing the bottom line, with the seven stages labeled as the story figuratively travels up one side of the pyramid to the climax, or the top-most point, and down the other side to the story's end.

These seven stages or steps include exposition, or the revelation of any background information that readers might need in order to understand the story; inciting incident, the event that seems to initiate the story's main conflict; rising action, all of the events after the inciting incident that lead up to the climax between the protagonist and antagonist; the climax itself, or the moment of the most tension in the whole story; the falling action, or the action that occurs as a result of a climax; the resolution, in which the protagonist resolves their conflict; and, finally, the denouement, when the final strands of the story are explained.

The plot structure of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is nontraditional, ending immediately after the climax and lacking any falling action, the resolution, and the denouement. In the story's climax, the unnamed protagonist is overwhelmed by the physical effects of his own guilty conscience, and he confesses to the murder of the old man. This is where the story ends, and so we do not really know what occurs as a result of his confession or how the story is resolved.

What is the plot structure of "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

This question is asking for a standard plot diagram of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." The exposition is sometimes also called the introduction, and it serves to introduce readers to the setting and characters. In this story, we are introduced to the crazy narrator, as well as the old man that he lives with and the house.

The term rising action is a bit misleading because it is singular, and it gives the impression of a single event. The rising action is usually comprised of multiple things that lead to the climax. For this story, the rising actions are the multiple times that the narrator sneaks into the old man's room in order to figure out how best to perhaps kill him.

Every night about twelve o’clock I slowly opened his door. And when the door was opened wide enough I put my hand in, and then my head. In my hand I held a light covered over with a cloth so that no light showed. And I stood there quietly. Then, carefully, I lifted the cloth, just a little, so that a single, thin, small light fell across that eye.

The climax of the story occurs when the narrator kills the old man. This is a major turning point in the story, and it causes the narrator to take actions such as disposing of the body. The hiding of the body and the resulting heartbeat hallucinations are both part of the falling action, and the final conclusion is the man's confession and arrest.