Can a mid-sentence quote have a comma outside the quotation marks?

I have a sentence such as the one below, and am unsure as to where the commas should go.

I, John Doe, the man feared as "the tyrant," guarantee it.

In particular, I'm wondering about the comma after tyrant. That should go inside the quotations, right?

Solution 1:

Traditionally, punctuation always goes within quotation marks in the United States. Not all English-writing nations follow this custom, however. It's perfectly acceptable in the United Kingdom to place the comma outside of the quotation mark. The Capital City College in Hartford, CT has more information if you're interested.

Of course, in this age of the internet there's a lot more drift in standards and custom. Whether or not you place the comma as "the tyrant," or "the tyrant", is a matter of house style akin to how many spaces after a period.

As for the punctuation in the sentence as a whole, the four-clause structure is itself rather wordy and ponderous. You may want to revise if that's not the feel you're going for, although your placement of commas is correct and proper with the wording as presented.