The term "denouement" refers to:

Question

Accepted Answer

The final resolution of the plot following the climax. The denouement (from the French word meaning "unknotting") is the final section of a narrative in which the complications of the plot are resolved and the outcome becomes clear. It follows the climax and falling action, tying up loose ends and bringing the story to its conclusion. In a murder mystery, the denouement is when the detective reveals who committed the crime and how. In a romance, it might show the couple's final union or separation.

The introduction of characters and setting is the exposition. The moment of greatest tension is the climax. A sudden reversal of fortune is a peripeteia (peripety), a concept from Aristotle's discussion of tragedy. Each of these is a different stage or element of plot structure.

Understanding narrative structure is fundamental to the CLEP Literature exam. The traditional plot arc includes: exposition (background information), rising action (complications build), climax (the turning point of highest tension), falling action (consequences of the climax unfold), and denouement (resolution). Not all narratives follow this pattern  -  modernist and postmodernist fiction often deliberately disrupts traditional plot structure, leaving conflicts unresolved or presenting events non-chronologically. However, understanding the conventional structure gives you a framework for analyzing how individual works conform to or depart from expectations.

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