Denouement

Denouement, in literature, is the end part of a story after the climax. It consists of tidily finishing story lines and settling the characters back to their normal lives. Note that denouement only occurs in happily ending stories. Tragic endings are termed catastrophe. There is a "turning point" between the climax and the denouement, termed "peripeteia".

Related Topics:
Literature - Climax - Catastrophe - Peripeteia

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In An Inspector Calls, the denouement consists of Mr. Birling receiving a phone call saying that a police inspector is on his way to ask some questions. This comes as a shock to the audience as well as the characters because they had just found out that the police inspector Goole which just left was a fraud. This is considered a denouement because it occurs at the end of the story and serves to tie up any loose ends that might otherwise interfere with the audience's feeling of completion to the story.

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The term is borrowed into English from the French and is usually pronounced in the French way.

Related Topics:
English - French

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It is also the French word for when a superhero defeats a supervillian, or vice versa.

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