Exposition, plot, climax, denouement, ending - in literature this is considered to be the compositional components of the work. It is known that composition in a literary text is the arrangement of parts of a work in a certain sequence. This is a kind of system thanks to which the author manages to express his idea.
The main "bricks" of the composition
The plot of the story refers to that point in any literary form, where the plot line and the conflict on which the plot is built. The climax is the part in which the conflict culminates. Immediately followed by the denouement. In literature, this is the block of compositional construction in which the conflict is resolved, and the storyline ends.
Significant Role of Decoupling
If we had presented the plot development in the form of a graph, then from the starting point - the ties, the straight line would move up to the peak of the work - the climax, and then would decline, where the denouement awaits it. In literature, this sketchy image, reminiscent of a frame, turns into a full-blooded, rich and interesting action, designed to awaken certain thoughts and feelings from the reader, to induce him to some kind of moral decision.
In this regard, the denouement can be perceived not just as the final “chords” of the plot harmony, but as the author’s artistic instrument with which he emphasizes his position in relation to heroes and conflict.
How does the denouement differ from the finale?
The denouement in the literature is not the end of the work. It is also wrong to call the end, the last lines and words the ending. The author in the book submits his plan in the form of intricately knotted knots. The intrigue is growing, gradually the action moves to the finale, where the climax and denouement take place. Conditionally, these two compositional elements make up the ending, for the sake of which the narrative was conducted.
Sometimes the final denouement does not occur, and then literary critics talk about the open finale. Such an artistic device is characteristic of works in which the author encourages the reader to think. We see the open finale in Ken Kesey’s play “Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, in A. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”, in M. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s short story “The Story of a City”.
It also happens that the denouement in literature is also the culmination. In N. Gogol’s comedy The Inspector General, the famous silent scene is the highest point of the growing conflict between Khlestakov’s lie that he is an important official from St. Petersburg and the true state of things.
At the same time, this is the denouement in which the lines of the letter intercepted from Khlestakov are read out, the provincial authorities find out the truth, and against the background of this there are words that the inspector has arrived from the capital and is demanding a city man “right now” to himself.