Point out some way in which the denoument contributes to the overall theme of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.

The denouement or resolution of Kate Chopin's "The Story
of an Hour" occurs at the very end of the story with surprising
force.

Mrs. Louise Mallard, who has heart trouble, has been
told that she is free from the restrictions of her marriage by the untimely death of her
husband. Without having realized it before, she soon understands that her will has not
been her own, but has been controlled by her husband, who had generally been kind and
whom she had sometimes loved.

However, now Mrs. Mallard's
new sense of freedom gives her a renewed interest in her life. Whereas the day before
she had worried that life would be long, now she prays that life
will be long because she realizes that she has been set "free."
"Body and soul, free."

When, at the story's conclusion,
Louise Mallard finally leaves her room and goes down the stairs with her sister-in-law,
a key in the door announces the arrival of...her allegedly dead husband, Brently. He was
not killed in a railway accident as reported. In that moment,
rather than being overjoyed at his "resurrection," Louise loses the
promise of freedom widowhood would have brought her.

The
denouement is the doctors' diagnosis:

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When the doctors came they said she had died of
heart disease—of joy that
kills.

The irony is, of
course, that she did not die from the joy of seeing her husband  alive, as
they believe, but of disappointment at the loss of her dreams for a
life all her own. The story reflects the importance of the title—that within an hour
Louise's life changes enormously: she gains a life and loses it. The story also
perpetuates the sense of society (then) that a woman's happiness depended upon having a
husband. Independence was not something women needed:  why would they with a husband to
make the important decisions?

Overall, the theme throughout
the story is Louise's discovery of the value of independence for a woman. The denouement
reflects society's inability to understand this concept: the doctor's blame her death
not on disappointment, but on ill-health, something only the reader would be able to
pick up on.