Adjective

moral (comparative more moral, superlative most moral)

Positive moral

Comparative more moral

Superlative most moral

1. Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially for teaching right behaviour.

   moral judgments, a moral poem

2. Conforming to a standard of right behaviour; sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment.

   a moral obligation

3. Capable of right and wrong action.

   a moral agent

4. Probable but not proved.

   a moral certainty

5. Positively affecting the mind, confidence, or will.

   a moral victory, moral support

Synonyms

• (conforming to a standard of right behaviour): ethical, incorruptible, noble, righteous, virtuous
• (provable but not proved): virtual

Derived terms

• moral high ground
• moral minimum

A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. As an example of the latter, at the end of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, in which the plodding and determined tortoise wins a race against the much-faster yet extremely arrogant hare, the moral is "slow and steady wins the race". However, it can also be interpreted that arrogance or overconfidence in one's abilities may lead to failure or the loss of an event, race, or contest. Undermining another persons ability based on image is another message or moral trying to be conveyed. The use of stock characters is a means of conveying the moral of the story by eliminating complexity of personality and so spelling out the issues arising in the interplay between the characters, enables the writer to generate a clear message. With more rounded characters, such as those typically found in Shakespeare's plays, the moral may be more nuanced but no less present, and the writer may point it up in other ways (see, for example, the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet).

Throughout the history of recorded literature, the majority of fictional writing has served not only to entertain but also to instruct, inform or improve their audiences or readership. In classical drama, for example, the role of the chorus was to comment on the proceedings and draw out a message for the audience to take away with them; while the novels of Charles Dickens are a vehicle for morals regarding the social and economic system of Victorian Britain.

Morals have typically been more obvious in children's literature, sometimes even being introduced with the phrase, "The moral of the story is …". Such explicit techniques have grown increasingly out of fashion in modern storytelling, and are now usually only included for ironic purposes.

Some examples are: "Better to be safe than sorry", "The evil deserves no aid", "Be friends with whom you don't like", "Don't judge people by the way they look", "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me" and "Slow and steady wins the race". Or, "your overconfidence is your weakness."

Categories: Literature | Narratology

Morality is the notion of right and wrong conducts.

Sourced

• MORALITY: A traditional code of decency that went out the window about the same time as belief in eternal damnation.
  • Rick Bayan, in The Cynic's Dictionary

• Morality is character and conduct such as is required by the circle or community in which the man's life happens to be placed. It shows how much good men require of us.
  • Henry Ward Beecher, in Life of Thoughts (1858)

• Morality's not practical. Morality's a gesture. A complicated gesture learnt from books.
  • Robert Bolt, in A Man For All Seasons (1960)

• Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.
  • Lewis Carroll, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

• There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.
  • Charles Caleb Colton, in Lacon (1820)

• The system of morality which Socrates made it the business of his life to teach was raised upon the firm basis of religion. The first principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind are, according to this excellent moralist, laws of God; and the conclusive argument by which he supports this opinion is, that no man departs from these principles with impunity.
  • William Enfield, in The History of Philosophy Vol. I, (1819), p. 185

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Tue May 19 02:19:52 2009