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Moral

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442: 43: 182:, in which the plodding and determined tortoise won a race against the much-faster yet extremely arrogant hare, the stated moral is "slow and steady wins the race". However, other morals can often be taken from the story itself; for instance, that arrogance or overconfidence in one's abilities may lead to failure or the loss of an event, race, or contest. 258:), "The evil deserves no aid", "Be friends with whom you don't like", "Don't judge people by the way they look", "Slow and steady wins the race", "Once started down the dark path, forever will it hold your destiny", and "Your overconfidence is your weakness". 193:
of the story by eliminating complexity of personality and depicting the issues arising in the interplay between the characters, enabling the writer to generate a clear message. With more rounded characters, such as those typically found in
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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
296:(1776–1849) was another prominent author of moral tales, writing about how a wise adult can educate a child; one of her more famous stories is " 418: 1134: 383: 1463: 247:…". Such explicit techniques have grown increasingly out of fashion in modern storytelling, and are now usually only included for 1146: 162:. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a 300:". During this time, the theme of "a young heroine or hero gaining wisdom and maturity was taken up by many other writers". 282:
in the 18th century, which brought attention to children as an audience for literature. Following in their line of thought,
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The ability of children to derive moral lessons from stories and visual media develops around the age of 9 or 10 years.
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was to comment on the proceedings and draw out a message for the audience to take away with them; while the
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Moral tales were one of the main purposes of literature during 1780–1830, especially in
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This article is about the use of the moral in storytelling. For other uses, see
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Message that is conveyed or lesson to be learned from a story or event
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are a vehicle for morals regarding the social and economic system of
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are the most famous of stories with strong moral conclusions.
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Some examples are: "Better to be safe than sorry" (
67:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 274:. Part of the reason for this was the writings of 174:As an example of an explicit maxim, at the end of 166:. A moral is a lesson in a story or in real life. 154:that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a 1762: 392:. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.  469: 382: 239:Morals have typically been more obvious in 476: 462: 127:Learn how and when to remove this message 1763: 1147:Types of fiction with multiple endings 457: 336: 65:adding citations to reliable sources 36: 13: 14: 1787: 1550:Third-person omniscient narrative 435: 169: 440: 41: 416: 339:The Kingfisher Story Collection 224:, for example, the role of the 52:needs additional citations for 938:Conflict between good and evil 410: 376: 355: 330: 265: 1: 483: 445:The dictionary definition of 323: 189:is a means of conveying the 7: 306: 10: 1792: 386:(2006). Jack Zipes (ed.). 337:Vuong, Quan-Hoang (2022). 29: 18: 1613: 1585: 1577:Stream of unconsciousness 1520: 1264: 1155: 1108:Falling action/Catastasis 1053: 958: 893: 816: 628: 491: 230:novels of Charles Dickens 180:the Tortoise and the Hare 32:Moral of the Story (song) 945:Self-fulfilling prophecy 1572:Stream of consciousness 1035:Suspension of disbelief 256:precautionary principle 215: 1113:Denouement/Catastrophe 1094:Rising action/Epitasis 25:Moral (disambiguation) 1459:Utopian and dystopian 389:Children's Literature 280:Jean-Jacques Rousseau 272:children's literature 245:moral of the story is 241:children's literature 1013:Narrative techniques 793:Story within a story 605:Supporting character 61:improve this article 1718:Political narrative 1560:Unreliable narrator 1417:Speculative fiction 1125:Nonlinear narrative 1073:Three-act structure 933:Deal with the Devil 289:Sandford and Merton 1696:Narrative paradigm 1691:Narrative identity 1621:Dominant narrative 1567:Multiple narrators 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Index

Morality
Moral (disambiguation)
Moral of the Story (song)

verification
improve this article
adding citations to reliable sources
"Moral"
news
newspapers
books
scholar
JSTOR
Learn how and when to remove this message
Latin
message
story
event
maxim
Aesop's fable
the Tortoise and the Hare
stock characters
moral
Shakespeare
plays
Prologue
Romeo and Juliet
classical drama
chorus
novels of Charles Dickens

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