Morality versus Reality
The moral of a story, which can be a fable, fairy tale or a poem as well, is the hidden lesson to be learned.
The writer has a certain message in mind but it is not said that the reader, or the one listenimg, receives a different message. Underneath certain stories, the moral is written. If this is not the case it can be changed.
Does a story with a moral influences behaviour?
It's doubtful. A three-year-old knows the difference between right and wrong, what is allowed and what is not, they lie and cheat.
To test if a story with a moral changes behaviour groups of children from the age of 3 - 7 years were told 4 different stories: The Boy That Cried Wolf (if you always lie no one believes you if you speak the truth/you are not trustworthy), Pinocchio (if you lie your nose grows and you will never be a real boy/a good human), The Hare and The Tortoise (too much confidence makes lazy/bragging alone won't make you a winner/hero), and Little George and the Cherry Tree (about a boy who can't tell a lie and is rewarded for telling the truth by his father with kind words).
Four different stories which indeed can be twisted and the end can be easily changed by the storyteller.
What if Pinocchio is not about a lying wooden doll but a doll that cares deeply about his old father he wants to find above anything, what if the fable about The Hare and The Tortoise is not about the hare but his slow unequal partner in the race and the moral is: being labelled as a loser doesn't mean you can't win!
Little George might have been "rewarded" by his dad but the average toddler already knows there's a very small chance that will happen. They know their adults very well including being reprimanded, ignored or spanked.
If it comes to the moral of (classic) tales it's about teaching a lesson about the results of bad behaviour. I doubt any parent over here would have told the story of George. To believe that bad behaviour, not obeying your parents and not paying attention to others' property remains unpunished is what we call 'a fairy tale' (meaning a lie).
It's easy to change the end of a story or focus on another character.
Like the fable of 'The Grasshopper and The Ant' which is about the artist the Grasshopper and not about a hardworking ant who treats the artist like a piece of dirt and let him die during the cold winter.
Through the centuries people changed and so did the interpretation, the moral of stories. One of the most impressive tales is "Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne" (The Little Girl with the Matchsticks written by Hans Christian Andersen) which is about a little girl who had to sell matchsticks on Christmas day and wasn't allowed to come home before she sold each one of them.
She was out on the streets, it was getting later, colder, people ignored her, hurried home and she watched the rich dine at their Christmas tables, celebrating inside their warm houses. All she could do was sit down, she had no place to turn to. She decided to use the unsold matches to feel a bit warmer but nevertheless froze to death.
>Is this story about a little girl dying alone on the streets, left in the cold on Christmas Eve, is it about finding peace in death or is the moral that people are heartless swines, and only care about what they have for dinner?
Another option is that this Danish writer wanted to make clear that Christmas is fake and not the celebration of love and the Christmas spirit does not exist.
It's a fact most of us won't open our houses, let alone our hearts, not even for a little girl in need. The citizens in this tale refused to give her food, a shelter, were not even willing to spend a cent to buy a match to make sure the little one dared to go home, a home worse than hell.
What the moral may be is up to the reader. For sure some will say: this story has a happy ending. She died, reached heaven, even met an angel as she lit the last match, that little one died happy, even had a smile on her face as she was found the next morning as the streets were wept clean. The bitter truth is she was just a piece of trash and no one shed a tear.
