Great Literature Is Inherently Moral

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 26, 2026 | D.P. Curtin

[karpov]

For over a century, post-modern critics have insisted that literature must be liberated from the stifling realm of moralism in order to become truly authentic in its artistic approach. The various platitudes in this vein have been prolific: “Morality ruins creativity,” “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” or the proposition of “art for art’s sake,” which all seem less as genuine insights into the faculty of human creativity and more as rhetorical shields against difficult questions relating to the nature of truth.

In our own contemporary age, the argument has at least partially mutated, but it has never fully disappeared. Contemporary critics often regard moral themes as oppressive or, more commonly, as aesthetically naïve. The highest forms of literature, we are told, do not teach us anything. Or, in the phrasing of another great therapeutic cliché of our time, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

However, this postulation of what artistic expression is does not say much of anything. This seems particularly true in our literary canons, where the greatest works of literature have done more than just entertain or experiment. Through their prose, they illuminate the moral structure of reality and offer insight into our humanity. For this reason, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Austen, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy have endured the centuries, precisely because they confront the permanent moral and, at times, bitter questions of human existence and our relationship to society. Some of these questions forge the perennial philosophy of our civilization: What is justice? What is courage? What is love? What destroys a soul? What will ultimately redeem one?

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TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS: books; greatbooks; literature; reading

[abigkahuna]

well, the Greeks laid down all the different themes/plots, Man v Man, Man v Nature, etc..and in the end, it is all moral, whether judging wisdom, courage, faith, love, etc... So I really don’t get how one strips moralness from a story, because all stories have a moral—heck that’s the ending right? Otherwise its just and endless continutation of drivel

[MMusson]

Great literature highlights the truth. Sometimes fiction is filled with great truths.

[NorthMountain]

Once upon a time, a Judean itinerant preacher, worker of “signs”, and curer of the ill, told parables that were filled with Great Truths.

[Dr. Sivana]

While Orwell is not quite in the same bracket with Homer and Shakespeare, I really appreciate that despite his own atheistic socialism, he was honest enough to take his stories where they had to go.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

Reminds me of a graduate course on Miguel de Cervantes saavedra.

Although it was at The People’s Republic of San Francisco State, the teacher was one of the few brilliant, common sense professors. Most of the course was, of course, on Don Quijote De La Mancha.

We took apart, discussed every chapter. Main chapter theme, and other themes sub-themes within each chapter.

Love, honor, glory, doubt, fame, and on and on.

One day, a young female skull full of mush stated that she detected some women’s liberation in one of the chapters. The professor took off his glasses, sighed, and then was very professional and kind. He simply stated: “I don’t see it.” He asked for specific passages that led her to the conclusion. She couldn’t quote them.

[posterchild]

I often introduce my children to older movies. The older works tend to be built around timeless truths. More recent content tends toward the fleeting issues of contemporary times.

[equaviator]

"The highest forms of literature, we are told, do not teach us anything."

[Arkady]

The two great themes of art are love and death. Their caricatures are sex and violence. What age are we living in?

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[alternatives?]

If you don’t learn anything from a passage, what was the point in reading it.

[ConservativeDude]

good article, thanks for posting

[HKMk23]

Women’s lib? In Don Quixote? Au contraire!!

A magnificent and hugely moral thread in the story is the transformation of Quixote’s “My Lady,” the wretched and impoverished harlot Aldonza, into his envisioned noblewoman Dulcinea. The elegant woman who comes to his side as he lays on his deathbed proves that the genesis of a better life was there in his unblinking vision of her. Despite rejecting his assertions, Aldonza never escaped the persistence and power of Quixote’s conviction as to the veracity of his vision, and it ultimately drove strength into her soul that empowered her to become all that he ever dreamed she was.

That’s not a woman being liberated FROM the world of men; it’s a woman being liberated BY the uncompromising conviction of a man.
It’s a man casting an inspired vision into the life of a struggling woman, and the woman becoming at last convinced by his unshakeable certainty that the vision is Real enough to for her reach for, and to attain.

Into Aldonza’s world of darkness and pain, The Man of La Mancha stubbornly spoke LIFE, greatness, and beauty; the grand vision of the Lady Dulcinea. And in the end, she comes to his side, living proof that he was right all along.

[A_perfect_lady]

Modern intellectuals reject the moral code in favor of a social code, one which is arbitrary and ever changing. But they like that, because they can influence it rather than be influenced by it.