Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure is a classic novel by Thomas Hardy. There's also a film adaptation starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. This analysis of the moral of the story is based on the book because the movie ends in a weird spot which changes the theme.

It's about Jude Fawley who wants to be a scholar. He does not come from a rich family and he's a stonemason. This makes his dream a very distant one. He marries the daughter of a local pig farmer and it's from this point that his life seems to turn for the worse. She leaves him and he falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead. The issue of her being his cousin isn't what people had a problem with... it was the fact that both of them had been married before and chose not to marry each other. It's a story about society, ambitions and the crushing weight of expectations. Jude the Obscure is pretty much a miserable story from beginning to end but it's important, beautiful and well written. I thoroughly recommend it for anyone who hasn't read it.

The Moral of the Story:

Religion makes you miserable. [This one is a little subjective and is my interpretation more than a definite message]

No matter how much you want something, the world can still shoot you down.

Love is something worth fighting for.

Conforming to expectations may make things easier but you'll still be miserable.

When you find something good, don't let it go.

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a movie about a London dystopia set in the near future where London has been turned into a totalitarian state as voted in by the people. There are night curfews and ‘undesirable’ people disappear into non existence. It follows the story of Evey, an orphaned young woman who accidently finds herself caught up in the ploys of the terrorist V. V has no specific identity and hides himself behind a Guy Fawkes mask as he tries to do what Guy Fawkes failed to do.
I won’t keep going on about the plot because if you haven’t seen it then you ought to and if you have seen it, you know what I’m talking about anyway.
The moral of this story is a tad more complex than most. There are plenty of themes about how the government should be afraid of its people, not the other way round. And there are a few profound moments of “artists use lies to tell people the truth while politicians use lies to cover the truth up” and the like. The horrible society that we find them in was created through fear. Their fear led them to elect a government that promised to make them safe and it led to their horrible circumstances. It would seem that the moral of the story would be to not live in fear (a life lived in fear is a life half lived etc) but I don’t think that’s the key point.
When Evey was held prisoner she came to the revelation that when she was stripped down mentally and physically and the only thing she had left was her life, she still found herself not giving in to torture because she still had her integrity and the choice to not give her captors information. The experience of torture and accepting she’d rather die than give in freed her from her fear.
Therefore, the moral of the story is: Value your integrity and do not live a life in fear.

Grease

Grease is a well loved musical about an Australian girl at an American high school who's in love with John Travolta (screw character names, I can't be arsed). He doesn't want to be with her in front of his friends because she's completely straight edged.

Moral of the story: If the guy you love if a smoking rev head with a scary chin dimple who doesn't love you for how you are, change everything about yourself, even take up the death sticks and you will live happily ever after in a flying car. Oh joy.

Never Been Kissed

Never Been Kissed is a B-Grade chick flick which is currently on TV. Oh joy. It follows a reporter (Josie) who goes back to highschool undercover to get good stories. She sees it as her chance to finally be the cool kid she never was. She then promptly falls in love with her english teacher. As you do.
The moral of the story:
If you're a boring person you need a makeover to turn you into an interesting one.
If you're completely unsuccessful with people, you need your brother to make you cool.
Guys with knowledge of literature are hot.
Writing about how you've never been kissed in a newspaper is a stupid embarrassing thing to do. (A good thing to remember)
I'm afraid this entry may have been slightly tongue in cheek. Ah well.

The Bible (shock horror) (not to be taken seriously)

The following isn’t necessarily serious. I didn’t actually try to find a defining moral in the Bible. This is really just a rant.
Yes, I am biased and not religious. This is my random selection of some of the rules from the Bible. Note: the Bible is the word of God therefore everything in it is correct.

-Don’t eat the fat on animal eat. If you do, you should be cut off from people.
-Don’t approach women for sex when they are having their menstrual period.
-Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
-Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. [I think that’s literal]
-Do not wear clothing woven of two different kinds of material. [God wants us to only shop at Cotton On clearly.]
-Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
-If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.

Let’s face it. Sure, all my points may be from one particularly nasty chapter of the Old Testament and the New Testament has a completely different feel… but come on. This book is not God’s word specifically. It’s the opinions of the Christians from hundreds of years ago. It is no longer relevant to society.
The Moral: That if you can skip some parts of the Bible then you can skip all parts of the Bible. If you cut your hair and wear clothing of mixed fabrics but use Leviticus as God’s word against homosexuality then you are a knob. Simple as that.

Some Christians are inconsistent.
Picture taken from: http://www.textually.org/tv/archives/images/set3/bible-1.jpg

Pride and Pejudice

Minor Spoilers ahead so if you haven't read/seen Pride and Pejudice, don't read this post.

Formats: Book (1813), Movie (1940), TV series (1980), TV series (1995), Movie (2005).

Summary:
Pride and Prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen. It is set in the 1800s and follows the drama of the Bennet family. Their lives revolve around the goal of having all five Bennet daughters married (preferably to someone rich like Mr. Bingley or Mr. Darcy). Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest girl is clever and witty and is the main character. I won’t spoil the whole plot in my summary in the hope that people will read the book if they haven’t already.

Underlying morals:
It is better to have dignity than to have fun.
Do not judge people on their appearance.

Practise makes Perfect.

If you don't talk to people, (even if you're just shy) people will probably think you're a snob.

Don't marry a Mr. Collins.

The Moral of the Story:
Don’t judge people if you don’t know them well.
First impressions almost always suck.

The Christmas Carol

[Picture URL: http://samuelatgilgal.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/christmas-carol-a.jpg]
Summary: classic tale about Ebeneezer Scrooge and his supernatural experience on christmas eve leading him to the real meaning of christmas.

The moral of the story: Generosity is important, especially at christmas. Blood is thicker than water, love is more important that money. Money cannot buy happiness. The Christmas spirit is in all of us if we care to look.

Extra info: Charles Dickens wrote 'the Christmas Carol' to pay the bills (pretty much). Therefore there's an extra moral: Pressure can lead to a good result.