The fable - the moral
The moral in the fable, the fable's animal.

In the fables we find the moral: why? What does it want to teach us? Let's try to find out (trace-track) this important aspect in the structure of the Fable through the following introduction.

In the fables the animals represent the men with their faults and virtues; the nature, which is the setting of the various events, has a secondary role; the fables' author is not interested in placing the animal in its habitat, but rather in describing its behaviours in order to remind the reader of the rules of living which regulate human society. Each fable must include a moral truth or a teaching of practical wisdom, often clearly expressed in a maxim.
The fable's animal loses sometimes, and more and more frequently as nearer we come to modern times, every psychologically distinctive characterization, in order to become a simple excuse for the introduction of a moral conclusion: the moral aim is undoubtedly predominant.
In the ancient fables, with no critical reading, the message the reader could get is that it is necessary to adapt oneself to the society where one lives, accepting one's own conditions of living. It does not always exist a clear critical outlook of rules commonly accepted as tradition.