Moral Deviations and Anomalous Behaviors in The Adventures of Hajji Baba Ispahan
Subject Areas : شاهنامه
hamid Jafari Gharieh Ali
1
(Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Vali-e-Asar University of Rafsanjan)
Keywords: moral corruption, Haji Baba of Ispahan novel, Anomalous Behaviors,
Abstract :
The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, is the first Persian novel in which the customs of the Iranian people are discussed. The author narrates the story of Haji Baba, who on one hand believes in the moral principles and on the other hand, considers these principles as an obstacle to his progress. In fact, this novel depicts people's social, ethical and cultural behaviors, as well as the political corruption in Qajarite dynasty. While re-reading the novel, this study analyzes the moral deviations and duality in the behaviors and speeches of people that occur in different situations due to internal conflict. The research has been done in a descriptive-analytical manner. The purpose of this article is to show that moral corruption and hypocritical behaviors significantly affect characterization of the protagonists. The results reveal that ethical misconducts are done for gaining personal interests, survival, getting away from prison, and getting rid of evil. In The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, ethics is in the service of mundane affairs and values are relative. Most of these behaviors are basically an indication of moral decline and immersion in corruption. But there is another justification for these behaviors in this novel. Haji Baba's story is similar to picaresque stories, and since satirizing society and people is an important feature of this type of story, therefore, describing the negative aspects and immoral behaviors of the characters is also highlighted in this story. In fact, the author's focus on the narrative aspects, his attempt to make the story more attractive and his deliberate exaggeration in describing the negative traits of the characters can be the major factors in expressing anomalous behaviors.
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