Analysis of the fictional characters’ Behavior in Layla and Majnun poem by Nizami Ganjavi Based on Lawrence Kohlberg theory of stages of moral development from the sociological perspective of literature .

A Story especially in didactic genre, in short and brief format, away from the extra Mise-en-scène and taken from the text of life, is the best component for introducing the temperament of the literary work creator and the most effective way to prescribe moral norms .                             . In the speech and behavior of the heroes of his stories, Nizami has depicted the nature and identity of an ideal human being. This feature of Nizami's works has caused the moral behavior of fictional characters to be analyzed based on one of the selected and elite contemporary moral theories of the West and the degree of conformity with its stages and levels to be evaluated. Considering the innate nature of human beings, it seems that moral issues have some common elements among human cultures and societies. But sometimes, the multiplicity of moral theories causes the moral codes to have different addresses among different nations. Research in ethical theories based on one of the richest Iranian and Islamic cultural heritages can confirm the superiority of one of these two assumptions. In this article, the moral behavior of the system people is analyzed for the first time in the framework of a scientific theory. The main goal of this research is to apply Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development in the behavior of allegorical characters of Layla and Majnun poem and to answer the question of whether the moral degrees of the people in the story can be interpreted and analyzed with the theory of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. As a result of this research, nine ethical codes have been identified. that each of these codes includes several actions and implies a specific motivation and reasoning, and gives the highest status of Kohlberg's moral development to the morals of the characters in the story. This research has been compiled by the method of content analysis and description with reference to library sources based on the study of publications and books, and despite the researchers' attention to ethical issues in Layla and Majnun r, it is a completely new research and has no objective background  .