Critics of traditional literary ethics believe that literary works need
to be responsible for the society, should attach importance to the educational
function of literature, and explore the moral value of literature from the
perspective of ethical criticism rather than moral criticism. However, some
scholars now confuse moral criticism with ethical criticism, ignore the ethical
basis, take whether there is moral value as the standard to judge literature, and
emphasize that literature must have a thought-provoking function to criticize
for criticism. However, it is not natural for literature to have the function of
moral education, and the moral value is personal. This paper takes the dramatic
work Desire under the Elms as the text basis to discuss.