Allegory

Allegory is a figurative mode of representation, in which a subject of a higher spiritual order is described in terms of that of a lower which resembles it in properties and circumstances. The principal subject being so kept out of view that we are left to construe the drift of it from the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject.

In simple terns, an allegory is a narrative which signifies a meaning other than the things that are narrated. Thus there are always two or more set of meanings of an allegorical narrative. In such a narrative the agents, action and the setting are contrived not only to make sense in themselves but also to signify a second correlated order of persons, things, concepts or events.

There are two major kinds of allegory:

1. Allegory of ideas

2. Allegory of events

In allegory of ideas the characters represent abstract concepts and the plot serves to communicate a doctrine. The concepts like virtues, vices, state of mind etc are personified in a typical allegory of ideas.

For example, Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress allegorizes the doctrine of Christian salvation. Christian, having warned by Evangelist, flees the City of Destruction and makes his way to the Celestial City, and he encounter characters as Faithful, Hopeful, and the Giant Despair en route. He passes through places like the Slough of Despond, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Vanity Fair.

In allegory of events, characters represent historical or political characters and the plot serves to communicate about historical or political events.

For example, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel (1681) Kind David represents Charles II and Absalom represents his son the Duke of Monmouth. Its biblical plot represents a political crisis in contemporary England.

Allegory may be employed in any literary form and may be sustained either throughout a work, as in Absalom and Achitophel and Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), or exist merely as an episode in a nonallegorical work, as in Paradise Lost (Book II) when Satan encounters his daughter Sin as well as Death, the son born of their incestuous relationship.

Nearby pages
Allegretto, Allegri, Allegro, Allele, Allelic