Allegory - Literary Terms
Allegory - Literary Terms
An allegory is a story or description in prose or verse with double meaning, a primary or surface meaning; and the secondary or under-the-surface meaning. The secondary or underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social or satiric. In allegory the characters are often personifications of such abstractions as greed, envy, hope, charity, fortitude etc.
Thus, allegory sustains interest on two levels: first, in the characters and actions described by the surface story; second, in the ideas symbolized by them. For example, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is the most famous English allegory. On the surface, it tells the story of a man named Christian who journeys from one city to another, but on a deeper level, the problems he encounters represent obstacles that a good Christian must overcome to live a godly life. Christian encounters such blatantly allegorical figures as Mr. Worldly Wiseman and places such as Vanity Fair and the Slough of Despair. Other well-known allegories include Everyman (a morality play). Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Tennyson's Idylls of the King (chivalric romances), Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (a political satire) Swift's Gulliver's Travels (a social satire). bra
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