As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor
in which a character, place or event is used
to deliver a broader message about real-world
issues and occurrences.
Allegory (in the sense of the practice and
use of allegorical devices and works) has
occurred widely throughout history in all
forms of art, largely because it can readily
illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts
in ways that are comprehensible or striking
to its viewers, readers, or listeners.
Writers or speakers typically use allegories
as literary devices or as rhetorical devices
that convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings
through symbolic figures, actions, imagery,
or events, which together create the moral,
spiritual, or political meaning the author
wishes to convey.
== Etymology ==
First attested in English in 1382, the word
allegory comes from Latin allegoria, the latinisation
of the Greek ἀλληγορία (allegoría),
"veiled language, figurative," which in turn
comes from both ἄλλος (allos), "another,
different" and ἀγορεύω (agoreuo),
"to harangue, to speak in the assembly" which
originate from ἀγορά (agora), "assembly".
== Types ==
Northrop Frye discussed what he termed a "continuum
of allegory", a spectrum that ranges from
what he termed the "naive allegory" of The
Faerie Queene, to the more private allegories
of modern paradox literature.
In this perspective, the characters in a "naive"
allegory are not fully three-dimensional,
for each aspect of their individual personalities
and the events that befall them embodies some
moral quality or other abstraction; the allegory
has been selected first, and the details merely
flesh it out.
Many ancient religions are based on astrological
allegories, that is, allegories of the movement
of the sun and the moon as seen from the Earth.
== Classical allegory ==
The origins of Allegory can be traced at least
back to Homer in his "quasi-allegorical" use
of personifications of, e.g., Terror (Deimos)
and Fear (Phobos) at Il. 115 f.
The title of "first allegorist," however,
is usually awarded to whoever was the earliest
to put forth allegorical interpretations of
Homer.
This approach leads to two possible answers:
Theagenes of Rhegium (whom Porphyry calls
the "first allegorist," Porph.
Quaest.
Hom. 1.240.14-241.12 Schrad.) or Pherecydes
of Syros, both of whom are presumed to be
active in the 6th century B.C.E., though Pherecydes
is earlier and as he is often presumed to
be the first writer of prose.
The debate is complex, since it demands we
observe the distinction between two often
conflated uses of the Greek verb "allēgoreīn,"
which can mean both "to speak allegorically"
and "to interpret allegorically."
In the case of "interpreting allegorically,"
Theagenes appears to be our earliest example.
Presumably in response to proto-philosophical
moral critiques of Homer (e.g. Xenophanes
fr. 11 Diels-Kranz ), Theagenes proposed symbolic
interpretations whereby the Gods of the Iliad
actually stood for physical elements.
So, Hephestus represents Fire, for instance
(for which see fr.
A2 in Diels-Kranz ). Some scholars, however,
argue that Pherecydes cosmogonic writings
anticipated Theagenes allegorical work, illustrated
especially by his early placement of Time
(Chronos) in his genealogy of the gods, which
is thought to be a reinterpretation of the
titan Kronos, from more traditional genealogies.
In classical literature two of the best-known
allegories are the Cave in Plato's Republic
(Book VII) and the story of the stomach and
its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa
(Livy ii. 32).
Among the best-known examples of allegory,
Plato's Allegory of the Cave, forms a part
of his larger work The Republic.
In this allegory, Plato describes a group
of people who have lived chained in a cave
all of their lives, facing a blank wall (514a–b).
The people watch shadows projected on the
wall by things passing in front of a fire
behind them and begin to ascribe forms to
these shadows, using language to identify
their world (514c–515a).
According to the allegory, the shadows are
as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality,
until one of them finds his way into the outside
world where he sees the actual objects that
produced the shadows.
He tries to tell the people in the cave of
his discovery, but they do not believe him
and vehemently resist his efforts to free
them so they can see for themselves (516e–518a).
This allegory is, on a basic level, about
a philosopher who upon finding greater knowledge
outside the cave of human understanding, seeks
to share it as is his duty, and the foolishness
of those who would ignore him because they
think themselves educated enough.In Late Antiquity
Martianus Capella organized all the information
a fifth-century upper-class male needed to
know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury
and Philologia, with the seven liberal arts
the young man needed to know as guests.
== Biblical allegory ==
Other early allegories are found in the Hebrew
Bible, such as the extended metaphor in Psalm
80 of the Vine and its impressive spread and
growth, representing Israel's conquest and
peopling of the Promised Land.
Also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein
the capture of that same vine by the mighty
Eagle represents Israel's exile to Babylon.Allegorical
interpretation of the Bible was a common early
Christian practice and continues.
For example, the recently re-discovered IVth
Commentary on the Gospels by Fortunatianus
of Aquileia has a comment by its English translator:
The principal characteristic of Fortunatianus’
exegesis is a figurative approach, relying
on a set of concepts associated with key terms
in order to create an allegorical decoding
of the text.
(pXIX)
== Medieval allegory ==
Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality
of a story, while infusing it with a spiritual
context.
Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having
a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional
uses.
The allegory was as true as the facts of surface
appearances.
Thus, the Papal Bull Unam Sanctam (1302) presents
themes of the unity of Christendom with the
pope as its head in which the allegorical
details of the metaphors are adduced as facts
on which is based a demonstration with the
vocabulary of logic: "Therefore of this one
and only Church there is one body and one
head—not two heads as if it were a monster...
If, then, the Greeks or others say that they
were not committed to the care of Peter and
his successors, they necessarily confess that
they are not of the sheep of Christ."
This text also demonstrates the frequent use
of allegory in religious texts during the
Mediaeval Period, following the tradition
and example of the Bible.
In the late 15th century, the enigmatic Hypnerotomachia,
with its elaborate woodcut illustrations,
shows the influence of themed pageants and
masques on contemporary allegorical representation,
as humanist dialectic conveyed them.
The denial of medieval allegory as found in
the 12th-century works of Hugh of St Victor
and Edward Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed
Beastes (London, 1607, 1653) and its replacement
in the study of nature with methods of categorisation
and mathematics by such figures as naturalist
John Ray and the astronomer Galileo is thought
to mark the beginnings of early modern science.
== Modern allegory ==
Since meaningful stories are nearly always
applicable to larger issues, allegories may
be read into many stories which the author
may not have recognised.
This is allegoresis, or the act of reading
a story as an allegory.
Examples of allegory in popular culture that
may or may not have been intended include
the works of Bertolt Brecht, and even some
works of science fiction and fantasy, such
as The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
and A Kingdom Far and Clear: The Complete
Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin.
The story of the apple falling onto Isaac
Newton's head is another famous allegory.
It simplified the idea of gravity by depicting
a simple way it was supposedly discovered.
It also made the scientific revelation well
known by condensing the theory into a short
tale.
== Poetry and fiction ==
It is important to note that while allegoresis
may make discovery of allegory in any work,
not every resonant work of modern fiction
is allegorical, and some are clearly not intended
to be viewed this way.
According to Henry Littlefield's 1964 article,
L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
may be readily understood as a plot-driven
fantasy narrative in an extended fable with
talking animals and broadly sketched characters,
intended to discuss the politics of the time.
Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that
"A fairy tale is not an allegory."J.R.R.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is another
example of a well-known work mistakenly perceived
as allegorical, as the author himself once
stated, "...I cordially dislike allegory in
all its manifestations, and always have done
so since I grew old and wary enough to detect
its presence.
I much prefer history – true or feigned–
with its varied applicability to the thought
and experience of readers.
I think that many confuse applicability with
allegory, but the one resides in the freedom
of the reader, and the other in the purposed
domination of the author."Tolkien specifically
resented the suggestion that the book's One
Ring, which gives overwhelming power to those
possessing it, was intended as an allegory
of nuclear weapons.
He noted that, had that been his intention,
the book would not have ended with the Ring
being destroyed but rather with an arms race
in which various powers would try to obtain
such a Ring for themselves.
Then Tolkien went on to outline an alternative
plot for "Lord of The Rings", as it would
have been written had such an allegory been
intended, and which would have made the book
into a dystopia.
While all this does not mean Tolkien's works
may not be treated as having allegorical themes,
especially when reinterpreted through postmodern
sensibilities, it at least suggests that none
were conscious in his writings.
This further reinforces the idea of forced
allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter
of interpretation and only sometimes of original
artistic intention.
Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry
has two meanings – a literal meaning and
a symbolic meaning.
Some unique specimens of allegory can be found
in the following works:
Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene: The
several knights in the poem actually stand
for several virtues.
William Shakespeare – The Tempest: a fight
between good and evil on a deserted island
John Bunyan – The Pilgrim's Progress: The
journey of the protagonists Christian and
Evangelist symbolises the ascension of the
soul from earth to Heaven.
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown:
The Devil's Staff symbolises defiance of God.
The characters' names, such as Goodman and
Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the
conclusion of the story.
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter:
The scarlet letter symbolises many things.
The characters, while developed with interiority,
are allegorical in that they represent ways
of seeing the world.
Symbolism is also prominent.
George Orwell – Animal Farm: The pigs stand
for political figures of the Russian Revolution.
László Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of
Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies:
It uses a circus to describe an occupying
dysfunctional government.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red
Death: The story can be read as an allegory
for humans' inability to escape death.
Arthur Miller – The Crucible: The Salem
witch trials are thought to be an allegory
for McCarthyism and the blacklisting of Communists
in the United States of America.
=== Art ===
Some elaborate and successful specimens of
allegory are to be found in the following
works, arranged in approximate chronological
order:
Ambrogio Lorenzetti – Allegoria del Buono
e Cattivo Governo e loro Effetti in Città
e Campagna (c. 1338–1339)
Sandro Botticelli – Primavera (c. 1482)
Albrecht Dürer – Melencolia I (1514)
Bronzino – Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time
(c. 1545)
The English School's – "Allegory of Queen
Elizabeth" (c. 1610)
Artemisia Gentileschi – Allegory of Inclination
(c. 1620), An Allegory of Peace and the Arts
under the English Crown (1638); Self-Portrait
as the Allegory of Painting (c. 1638–39)
The Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St
John the Baptist by Bartholomeus Strobel is
also an allegory of Europe in the time of
the Thirty Years War, with portraits of many
leading political and military figures.
Jan Vermeer – Allegory of Painting (c. 1666)
Jean-Léon Gérôme – Truth Coming Out of
Her Well (1896)
Marcel Duchamp – The Bride Stripped Bare
by Her Bachelors, Even (1912–1923)
Graydon Parrish – The Cycle of Terror and
Tragedy (2006)
Many statues of Lady Justice: "Such visual
representations have raised the question why
so many allegories in the history of art,
pertaining occupations once reserved for men
only, are of female sex."
Damien Hirst – Verity (2012)
== Gallery ==
Allegorical Paintings of the 16th and 17th
century
== See also ==
Allegorical interpretation of the Bible
Allegorical interpretations of Plato
Allegory in the Middle Ages
Allegory in Renaissance literature
Allegorical sculpture
Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain
Diwan (poetry)
Freemasonry ("a system of morality veiled
in allegory and illustrated by symbols.")
Parable
Semiotics
Theagenes of Rhegium
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Frye, Northrop (1957) Anatomy of Criticism.
Fletcher, Angus (1964) Allegory: The Theory
of a Symbolic Mode.
Foucault, Michel (1966) The Order of Things.
Jain, Champat Rai (1919).
The Key Of Knowledge.
Internet Archive (Second ed.).
Allahabad: The Central Jaina Publishing House.
Retrieved 17 November 2015.
== External links ==
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Allegory
in Literary history
Electronic Antiquity, Richard Levis, "Allegory
and the Eclogues" Roman definitions of allegoria
and interpreting Vergil's Eclogues.
