+ Essay/Term paper: Allegory
Essay, term paper, research paper: Literary Essays
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Allegory
ALLEGORY, pronounced AL uh gawr ee, is a story with more than one meaning. Most
allegories have moral or religious meanings. Famous allegories include the
fables attributed to Aesop, an ancient Greek writer. Aesop's fables seem to
describe the adventures of animals and human beings. But the author actually
wanted to teach his readers something about human nature.
One of Aesop's best-known fables is "The Fox and the Grapes." On its surface,
or its literal level of meaning, the story tells of a fox who wants a bunch of
grapes hanging above his head. The fox tries desperately to reach the grapes
but cannot. He finally gives up, saying that the grapes are probably sour
anyway. The allegorical meaning of this story is that people may pretend the
things they cannot have are not worth having.
Allegories had their greatest popularity during medieval and Renaissance times
in Europe. The Divine Comedy, written by the Italian author Dante Alighieri in
the early 1300's, literally tells of a man's journey to heaven through hell and
purgatory. Allegorically, the poem describes a Christian soul rising from a
state of sin to a state of blessedness. Other allegories include the parables
of Jesus, and The Faerie Queene, written by the English poet Edmund Spenser in
the late 1500's.
Allegories lost popularity in Europe after about 1600, but some, such as
Pilgrim's Progress (1678, 1684) gained recognition in later times. Allegory
also exists in other ways. Many novels include allegorical suggestions of an
additional level of meaning. Examples include Moby-Dick (1851), a whaling
adventure that raises issues of human struggle and fate in a mysterious universe,
and Lord of the Flies (1954), a story about shipwrecked boys that examines the
persistence of evil.
Contributor: Paul Strohm
Related Articles in Information Finder include:
Aesop's Fables Golding, Sir Morality Play
Bunyan, John William Parable
Divine Comedy Melville, Romance
Fable Herman Spenser, Edmund
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