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Literature vocabulary · Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

Allegory

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈælɪɡəri/nounCommon term

In literature, allegory means: A story, poem or picture in which characters and events stand for abstract ideas or real situations, so that it has a second, hidden meaning, often moral or political.

In Turkish: alegori, temsili anlatım

How it is used

Orwell's Animal Farm is a political allegory of the Russian Revolution; Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is a religious allegory. In Turkish, Şeyh Galip's Hüsn ü Aşk is a famous allegorical mesnevi. Adjective: allegorical.

Example sentences

  1. Animal Farm can be read as an allegory of power and corruption.

  2. Each traveler in the allegory represents a different human weakness.

Common collocations

  • political allegory
  • religious allegory
  • an allegory of
  • allegorical reading
  • symbolAn object, person, place or event in a text that stands for a larger idea beyond its literal meaning, such as a journey that represents life.
  • satireWriting that uses humor, irony and exaggeration to criticize or mock the foolishness or wrongdoing of people, institutions or society.
  • personificationA figure of speech that gives human qualities, feelings or actions to animals, objects, places or ideas, as in 'the wind whispered'.
  • metaphorA figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were something else, without using 'like' or 'as', to show a hidden similarity.

More terms: Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

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