Allegory: definition and examples
An allegory is a story in which characters, places and events stand for ideas, so the whole narrative carries a second, often moral or political, meaning.
An allegory works on two levels at once. On the surface, a pilgrim walks a road; underneath, a soul looks for salvation. Every major element maps onto an idea. Parables are a short kind of allegory. Book-length examples include The Pilgrim's Progress and Animal Farm.
Two stories in one
In a symbolic novel, a few objects carry extra meaning. In an allegory, the mapping runs through the whole book. Christian in The Pilgrim's Progress is not a man with a past; he is every believer. His burden is sin.
That is why allegorical characters are often flat. They exist to embody an idea, which is also the form's biggest risk for a novelist: a story that exists only to deliver its message.
Examples
"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den"
The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
The opening frames the whole book as a dream. Every place Christian reaches, from the Slough of Despond onward, names a spiritual state.
"being a continued Allegorie, or darke conceit"
"Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh," The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser
Spenser tells his reader outright that the poem is allegory, with each knight embodying a virtue.
"Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark,"
Inferno, Canto I, Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The dark forest is a real place and a spiritual state at the same time. That doubleness is allegory in a single image.
"there have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low heels of their shoes"
Gulliver's Travels, Part I, Chapter IV, Jonathan Swift
Swift maps English party politics onto shoe heels, making the quarrel look as petty as he thought it was.
Allegory without the lecture
Make the surface story work by itself. If a reader who never notices the second layer still wants to know what happens next, the allegory has room to breathe. If the plot only exists to deliver the meaning, readers feel preached at.
Most modern novels use allegorical elements rather than a full one-to-one mapping. If you do map characters to ideas, record the mapping in [Story DNA](/features/story-dna) so each figure stays true to what it stands for from the first chapter to the last.
Common mistakes
Calling any symbolic story an allegory
The Scarlet Letter is full of symbols, but its characters are psychologically real. That makes it symbolic, not allegorical.
Letting the message flatten the plot
When every scene exists to make a point, the story stops being a story. Give characters wants of their own.
Common questions
- What is the difference between allegory and symbolism?
- Symbolism gives extra meaning to particular objects or images. Allegory extends that meaning across the whole story, so characters and events line up with ideas throughout. All allegories use symbols; most symbolic stories are not allegories.
- Is Animal Farm an allegory?
- Yes. Orwell's farm maps onto the Russian Revolution, with the animals standing for real figures and groups. It is usually called a political allegory. Because its characters are animals, it also works as a fable. ---
Related terms
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