the.com/allegory
a story wearing a trench coat full of meanings, flashing you a moral every page.
means A story, image, or piece of art in which characters and events stand for deeper ideas, so the surface tale carries a hidden moral or symbolic meaning.
from From Greek 'allēgoria,' meaning 'speaking otherwise' — built from 'allos' (other) and 'agoreuein' (to speak in public, from 'agora,' the marketplace). So an allegory is literally talk that says one thing in the open square while meaning another underneath. It passed through Latin 'allegoria' and into English by way of Old French in the late Middle Ages.
- hidden engine
- every character secretly stands for something bigger
- Plato's cave
- prisoners watching shadows, still taught 2,400 years later
- escape clause
- writers used it to dodge censors and kings
- sneaky teacher
- delivers lessons before you notice you're learning
- Greek roots
- means speaking otherwise, saying one thing meaning another
the pilgrim's progress — john bunyan's 1678 novel where christian journeys to the celestial city, each character and place representing spiritual concepts
plato's cave — socrates describes prisoners chained in a cave watching shadows on a wall, representing the human condition and enlightenment
dante's divine comedy — dante's 14th century epic poem where his journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise represents the soul's spiritual journey