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Allegory - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Allegory : (noun)
1: a short moral story (often with animal characters) [syn: fable,
parable, apologue]
2: a visible symbol representing an abstract idea [syn: emblem]
3: an expressive style that uses fictional characters and
events to describe some subject by suggestive
resemblances; an extended metaphor
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Allegory : \Al"le*go*ry\, n.; pl. Allegories. [L. allegoria, Gr.
?, description of one thing under the image of another; ?
other _ ? to speak in the assembly, harangue, ? place of
assembly, fr. ? to assemble: cf. F. all['e]gorie.]
1. A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal
subject is described by another subject resembling it in
its properties and circumstances. The real subject is thus
kept out of view, and we are left to collect the
intentions of the writer or speaker by the resemblance of
the secondary to the primary subject.
2. Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an
emblem.
3. (Paint. & Sculpt.) A figure representation which has a
meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object
painted or sculptured.
Syn: Metaphor; fable.
Usage: Allegory, Parable. ``An allegory differs both from
fable and parable, in that the properties of persons
are fictitiously represented as attached to things, to
which they are as it were transferred. . . . A figure
of Peace and Victory crowning some historical
personage is an allegory. ``I am the Vine, ye are the
branches'' [--John xv. 1-6] is a spoken allegory. In
the parable there is no transference of properties.
The parable of the sower [--Matt. xiii. 3-23]
represents all things as according to their proper
nature. In the allegory quoted above the properties of
the vine and the relation of the branches are
transferred to the person of Christ and His apostles
and disciples.'' --C. J. Smith.
Note: An allegory is a prolonged metaphor. Bunyan's
``Pilgrim's Progress'' and Spenser's ``Fa["e]rie
Queene'' are celebrated examples of the allegory.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Allegory : used only in Gal. 4:24, where the apostle refers to the history
of Isaac the free-born, and Ishmael the slave-born, and makes
use of it allegorically.
Every parable is an allegory. Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-4) addresses
David in an allegorical narrative. In the eightieth Psalm there
is a beautiful allegory: "Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt,"
etc. In Eccl. 12:2-6, there is a striking allegorical
description of old age.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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