What is an allegory?

Question

My teacher told me that "A Christmas Carol" is full of allegories. I've looked 'allegory' up in the dictionary, but I can't understand what it means. Can someone help?

Answer 1

SkateKad4 is correct. The Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future are presented as actual persons, who do and say certain things that act out their natures. They are allegorical figures. Similarly, the Spirit of Christmas Past lifts his robe to show a crouching boy and girl. He says, "This boy is Ignorance; the girl is Want." So they are allegorical figures, concepts that take on human form for the story.

Answer 2

It is a parallel meaning between two stories or themes. In many cases, the underlying parallel meaning is biblical, but not always. For example, East of Eden is an allegory of the Bible's Cain and Able (I may have spelled that wrong, I am not exactly Bible literate). Sometimes framed poems in stories are allegories of the actual story or thematic structure. In short, allegory is a literary structure that parallels another story, poem, historical event, etc. I haven't read "A Christmas Carol" in a really long time, so I don't know what allegories are in it, but I hope I've helped with defining allegory.

Answer 3

An allegory is sometimes a story( or any other text) that employs names that have a second meaning behind them usually. For instance, Faith in "Young Goodman Brown" is part of an allegory. Her name represents something else other than herself. Goodman Brown more or less represents man I like to think because of the common name. It would be just like saying Young Goodman Smith.Get IT? But the story would have to be a little bit more complex than that to be deemed an allegory. It would name a wide variety of characters with names such as Christian, Faith, Joy, etc.

Answer 4

An allegory (from Greek αλλος, , "other", and αγορευειν, agoreuein, "to speak in public") is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal.

Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting, sculpture or some other form of mimetic, or representative art.

Answer 5

Allegory is a litterary device that uses a pretense to get across a point. An easy example is: The Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan, the lion, is a allegory for Christ.

Answer 6

An allegory is a story which has a hidden meaning. The main story is that of Ebenezer Scroodge, a mean skinflint who begrudges his clerk his one day's holiday a year, who has a series of ghostly encounters and who changes his whole attitude and way of life overnight. Underneath, it is the story of a Christian soul which becomes aware of its sinful nature and its need of redemption and which finds salvation. You can find details of the various allegories in "The Christmas Carol" on this link: http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/carol/fullsumm.html

Answer 7

If you don't understand this definition and example, you need to talk to somebody about the use of inference to communicate ideas more effectively.

Allegory: A story that has a deeper or more general meaning in addition to its surface meaning. Allegories are composed of several symbols or metaphors. For example, in The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, the character named Christian struggles to escape from a bog or swamp. The story of his difficulty is a symbol of the difficulty of leading a good life in the “bog” of this world. The “bog” is a metaphor or symbol of life's hardships and distractions. Similarly, when Christian loses a heavy pack that he has been carrying on his back, this symbolizes his freedom from the weight of sin that he has been carrying.

Answer 8

an allegory is like a representation- like a symbol that means something different than what is being said but u can relate it... hope it helps

Answer 9

it is a myth or fable, it means it is not real or true

Answer 10

it's a noun