What’s allegory’s role in literature?

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Allegory in literature uses metaphorical narratives to convey complex ideas, such as in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Path. Literary techniques like simile and metaphor are also used to convey ideas in an entertaining way. Allegories have two levels, literal and figurative, and are used to disguise ideas through symbolism. Dante’s Divine Comedy is an example of an allegory that employs mythical scenes to convey religious ideas.

The function of allegory in literature is to convey a complex idea through a thorough metaphorical narrative. Famous allegories include Dante’s Divine Comedy, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Path. All of these works use allegorical techniques to convey messages other than those literally written on the page. An allegory can be thought of as an extended metaphor.

Literary techniques are often used by fiction or poetry writers to convey an idea in a more entertaining or easily understandable way. Simile, metaphor, and prophetic fallacy are three such methods. A simile uses the word “like” or “like” to relate the action or object being described to something more familiar. A metaphor is very similar, except it doesn’t use a meaningful word like “like”; it simply describes something as if it were something else. For example, an angry person might be described as having “blood boiling,” but his blood does not literally boil.

An allegory in literature is essentially an extended metaphor. The main difference is that allegories usually take the form of entire plot lines, rather than just a description or passage. In Animal Farm, Orwell describes a revolution among animals on a farm to make a point of capitalist democracy in England and the United States and the communist regime in Russia. Orwell did this to put the political content of his book into an easier to digest package, while still maintaining a political point.

Any story that is an allegory in literature can be taken even at face value. This means that Animal Farm could literally be interpreted as a story about animals. The main function of an allegory in literature is to disguise an idea through a clever set of symbolic meanings, so that in the context of the extended metaphor, the idea can be understood more deeply. Allegorical stories or poems may be thought of as having two levels, one literal and one figurative.

A famous allegory in literature is Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which Dante himself travels through hell, purgatory and heaven, guided through the former by another poet, Virgil. Throughout the stories, Dante is indeed retracing his religious life, taking himself from the ‘dark wood’, which is generally thought to represent a place where he has no religion, to heaven, which is spiritual enlightenment and ultimately , Christianity. While this could have been described literally, in terms of autobiography, Dante’s version is more encapsulating because it employs mythical scenes and a larger-than-life story.




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