What is the allegory? Examples of use in the literature

What is the allegory and why is it used by writers? How many different artistic means exist, with which the author manages to embellish his work, make it brighter and more interesting? Everyone has heard about hyperbole, metaphor, comparison, epithet and other artistic means of expressiveness.

Parables: Definition

According to the Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary, allegory is a means of expressiveness with a hidden meaning. In strict meaning, it is the same as allegory, when one phenomenon is represented by another phenomenon, object or being.

But what is parable in a broad sense? We can say that this is a statement that does not lie on the surface. And to understand the author, you need to think a little. Perhaps, it is worth several times to read and then you will be able to figure out what this artistic medium was used for.

Types of allegories

As mentioned earlier, allegory is an allegory. Or, on the contrary, the allegory is a subset of this means of expressiveness. Most often this kind is used to depict some ideas in the form of some image in mythology and fairy tales. For example, depicting a lion, the author means strength and dexterity, depicting a hare - shows cowardice. Thus, the images of animals through allegory indicate a particular trait that is characteristic of man.

What is the allegory in the form of impersonation? This is the endowment of an inanimate being or an object with human qualities. Here you can use both nouns and verbs. For example, in fairy tales and poems one can often find such phrases and words as "the sun began to play", "the sorceress-winter" and "the queen-night" came.

Parables: examples from literature

In works often use various techniques, including allegory. It can be either individual words or phrases, and whole works in the form of fables, fairy tales and even stories. Such artistic means can be found in the works of V.M. Garshina, the novels of Anatole France or Karel Capek.

In the fables IA. Krylov are present in abundance of allegory. In these works, the author often compares a person to an animal. Saltykov-Shchedrin also resorted to this expressive means and used it in his tales.

So what is the allegory and why is it so often used by poets and writers? This artistic means is considered one of the most important in literary criticism. The allegory is used by the authors to reveal the abstract notion of good and evil, mind and stupidity, generosity and greed.