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CHAPTER III A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ALLEGORY
Allegory from Greek: αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to
speak in public is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal Quoted from http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiAllegory. Fictions
with several possible interpretations are not allegories in the true sense. Not every fiction with general application is an allegory.
Allegory according to J. A. Cuddon in Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory 1922:20, is a story in verse or prose with double meaning: a
primary or surface meaning; and secondary meaning or under-the-surface meaning. It is a story, therefore, that can be read, understood, and interpreted at
two levels and in some cases at three or four levels. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions
or symbolic representation. 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.
The etymological meaning of the word is broader than the common use of the word. Though it is similar to other rhetorical comparisons, an allegory is
sustained longer and more fully in its details than a metaphor, and appeals to imagination, while an analogy appeals to reason or logic. The fable or parable is a
short allegory with one definite moral.
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14 Most people think that allegory and parable are same. Both are talked
about ‘the other meaning’ inside ‘the written meaning’. But there is a differentiation between allegory and parable.
The difference between allegory and parable is often not easy to recognize. Both forms of writing employ metaphor in order to get abstract ideas across
through storytelling. Most often, however, parables tend to be much shorter than allegorical tales. A parable is more often a short tale on a particular subject, meant
to teach the reader about a moralistic or religious concept through example. Parable most often has one central point and has one particular truth the
author wants to impart. Every major detail of the story illustrates the theme, but it can have some irrelevant information in it. Often the story itself has nothing to do
with the lesson it’s trying to get across, but usually the point of the parable is made clear in the end through example or application.
A parable can be described as a short allegory with one theme or lesson to be taught. An allegory can have more than one central point or theme and can
teach a number of lessons within the story. The details within the story can wander off to teach another lesson of represent another idea or concept, but not
necessarily. The events do not all necessarily have to do with the themes brought up. The meaning within the allegory is often woven into the story itself and
becomes part of the tale and the examples that illustrate the points or themes can be found within the story. Parables clearly divide themselves between the story
part and the lesson to be taught. Allegory blends the two into the storyline. Allegory tends to be characterized by being much longer than parable, with its
themes fully fleshed out.
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15 In essence, parables simply compare one event or action or theme to
another while allegory uses characters or events to illustrate the topic or theme. It transfers the essence of one concept or idea into another. Parable merely says to
the reader, ‘This is just like this ’
, while allegory puts forth a person or event and says, ‘This is this’.
Symbol and allegory are different. A symbol is a representation. It is something that stands for or suggests something else. Consider the cherubim and
the flaming sword and the details of the description of heaven. The rainbow is a token of Gods covenant with Noah even as circumcision represented Gods
covenant with Abraham. The cross is a symbol of Christs atonement and baptism
is symbolic of our death and resurrection with Christ. There are many others. Simply we can say that allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas
to get a point across, while symbol is a representation of an idea or concept that can have a different meaning throughout a literary work.
Northrop Frye discussed what he termed a continuum of allegory, ranging from what he termed the naive allegory of The Faerie Queene, to the
more private allegories of modern paradox literature. In this perspective, the characters in a naive allegory are not fully three-dimensional, for each aspect of
their individual personalities and the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction; the allegory has been selected first, and the details
merely flesh it out. Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any
rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as facts of surface appearances. Thus, the bull Unam Sanctam 1302 presents themes of the unity of
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16 Christendom with the pope as its head in which the allegorical details of the
metaphors are adduced as actual facts which take the place of a logical demonstration, yet employing the vocabulary of logic: Therefore of this one and
only Church there is one body and one head—not two heads as if it were a monster... If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the
care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ.
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CHAPTER IV THE ANALYSIS OF ALLEGORY IN C. S LEWIS’S THE LION, THE