Allegory :: essays research papers, informative

AllegoryALLEGORY, pronounced AL uh gawr ee, is a story with more than one inwardness. Mostallegories have righteous or religious meanings. Famous allegories include thefables attributed to Aesop, an ancient Greek writer. Aesops fables face todescribe the adventures of animals and human beings. But the author actuallywanted to get wind his readers something roughly human nature.One of Aesops best-known fables is "The Fox and the Grapes." On its surface,or its literal level of meaning, the story tells of a fox who wants a chunk ofgrapes hanging above his head. The fox tries desperately to reach the grapesbut cannot. He finally gives up, saying that the grapes are probably souranyway. The allegoric meaning of this story is that people may pretend thethings they cannot have are not worth having.Allegories had their greatest popularity during medieval and Renaissance timesin Europe. The nobleman Comedy, written by the Italian author Dante Alighieri inthe early 1300s, lite rally tells of a mans journey to heaven through hell andpurgatory. Allegorically, the poem describes a Christian soul rising from astate of sin to a state of blessedness. Other allegories include the parablesof Jesus, and The Faerie Queene, written by the side of meat poet Edmund Spenser inthe late 1500s.Allegories lost popularity in Europe after about 1600, but some, such asPilgrims Progress (1678, 1684) gained recognition in ulterior times. Allegoryalso exists in other ways. Many novels include allegorical suggestions of an