Allegory :: essays research papers, informative

AllegoryALLEGORY, pronounced AL uh gawr ee, is a story with more than one meaning. Mostallegories ingest moral or spectral meanings. Famous allegories include thefables attri saveed to Aesop, an ancient Greek writer. Aesops fables seem todescribe the adventures of animals and human beings. But the author actuallywanted to teach his readers something about human nature. unmatchable 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 bunch ofgrapes hanging above his head. The fox tries urgently to reach the grapesbut cannot. He finally gives up, saying that the grapes are probably souranyway. The allegorical 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 Divine Comedy, written by the Italian author Dante Alighieri inthe proto(prenominal) 1300s, literally 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 English poet Edmund Spenser inthe late 1500s.Allegories lost popularity in Europe after about 1600, but some, such asPilgrims Progress (1678, 1684) gained recognition in later times. Allegoryalso exists in other ways. Many novels include allegorical suggestions of an