Allegory:
Allegory is a literary device in which characters or events in a literary, visual, or musical art form represent or symbolize ideas and concepts. Allegory has been used widely throughout the histories of all forms of art; a major reason for this is its immense power to illustrate complex ideas and concepts in ways that are easily digestible and tangible to its viewers, readers, or listeners. An allegory conveys its hidden message through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, and/or events. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric; a rhetorical allegory is a demonstrative form of representation conveying meaning other than the words that are spoken.
An allegorical story is a narrative having a second meaning beneath the surface one. An allegorical poem has two meanings - a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Some unique specimens of allegory in poetry can be found in the following works :
* Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene: The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues.
* John Bunyan – The Pilgrim's Progress: The journey of the protagonists Christian and Evangelist symbolises the ascension of the soul from earth to Heaven.
* Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown: The Devil's Staff symbolises defiance of God. The characters' names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story.
* Tapan Pradhan – "Two Women" and "Wind in the Afternoon": Objects of sexual fantasy symbolically stand for psychological dilemma and spiritual aspiration.
* George Orwell – Animal Farm: The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution.
* Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red Death: The story can be read as an allegory how no one can evade death.
* Bernard Malamud - The Jew Bird