Texas A&M University

Clarifying the Concept of the Allegory

Rachel Olson

UIN: 119005589

rachel_e_olson@tamu.edu

Professor Kallendorf

ENGL 308.900

Fall 2014

The concept of the allegory has been used all throughout the history of literary

criticism. From the ancients to the modern day, writers have used allegory to express

inexpressible concepts. Loosely defined, an allegory is an extended metaphor in which a

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story takes on two meanings, the literal one that is being told, as well as a hidden

meaning that is beneath the surface. Throughout time, the concept of the allegory has

shifted from focusing on a writer’s intent to focusing on the reader’s perception. While in

the early days of the ancient, medieval, and renaissance thinkers, the allegory was praised

for its ability to display spiritual concepts in an understandable way, Neo-classical and

Romantic authors showed great skepticism toward an allegory’s value as a piece of

literature, claiming that meaning was lost through its overuse. After a significant amount

of praise and criticism, modern authors have opted to distinguish allegory from other

similar concepts such as symbols and fables. One of the most well-known authors of the

twentieth century, C.S. Lewis, has been praised for his popular theological and Christian

fiction works. While C.S. Lewis has often been referred to as a modern Christian

allegorist, under a more precise definition of the term, this is not necessarily the case,

although his work holds a similar resemblance. The Chronicles of Narnia series has been

mislabeled as an allegory, when, under closer scrutiny, it does not fulfill the necessary

requirements.

When discussing the development of the concept of the allegory, in an attempt to

clarify what constitutes as an allegory and what does not, it is important to go back to the

beginning and look at how it began. One of the greatest examples of classical allegory is

found in Plato’s Republic, where he uses an allegory to illustrate the role the philosopher

plays in the world. Plato, and other ancient classical philosophers, believed the role of the

allegory was to bring about a deep “contemplation” that would lead the reader to see

“that which is the brightest in the material and visible world” by the “study and pursuit of

the arts” (Plato, VII). In other words, his goal was to use the allegory to highlight abstract
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ideas that he considers extremely valuable, by telling a story that stretches the reader’s

mind in a more complex way. He uses the story of a cave to explain a phenomenon that

cannot be easily explained otherwise.

In the allegory of the cave, men are chained to a wall within a cave and there is a

fire behind them casting shadows on the wall in front of them. The only reality the men

have seen is a shadow of what is truly real. They understand the shadows to be reality,

without ever knowing what causes them. One of the men becomes freed from his chains

and gets to experience real life, and he goes to express his findings to his fellow men still

in chains; they have no interest in reality and are content with the shadows they have

become accustomed to. Not only does Plato use this to explain how the role of the

philosopher is to enlighten fellow man, but he also uses it explain other concepts. The

story is “translatable at every point into ideas” (Ransom 957). For example, Plato also

uses this story to highlight the World of Forms in which all perfect forms are found. Life

is but a reflection or shadow of what truly is, and yet men cannot see the ideal forms. He

goes on to discuss what type of implications could exist with this allegory, such as a

prisoners’ perception of truth and harsh reaction to seeing light for the first time. The

allegory is expansive in explaining the point Plato wished to make. And the allegory is

best understood when it is being interpreted throughout the reading, and not just for the

sake of an end “moral.” While the story of the cave was not significant in and of itself, it

led readers to a higher state of thinking that revealed truth about life. Classical

philosophers believed that allegory existed to train the mind to think at a higher, more

complex level. Philosophers served as a tool to aid people in understanding.

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During the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, “allegory was reputed the

truest form of artistic expression,” especially in terms of encouraging religious virtue

(Teskey). Chief among allegorical medieval authors, Dante Alighieri, known for his

Divine Comedy, stated that biblical truth was “disguised under a cloak” within the

allegory, which is “a truth hidden under a beautiful fiction” (Alighieri 154). In medieval

allegorical works, “the entire work of art is presented as secondary with respect to its

meaning, eliciting interpretation throughout”, meaning that the actual story of what is

being told could potentially be “incoherent” and “densely symbolic” (Teskey), requiring

the reader to be conscious of what is being represented in order for the narrative to make

sense. Unlike the ancient definition of the allegory, which required a previously

enlightened philosopher to inform readers of the intended meaning, medieval authors

gave clues throughout their work to help readers find the meaning on their own.

However, this does not mean that the reader had a right to define what the meaning was

on his own terms; the author had a particular message in mind that he wished to convey.

In order to recognize a work as an allegory, the author would provide “personified

abstractions,” in which a character would represent a general immaterial concept, such as

the giant “Despair” in John Bunyan’s work Pilgrim’s Progress. The character is given a

name that allows readers to associate the concept of despair to the actions of the character

“Despair” in the novel. The author would also use “traditional symbols,” such as the

Anchor of Hope, “significant topography,” such as the Hill of Difficulty, and “elaborately

semiotic architectural structures,” such as the Castle of Perseverance (Teskey). These

clues make what is being alluded to throughout the allegory very obvious. The clues the

author leaves puts the reader in the proper frame of reference to interpret the scenes.
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When the character “Christian” reaches the “Hill of Difficulty,” it is obviously symbolic

of the struggle that all Christians face as they journey through difficult times in life. Saint

Thomas Aquinas believed that it was helpful to man to “put forward divine and spiritual

truths by means of comparisons with material things” (Aquinas 150). Bringing a

supernatural concept into a natural frame of reference was considered a helpful thing,

“because all our knowledge originates from sense” (Aquinas 150). This is the reason

Aquinas claims that the Bible itself uses parables and imagery to convey spiritual truth to

man. For example, Jesus repeatedly uses parables, such as the parable of the lost sheep

described in Luke 15 to teach lessons, in order to show the value God places on those

who are “lost” or those who don’t know God’s truth. While allegories “are not literal

descriptions of divine truths,” they serve to show that “things which signify Christ, are

signs of what we ought to do” (Aquinas 151). That is, an allegory that represents Christ

gives readers insight into the proper way of behaving, in a way that is easier to

understand than some direct scripture. It is also important to note that not everyone had

access to scripture during the medieval period, and stories were a great way for biblical

messages to be passed on to a greater number of people.

For this reason, allegory became a very popular form of writing, even so much so

that works that were not intended to be viewed as an allegory were “allegorized.” The

overuse of allegory led to its application “to works of literature and art that are imagined

to mean something other than what they say, even when there is no indication in the work

of this alternative meaning” (Teskey). For example, during the Middle Ages, many of the

Greek works of art were thrown out because they were considered to be pagan and

immoral. However, some works survived destruction due to an attempt to “allegorize”

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Greek culture and turn things into a Christian message. For example, Homer’s The

Odyssey became known as an allegory of “the journey of the soul through the world”

(Teskey). Characters such as The Iliad’s Achilles became allegorical representations of

Strength. While immorality still existed in the works, the meaning of the scenes was

twisted into a spiritual context. However, some believed that allegorizing works that were

not intended to be allegorized diluted the original plotline. For this reason, Romantics

were particularly critical of the allegory’s place in literature.

The Romantics were very clear in making specific distinguishing remarks

regarding allegory. They did not want their work to be interpreted allegorically, and they

believed that too many works were being falsely labeled. In William Blake’s A Vision of

the Last Judgment, he attacks the overuse of allegories and fables by calling them “a

totally distinct and inferior kind of poetry,” stating that “vision or imagination is a

representation of what eternally exists, really and unchangeably” (Blake 458). He said

that vision and imagination were spurred on by “imagination,” but that allegory and

fables were only remnants of “memory” (Blake 458), meaning that allegory only played

upon the message of previous works, adding nothing new to the work. Allegories and

fables merely told the same story that has been told repeatedly in various ways. Samuel

Coleridge also made sure to distinguish allegory from symbols when he said “an allegory

is but a translation of abstract notions into a picture-language which is itself nothing but

an abstraction from objects of sense” (Coleridge 519). This is quite unlike the earlier

statements by Thomas Aquinas, who praised allegory for its ability to make sense of

abstract ideas. The Romantics found that the overuse of allegory led to too much

abstraction of the ideas and the literary quality was lost. The allegory was thought to be
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“a relatively incoherent narrative that [demanded] interpretation throughout in order to

make it cohere” (Teskey). This criticism is accurate regarding the manner in which

medieval authors intended to write their allegories, but the appreciation for the art was

lost. While ancient and medieval authors intended the use of allegory to assist readers in

their understanding of complicated ideas, the Romantics believed that the concept was so

distorted that the literary work suffered and the intended allegory was nothing but

repetitive confusion. Romantics had a much stronger desire for new works of literature

that highlighted the use of imagination to create new ideas rather than recreate old ones.

Moving into modern times, authors tended to avoid labeling themselves as

allegorical writers because the connotation of the term was less than desirable. From

heavy praise, to overuse, to disdain, allegory was looked at as a naïve and inferior form

of work. However, Northrop Frye points that “all commentary is allegorical

interpretation, an attaching of ideas to the structure of poetic imagery” (Frye 1147),

meaning that any attempt to interpret a piece of literature to find a deeper meaning is

considered an allegorical interpretation. If a poem refers to chains or shackles, a reader

might infer that the author is not writing about literal chains or shackles, but the concept

of bondage, captivity, or the restriction of freedom. However, Frye admits that “the term

allegory is too loosely employed for a great variety of literary phenomena” (Frye 1147).

So, in order to create a distinction, he offers that an allegory is when “a poet explicitly

indicates the relationship of his images to examples and precepts…[when] it is clear that

he is saying ‘by this, I also mean that’” (Frye 1147).

Perhaps the reason critics are prejudiced against the concept of the allegory is

because they feel that it limits their own individual form of interpretation. For allegory to
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fulfill the author’s intention, the reader must assess what message the author is alluding

to. For modern critics, they prefer to interpret poetry and other works of art however they

see fit, believing it better “to read…for the story alone and let the allegory go” (Frye

1147). By allowing symbols, or “thematically significant imagery” to shape a story, but

not dictate every possible interpretation, the reader can find their own significance within

the work without being bound in every way to ensure the story fits in with the intended

allegory. A symbol is clear “when figures represent not the intangible, but other things

tangible (like other figures)” (Wilson). To be clear, allegorical characters represent

general abstract ideas, while symbols represent specific, tangible objects. An allegory has

a specific intended message that must be understood throughout the reading of the work,

while symbolic literature hints at ideas, but leaves room for greater interpretation.

The appreciation of the allegory has changed dramatically since the days of the

classical philosophers, and yet the term is still used for well-loved works in modern

times. For a modern author, such as C.S. Lewis, to be known for his “Christian allegories

or ‘philosophical fairy tales,’” it is important to discuss whether or not his work is truly

allegorical by definition (Bennett), or if it is being falsely labeled. In one of Lewis’ letters

he gives his personal definition of allegory, saying it is “a composition…in which

immaterial realities are presented by feigned physical objects” (Wilson). This definition

matches up with the commonly held medieval tradition, which would make sense

considering Lewis’ interest in medieval literature (Bennett). However, Lewis is clear to

state that The Chronicles of Narnia are not to be considered an allegory, but instead a

supposition. In his book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the second book in his

The Chronicles of Narnia series, there is obviously Christ-like symbolism in the character
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of the lion, Aslan. However, “if Aslan represented the immaterial Deity, he would be an

allegorical figure. In reality…he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the

question ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He

chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in

ours?’” (Wilson). The series is meant to pose a “what if?” scenario, and not a direct

picture of spiritual realities. This is also seen through Lewis’ lack of “clues,” used in the

novel, such as the character’s names being unique to the character and not representative

of an abstract idea. Characters such as Tumnus, are totally fictitious, while Aslan and

Lucy are representative of specific persons. The Chronicles of Narnia shows familiar

characters represented in a fictitious world and explores the possible choices they would

make.

All the same, the series serves to teach readers spiritual truths. The character of

Aslan has a spiritual impact on the children as he serves as a symbol of Christ, and in his

presence “Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and

adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had

just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning

and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer” (Lewis

68). The children’s responses to Aslan mirror the type of reactions Christians might have

as they encounter Christ, but their response is not a direct picture of a spiritual event

depicted in scripture. Even though when Aslan gives his own life in humility in order to

spare the life of Edmund, he is portrayed like the silent lamb described in scripture,

making “no noise, even when the enemies, straining and tugging, pulled the cords so tight

that they cut into his flesh” (Lewis 153). The story is treated as an alternate possibility of
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what Christ would do if he existed in the world of Narnia, and not as an allegorical image

of his actual crucifixion.

There is obvious similarity to the Biblical story of Christ, but the world of Narnia

was intended to provide an alternate story to aid a child in her understanding of complex

spiritual subjects without aiming for every element to be dissected allegorically. Early on

in the book, Lewis even references some of his own more complicated works such as

Mere Christianity through a childlike perspective. Lucy is trying to convince her siblings

that she really was in the land of Narnia, although she was only absent momentarily, and

the whole idea seems as though it were made up. The children go to the Professor for

counsel, and he states that “There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling

lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth” (Lewis 48). This was a common argument

Lewis used in arguing the deity of Christ as either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. The Chronicles

of Narnia series was written specifically for children, yet Lewis infused deeper concepts

of theology into his work in an attempt to enlighten children’s minds in a significant way.

While some of his other works were intended to be read as allegories, Lewis was very

clear to state how his works should be read. And while The Chronicles of Narnia series is

often referred to as a Christian allegory, they should be treated as the author intended

them to be, as a fictional supposal of an alternative reality.

In conclusion, Lewis offers the notion that just because a work can be allegorized,

does not mean that it is, in fact, an allegory (Wilson). Just about any work of literature

can be allegorized, and a deeper meaning can be found. This was the issue that medieval

authors ran into as they attempted to find biblical meaning in ancient Greek texts. While

an allegory can be described as an extended metaphor, it is important to make the

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distinction between a work that utilizes symbols and a work that is specifically intended

as an allegory. A work must be presented as a true allegory by the author, there must be

explicit clues defining what should be interpreted, and each piece of the story should fit

into a deeper allegorical meaning. By this system of identification, C.S. Lewis’ The

Chronicles of Narnia cannot be defined as an allegory, because it is does not fulfill the

necessary requirements.
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Works Cited

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Leroy Searle. Third ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004. 154. Print.

Aquinas, Saint Thomas. "Summa Theologica." Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed. Hazard
Adams and Leroy Searle. Third ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004. 149-152.

Print.

Bennett, J.A.W. "Lewis, Clive Staples (1898-1963)." Oxford Dictionary of National

Biography. Ed. Emma Plaskitt. 2004. N. pag. Oxford University Press. Web. 5
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Blake, William. "A Vision of the Last Judgment." Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed.
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458-459. Print.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Statesman’s Manual." Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed.
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519. Print.

Frye, Northrop. "Anatomy of Criticism: Second Essay; Ethical Criticism: Theory of

Symbols." Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed. Hazard Adams and Leroy Searle.
Third ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004. 1138-1165. Print.

Lewis, C.S.. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. HarperCollins e-books. Kindle
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Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. N.p.: n.p., 360 B.C. N. pag. Web. 5 Dec.
2014.

Ransom, John Crowe. "Poetry: A Note in Ontology." Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed.
Hazard Adams and Leroy Searle. Third ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004.
953-63. Print.

Teskey, G. "Allegory." Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 2012. N. pag.

Princeton University Press. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.

Wilson, Jared. "C.S. Lewis and Allegory." Mysterium Tremendum. The Thinklings
Weblog, 29 Apr. 2004. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.