Symbolism and Allegory

1. Symbolism and Allegory Feature Menu What Is a Symbol? Where Do We Get Symbols? Symbols in Literature Allegory Practice Part A Practice Part B

2. What Is a Symbol? A symbol is an ordinary object, event, person, or animal to which we have attached a special meaning. [End of Section]

3. Where Do We Get Symbols? • Public symbols • have been inherited, or handed down over time • are widely known • show up in art and literature Note

4. Where Do We Get Symbols? What does each of these symbols stand for? Why do you think they have taken on the meanings they have? justice love luck

5. Where Do We Get Symbols? • Invented symbols • come about when writers make a character, object, or event stand for some human concern • sometimes become well known and gain the status of public symbol [End of Section]

6. Symbols in Literature • Writers use symbols to • suggest layers of meaning that a simple, literal statement could never convey • speak more powerfully to the reader’s emotions and imagination • make their stories rich and memorable

7. Symbols in Literature Quick Check What might the cake symbolize in this passage? The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it. . . . An épergne or centrepiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; . . . I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it. . . . “What do you think that is?” she asked me, again pointing with her stick; “that, where those cobwebs are?” . . . “It’s a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!” from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens What is your emotional response to the description of the cake? [End of Section]

8. Allegory Allegory—a story in which characters, setting, and actions stand for something beyond themselves, such as • abstract ideas • moral qualities • historical figures or events

9. Allegory • Allegories • can be read on two levels: literal and symbolic • are often intended to teach a moral lesson or make a comment about goodness and vice

10. Allegory Characters and places in allegories often have names that reveal their symbolic significance: Characters Places Death Vanity Good Deeds Ignorance Celestial City Vanity Fair Hill of Difficulty Valley of Fear

11. Allegory Quick Check What do you think Everyman, the main character of the allegory, stands for? One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end. —summary of “Everyman” What comment about fellowship, beauty, and strength does this allegory make? [End of Section]

12. Allegory Quick Check On a symbolic level, what does it mean that only Good Deeds stays with Everyman to the end? One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end. —summary of “Everyman”

13. Practice A. Think about the great number of symbols we’re surrounded by in everyday life. For starters, identify what the items below stand for. Then, see if you can explain the basis for the symbol—why is this symbol appropriate for what it stands for? • A snake • An eagle • Spring • An owl • A white flag [End of Section]

14. Practice B. Here is a brief poem that works on two levels: a literal level and a symbolic level. A fen is a swampy place. What does the fen symbolize in this poem? I May, I Might, I Must If you will tell me why the fen appears impassable, I then will tell you why I think that I can get across it if I try. —Marianne Moore [End of Section]

15. The End