Origins, Definition, and Contrast with Symbolism

It is a common misconception to associate allegory almost exclusively with the Middle Ages; in fact, allegory has its origins in classical literature. Man, it appears, has from the earliest, tried to represent what is immaterial in word picture terms.

There is a difference between allegory and symbolism. Allegory takes immaterial substance and makes it material; for instance, taking the very human emotion of anger and personifying it in a story as Ira. Symbolism takes the material substance and suggests that is in actuality a reflection or shadow of some heavenly or eternal reality; it is the attempt to read "something behind" a physical object, to see the archetype in the copy. "The difference between the two can hardly be exaggerated. The allegorist leaves the given­­his own passions­­to talk of that which is confessedly less real, which is a fiction. The symbolist leaves the given to find that which is more real" (Lewis 45). Another way of putting it is that allegory is a mode of expression while symbolism is a mode of thought.

Several things are worthy of note in the development of allegory from antiquity. First, personification of that which is abstract is typical of allegory. For instance, "roman religion begins with the worship of things that seem to us to be mere abstractions; it goes on the build temples to deities like Fides, Concordia, . . . "(48). Second, the favorite allegorical theme of the Middle Ages­­the battle of the virtues and the vices, the divided will, the internal moral conflict within each man, the Psychomachia­­has its origins in early Latin poetry. To fight against temptation implicitly requires an exploration of the inner world and when Latin moralists began treating this theme in poetry they were already on the verge of allegory. Indeed, the most famous fully­fledged allegorical poem, the Psychomachia, was written by an early Latin Christian, Prudentius.

Third and last, allegory provided writers the earliest opportunity to express rather freely their imaginations. "In all of them alike. . . we see the beginnings of that free creation of the marvellous which first slips in under the cloak of allegory" (82). As moderns we tend to take a poet's ability to imagine for granted, schooled as we are in the Romantic tradition of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. However, if we go back to the beginnings of any literature, we will not find it.

Medieval Allegory

The Dark Ages (500­1000 A. D.) produced few original allegorical poems on a large scale; but they kept alive the mood which was later to beget such poems, they read and admired the older allegorists, and they constantly employed allegory in the parts, if not in the structure, of their works (Lewis 84). The most famous and effective love allegory of the Middle Ages was the Roman de la Rose written by Gillaume de Lorris in 1235.

Yet there is no definitive treatise on medieval alllegory. Rather, it was a series of common and largely unformulated concepts. A broad definition of medieval allegory is that it is an extended metaphor. They were religious, political, philosophical. Religious or Christian allegory is special; it takes its secondary meanings from Christian belief, practice, and sacred texts. Christian allegory was to be read with the eye of faith, and this would lead to an increase of charity (agape) in the world. In practice two books had to be looked at: the Bible (look for parallels in the Bible) and the "book" of Nature (God evidenced through Nature). Eventually this led to a systematic view of allegory (that developed out of the medieval method of Biblical interpretation and/or exegesis) sometimes referred to as the four­fold method of allegory. Any text had:

· THE LITERAL MEANING: the basic true­to­life happening or event or object. This was sometimes referred to as the "husk" of the story.

· THE ALLEGORICAL LEVEL PROPER: that which the literal level calls to mind, typically another happening, event, or object. This was sometimes call the "kernel" of the story. Working together, the literal and the allegorical levels were seen as a husk and kernel; that is, any story could be compared to a particle of grain. As within the grain there is a kernel (a meat or fruit) that is shield and protected and hidden from the outside world, so a story's outer elements (plot, characterization, etc.) shield or protect an inner or secret kernel of truth that must be discovered. The husk of a story might be delightful, entertaining and pleasurable; yet its kernel should offer a religious, moral, or spiritual teaching.

Such a notion made reading a puzzle to be solved, and it made the search for truth more appealing. It should also be obvious that only the intellectuals (that is, the educated) could comprehend the kernel; it would then be their responsibility to explain the kernel truth of a story to the uneducated. Writers, of course, strove to communicate objective truth, which normally meant the truth of the Church.

Originality was not important (nor even encouraged) since thinking independently of the Church led to subjective rather than objective truth.

Often on the allegorical level the objective truth would have a Biblical or Christian parallel that spoke to society or life in general. A story's sentenia (Gk) or message (moral, truth) was contained in its kernel.

· THE TROPOLOGICAL LEVEL: something on the literal level that represented a spiritual or moral principle. At this level the literal called to mind Christian parallels to the life of the individual soul.

· THE ANAGOGICAL LEVEL: something on the literal level that represents an ultimate spiritual or moral truth. At this level the literal called to mind Christian parallels to the afterlife (heaven hell, purgatory).

For instance, let's consider the story of Abraham and Isaac. On the literal level this appears to be a rather incredible story of a cruel father intent on killing his son. However, on the allegorical level this story foreshadows a later event in the New Testament, God's sacrifice of Christ. On the tropological level this story calls to mind the spiritual principle that Christ died a sacrificial death for man. And on the anagogical level it suggests the way that God and man may be reconciled. Another example would be the dove as a bird, the Holy Spirit, the Breath of Life, and Hope. Another example is Jerusalem as a city, the church, the believing soul, and the heavenly city of God.

Actually any image or metaphor could be read at several levels in one of two ways: in bono (good meaning) or in moro (bad meaning). In practice this system was flexible within the context of reading for Christian meaning. Christian allegory is like Christian iconography; it is read in the same way one would read a stained glass window or medieval painting. As mentioned earlier, the system came into being due to exegesis ­ a long tradition of Biblical interpretation, concern with not only literal but symbolic and spiritual meanings (traced back to Jewish scribes, etc.).