Allegory and Symbolism

From THE BEDFORD GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL AND LITERARY TERMS

allegory: The presentation of an abstract idea through more concrete means. The typical allegory is a narrative -- whether in prose, verse, or drama -- that has at least two levels of meaning. The first is the surface-level story line, which can be summed up by stating who did what to whom and when. Although allegories have coherent plots, their authors expect readers to recognize the existence of a second and deeper level of meaning, which may be moral, political, philosophical, or religious. To that end, allegories are often thinly veiled; sometimes characters even bear the names of qualities or ideas the author wishes to represent. (Personification is a device common to many allegories). Allegories need not be entire narratives, however, and narratives may contain allegorical elements or figures. Many critics consider the allegory to be an extended metaphor and, conversely, consider metaphors -- which involve saying one thing but meaning another -- to be "verbal allegories."

symbol: Something that, although it is of interest in its own right, stands for or suggests something larger and more complex -- often an idea or a range of interrelated ideas, attitudes, and practices.

Within a given culture, some things are understood to be symbols: the flag of the United States is an obvious example, as are the five intertwined Olympic rings. More subtle cultural symbols might be the river as a symbol of time and the journey as a symbol of life and its manifold experiences. Instead of the appropriating symbols generally used and understood within their culture, writers often create their own symbols by setting up a complex but identifiable web of associations in their works. As a result, one object, image, person, place, or action suggests others, and may ultimately suggest a range of ideas.

A symbol may thus be defined as a metaphor in which the vehicle -- the image, activity, or concept used to represent something else -- represents many related things (or tenors) or is broadly suggestive. The urn in John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1820) suggests interrelated concepts, including art, truth, beauty, and timelessness.

Symbols are distinguished from allegories. Like symbols, allegories present an abstract idea through more concrete means, but a symbol is an element of a work used to suggest something else (often of a higher or more abstract order), whereas an allegory is typically a narrative with two levels of meaning that is used to make a general statement or point about the real world.