Themis - an allegory of justice
Allegory is a means of allegory, artistic expression of ideas or concepts embedded in a specific image. By its nature, allegory is a rhetorical form, since it was originally aimed at conveying the hidden subtext of an expression through indirect descriptions.
The depiction of allegory occurs through the method of abstracting human concepts into personified images and objects. Thus, acquiring the abstract, figurative meaning, allegorical image generalized. The ideological concept is contemplated with the help of this image, for example, Themis characterizes justice, the fox characterizes cunning, etc.
Poetic allegory
A poetic allegory is the image of the “prophet” in A. S. Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet” (1826), in which the true poet is laid down as a seer, the chosen one of God:
Arise, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb.
The emergence and development of allegory
The allegory, which arose from mythology, was widespread in folk art. Followers of Stoicism considered Homer the founder of allegory, Christian theologians considered the Bible. In ancient centuries, the allegorical tradition gained a significant foothold in the imagery-rich art of the East, Rome, and also in Greece under the influence of oriental ideas.
Allegory manifested itself most of all in the art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, when its rational basis was combined with symbol. The German art critic I. I. Winkelmann established the concept of “allegorical form” as a condition contributing to the creation of an ideal work of art. The aesthetic concept of the scientist is directly related to the allegory “ beautiful art“, based, in his words, not on rational “rules”, but on contemplation - “feelings taught by the mind.” The medieval allegorical tradition was continued by representatives of the art of Baroque and Classicism.
During the period of romanticism (XVIII-XIX centuries), allegory was combined with symbol, as a result of which the “allegory of the infinite” appeared - an allegorical representation formed on the basis of the concept of “conscious mysticism” characteristic of representatives German romanticism F. Schlegel, F. Baader.
In the twentieth century, rationalism lost its leading position due to sophisticated psychologism and deep artistic meaning modern works, but the allegory remained significant in literary genres, which are allegorical moralizing stories: fables, parables, medieval morality tales; in the genre science fiction and others. Real geniuses in the use of allegory were Russian writers I. A. Krylov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, famous for their fables.
Since the twentieth century, the artistic device of allegory has been especially often used to express the hidden ideology of works of ironic or satirical literary genres, such as George Orwell’s satirical story-parable “Animal Farm” (1945).
The word allegory comes from Greek allegoria, which means allegory.
A beautiful word “allegory”, its meaning is not clear to everyone. An experiment was carried out on one of the television channels. While on the street, the correspondent asked questions to random passers-by: “Do you know what allegory is in literature?” To his surprise (and our surprise) of the many people interviewed, only one answered correctly. Or rather, he did not even give an exact definition, and even “accidentally” uttered the right word for himself - “allegory.” Wikipedia can quickly help those who wish to define “allegory”.
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What is allegory
In fact, there are several formulations and explanations of the meaning of the allegory. But there is a thought that unites them into a single whole. Each definition speaks of allegory as a method of speech capable of expressing something (a phenomenon, an object, a living being) through other phenomena, objects, creatures or images. In other words, this allegorical way of denoting an object, a means of some kind of “disguise”, indirectness of thought. Allegory is one of the tropes in literature and art. Linguists call “tropes” a word or a combination of words that enhance the expressiveness of speech and create a new image.
The question arises: why and who needs to replace one with the other and express it allegorically? We will try to find answers to this question in this article.
Miracles of camouflage
The most striking example of the allegorical nature of the narrative is such a phenomenon in literature as. Aesop was a slave, but not a simple one, but an observant and talented one. He wanted to describe and ridicule the shortcomings and vices of his masters, but to do this openly was tantamount to suicide. He found a way to do this by inventing his own way (language), consisting entirely of allegories, hints and secret symbols. This was a brilliant “disguise” in literature.
Thus, he depicted his masters in the form of animals, endowing them with appropriate features, characters, and habits. Aesop is just that applied the method of allegories in art, and other lexical forms in their stories. After him, it became common to call the allegorical style of narration “Aesopian language.”
Aesop's tradition
The use of allegories is firmly established in literary creativity: in prose and poetry. Many followers of Aesop created their own works of art according to this principle. The allegory especially caught on in poetry and fabulists. One of the main elements of allegory is among satirists, as it allows you to create an incredible number of images and associative connections. Let us give examples of allegory in the literature of authors who used Aesopian language.
Don't miss: interpretation of this literary device like , examples of exaggeration.
Allegories in literature
It is necessary to talk in more detail about allegories in literature. In fables, satirical stories the allegories are quite simplified, reduced to a simplified perception. Due to this, censorship often perceived these works as fairy tales or fantasy. The images of animals in Krylov's fables are people who live and perform certain actions, and in the end are subject to moralization - to some correct conclusion.
Many quotes from fables became " catchphrases» . This means that they were taken out of the context of the entire work and used in speech as a single semantic block. For example, “but things are still there...” means that the job was never done, although there were attempts. It is interesting that they are quoted even by those who have not read the fable at all.
The Russian classic Chernyshevsky wrote his novel “What to Do” while in captivity. And he needed disguise the author's idea so that the book leaves the prison and sees the light of day. At its core, the classic wrote a manual in art - instructions for building a communist society, a revolutionary novel. The images of the heroes were allegorical in it: Rakhmetov is a revolutionary. Activities of the heroes: the workshop created by Verochka Lopukhina was the prototype of the commune.
Once again about Saltykov-Shchedrin, the allegories in his works were monumental, being, in essence, global codes of social reality and even morals and ethics. What is the price of just one dialogue between a pig and the truth! The pig asks the truth about various things while lying in the dirty slurry. She wonders if there really are any suns? And why has she, the pig, never seen these suns? Truth answers that she didn’t see it because she never raised her head...
The art of allegory is multifaceted. The classics of literature created allegories that were epic, monumental, and historically accurate. Russian fairy tales are simpler in this sense.
Allegories in fairy tales and folk epics
A short definition of allegory in fairy tales: the word is its veiled meaning (the subject is its fairy-tale properties). Fairy tales work well with animals as heroes.
- The fox is cunning, the wolf is malice, the bear is innocence and strength, the hare is cowardice, the donkey is stupidity and stubbornness. This is how they behave in fairy tales! And therefore, the metaphors “cunning fox”, “donkey stubbornness”, “clicking your teeth” (from hunger) have disappeared into the human world.
- Images of nature mean phenomena from life. For example, the approaching storm in M. Gorky’s “Petrel” means the imminent onset of revolution. And the “stupid penguin” hiding his fat body in a cliff is the cowardly masses of people who do not want to create revolutionary changes and are afraid of them.
- Seasons and days have become a familiar allegory in art for periods of human life and humanity. Let us give the following examples: “at sunset”, “autumn is the evening of life”, “dawn of youth” and so on.
Allegories in life
In many areas and areas of art and life we We encounter allegories. For example, symbols are often encrypted in sculpture or historical meanings. Examples:
In general, any art is largely allegorical. This is his peculiarity - to use allegory and symbolism to enhance the effect, emotionality, general aesthetic perception and fundamentality of creation!
ἀλληγορία - allegory) - an artistic representation of ideas (concepts) through a specific artistic image or dialogue.
Obviously, the allegory lacks full plastic brightness and completeness artistic creations, in which the concept and the image completely coincide with each other and are produced by creative imagination inseparably, as if fused by nature. The allegory oscillates between a concept derived from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold.
Allegory, corresponding to the image-rich mode of presentation eastern peoples, occupies a prominent place in the art of the East. On the contrary, it is alien to the Greeks, given the wonderful ideality of their gods, understood and imagined in the form of living personalities. Allegory appears here only in Alexandrian times, when the natural formation of myths ceased and the influence of Eastern ideas became noticeable [ ] . Its dominance is more noticeable in Rome. But it dominated most of all the poetry and art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, at a time of ferment when the naive life of fantasy and the results of scholastic thinking mutually touch and, as far as possible, try to penetrate each other. So - with most troubadours, with Wolfram von Eschenbach, with Dante. Feuerdank, a 16th-century Greek poem describing the life of Emperor Maximilian, may serve as an example of allegorical-epic poetry.
The concept " allegory"most often found in literary criticism and is used as artistic technique. Allegories are also used in fine arts and sculpture.
An allegory is an allegory that is intended to explain an abstract, intangible concept/phenomenon (“wisdom”, “cunning”, “kindness”, “childhood”) through an objectively existing, material image - a figurative-objective component.
Allegory in artistic speech.
To the question what is allegory, any dictionary answers. The term comes from the Greek allegoria and literally translates as “allegory.” Otherwise, one can call the allegory expanded.
Unlike a simple metaphor, which serves to compare two phenomena from different areas life on one associative basis, an allegorical comparison turns from an ordinary stylistic device into a compositional device that is important for understanding the author’s ideas. Therefore, an allegory is always included in the system of images and must be “read” by those for whom the work was created. For example, the connection between the sun and human life expressed in “sunsets” and “dawns,” which are understood as youth and fading.
Examples of allegories.
Many feelings and properties human personality are perceived as allegory, examples which everyone understands:
- hare - cowardice,
- snake - wisdom
- Leo - courage
- dog - devotion.
Allegory is trope, which is why it is used in many works of fiction:
- fables,
- songs,
- parables,
- yell.
The allegory did not pass by and prose texts. It can often be found in novels of different eras.
Allegory in fine art and sculpture.
In the paintings of great artists and in the sculptures of skilled craftsmen we encounter personified allegories of youth, youth, time, etc. as beautiful women and girls with certain ones. For example, the allegory of justice is characterized by scales and a blindfold, the allegory of truth is a mirror, and the allegory of voluptuousness is the tempting serpent.
Personified allegories are characteristic of the art of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism. In those days, it was customary to depict even kings and members of their families as the huntress Diana, mother Hera, father Zeus, golden-haired Apollo, etc.
The meaning of any allegory is unambiguous; it cannot be interpreted in different ways. The connection between the meaning inherent in a phenomenon and the image reflecting it is manifested through the undeniable similarity of their properties, which is perceived equally by all carriers of culture. Therefore, the Indian allegory “elephant walk,” which means grace, cannot be perceived by Europeans the way Indians perceive it.
We hope that our article introduced you to the concept of “ allegory" and explained, what it is.
We often use words and expressions that in an allegorical form indicate any concepts or phenomena without naming them. For example, when we say “a crow in peacock feathers,” we mean a person trying to appear more important and significant than he really is. “The first sign” is the sign of the approach of something new, joyful, or change for the better. This technique of figurative speech in literature and art is allegory, examples of which are given above.
Origins of this definition
The allegory comes from Greek words: allos - different and agoreuo - I say. Abstract concepts that cannot be conveyed briefly are depicted in the form of a vivid image, the name of which is allegory. Examples of such images that are understandable to all people, regardless of their nationality: the image of a woman holding scales in her hand is a well-known symbol of justice; a snake wrapped around a bowl is a symbol of medicine. Allegory came into art from folklore. Majority biblical images are also allegorical in nature. Examples of allegory in the Bible: Judas personifies lies and betrayal, and the Mother of God - moral purity and innocence.
Where can you find an allegory?
In fiction, allegorical images are most often used in fables and parables. The ancient Greek fabulist Aesop resorted to an allegorical form of expressing his thoughts, since he could not express them directly. Under the guise of animals, he ridiculed human stupidity, greed, and hypocrisy. Later, the allegorical manner of expressing thoughts began to be called. In Russian literature, allegory is widely used in the fables of I. A. Krylov. Examples of this are the images of animals that are characters in Krylov’s fables. They mean some specific human character trait. The pig is an allegory of ignorance, the fox is cunning, deceit, and flattery at the same time, the donkey is stupidity.
Comparisons in relationships
Sometimes an allegorical image expresses a certain attitude towards the concept that it depicts. For example, Ilf and Petrov use an image that personifies wealth and money. Emphasizing their ironic attitude towards this image, they turned the calf into a calf. And the well-known allegory has already acquired a slightly different meaning - an example of the senseless pursuit of wealth. This theme can easily be seen in many classical and modern literary plays.
Allegory. Examples in proper names
The technique of allegory is used by writers in the names of characters. Griboedov has Molchalin and Skalozub, Gogol has Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Lyapkin-Tyapkin, Fonvizin has Pravdin, Starodum, Prostakov. These “speaking” surnames are also an example of allegory. Fiction, like music, sculpture, painting, depicts life through artistic images, which carry the feelings of the creator, understanding of a particular phenomenon through personal experience, worldview. To be more profound, to convey their experiences as accurately as possible, writers use all the richness and variety of language, including allegory.