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
The most prominent object was a long What might the
table with a tablecloth spread on it. . . . cake symbolize
An épergne or centrepiece of some kind in this passage?
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 What is your
bodies running home to it, and running emotional
out from it. . . . response to the
“What do you think that is?” she asked description of
me, again pointing with her stick; the cake?
“that, where those cobwebs are?” . . .
“It’s a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!”
from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens [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 Celestial City
Vanity Vanity Fair
Good Deeds Hill of Difficulty
Ignorance Valley of Fear

11. Allegory
Quick Check
One day, Everyman is What do you think
summoned by Death to give an Everyman, the main
accounting of his life. Everyman character of the
ask his friends allegory, stands for?
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 What comment about
to the end. fellowship, beauty, and
—summary of “Everyman”
strength does this
allegory make?
[End of Section]

12. Allegory
Quick Check
One day, Everyman is On a symbolic
summoned by Death to give an level, what does it
accounting of his life. Everyman mean that only Good
ask his friends Deeds stays with
Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Everyman to the end?
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 owl
• An eagle • A white flag
• Spring
[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