Allegory
An
allegory is a special abstract form of personification where general concepts
such as Sin, Virtue, Love, etc. are represented as if they were persons. An
allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas to get a point
across. The characters in an allegory often represent abstract concepts, such
as faith, innocence, or evil. Allegories are written in the form of fables,
parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose
of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as
other types of symbols that have both literal and figurative meanings. In
Milton's sonnet, for example, Patience has been made to speak like a human
being. Likewise, George Orwell's Animal Farm the pigs stand for political
figures of the Russian Revolution. And Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
the several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues.