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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1997
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allegory
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1992-09-02
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In literature, the description or
illustration of one thing in terms of
another; a work of poetry or prose in the
form of an extended metaphor or parable that
makes use of symbolic fictional characters.
An example of the use of symbolic fictional
character in allegory is the romantic epic
The Faerie Queene 1590-96 by Edmund Spenser
in homage to Queen Elizabeth I. Allegory is
often used for moral purposes, as in John
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress 1678. Medieval
allegory often used animals as characters;
this tradition survives in such works as
Animal Farm 1945 by George Orwell.