Allegory: A narrative, whether in prose or poetry, in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract ideas or moral, political, or spiritual principles. The story operates on two distinct levels simultaneously: a literal, surface-level narrative and a symbolic, deeper meaning. Allegories are didactic in nature, designed to convey a specific lesson or message. The entire plot, actions, and figures within the allegorical work stand for something else. A classic example is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, where the protagonist's journey represents the Christian soul's path to salvation, with characters like "Goodwill" and locations like the "Slough of Despond" carrying clear symbolic weight. Other famous examples include Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Geoffrey Chaucer's The House of Fame. The significance of allegory lies in its power to communicate complex philosophical or ethical concepts in an accessible and engaging narrative form, a technique used since classical antiquity.

Allegory is an extended metaphor where characters, events, or settings symbolically represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; common in medieval and Renaissance poetry (e.g., Spenser’s The Faerie Queene), it invites readers to interpret deeper meanings beneath the surface narrative.