What's the difference between symbolism and allegory?

[Foobarz]

Nuff said.

[Dry Lips]

Nuff said.
No... You'll have to elaborate a little.
You mean in literature or in other arts?

And, btw, this isn't homework, right?

[mendhak]

When you see a photo of the Eiffel Tower, you probably think Paris. If you've read Animal farm, some of the animals represented various facets or people in the Russian revolution. In the Harry Potter movies, Slytheryn's mascot is the snake, representing 'evil'. In the Matrix, a lot of what Neo does is him being or being shown as a savior to the worlds, a 'Jesus Christ'.

Those are examples of symbolism.

Allegories are more extensive and is likely to contain symbolism. Going back to the Matrix, it is based on Plato's Allegory of the Cave, which talks a group of men who have known only a cave for their entire lives and upon being brought to the outside world, refuse to believe. Most of the Aesop's Fables stories are all allegories. The movie District 9 was an allegory on apartheid. Almost all Star Trek (TOS/TNG) episodes had varying bits of allegory in their stories.

[haqking]

http://www.enotes.com/literary-terms/q-and-a/what-difference-between-symbolism-allegory-130387

[Aquix]

Symbolism is an allegory, that can be both cryptic or obvious. Think of the hieroglyphs in egypt and the voynich manuscript. Symbols don't need to carry meaning eigther to be an allegory.

[krapp]

This question will stump even English professors as it's not clear what the difference is. Allegory has one of the longest and most revisionist histories of any rhetorical or literary device. It literally means "alien speech" or "speaking otherwise." It's been lauded, deprecated, rehabilitated over and over again throughout history. There are personification allegories, like Lady Liberty or Justice, etc., which near much more the 1 to 1 relation of symbolism; and then there's allegory as a way of reading and writing (scripture originally). Notwithstanding what Coleridge said about the subject, I find it simplifies matters to think of the symbol as a much flatter device, akin to something of a place holder and nothing more, and allegory as a weaving of a network of relations between different levels of meaning and substance.

[Foobarz]

Ok so from my understanding of mendhak's reply, an allegory is many symbols put together to create a story, and a symbol just represents something else other than itself?

[Aquix]

It's an old and much asked question btw.

The way I think about it is that an allegory is the broader term but often used to substitute verbal or written explanations, while symbolism is the same but visual. But then again a picture can tell a story so then it is both. The line between them is thin.

[krapp]

Not really. A story as a whole can be taken as an allegory, but that need not be the case. I think the easiest way to begin to understand allegory is to stop thinking about it solely in terms of representation and lieutenancy, which is to say placeholder-ness, and to start thinking about it more as a sort of little machine of correspondences (figurations is the more technical term).

Consider how many allegories there are said to be in the Christian Bible: nearly every figure somehow prefigures Jesus. But there aren't simply symbols for Jesus. There are very much Moses, Sansom, David, etc., at the same time they are anticipations of the coming of Christ.

[del_diablo]

Allergories is to do a clear quote from something, usually the bible.
Symbolism is the associations you get from random objects.

[Copper Bezel]

Symbolism is a much broader category than allegory. Allegory is using stand-ins to illustrate something, and it's often associated with a direct moral message. Symbolism is pretty much anything used to call on associations between the present action and some existing trope, figure, or story. Allegory is generally straightforward to explain, while symbolism can be subtle, self-contradictory, or even inadvertent.

In general, allegory depicts, while symbolism evokes.

[krapp]

I'd say you have it backwards, just like Coleridge...

[Foobarz]

So which one has the deeper meaning and connections (in other words the one that evokes), allegory or symbolism? And no this is not for homework, I just wanted a clarification before I enter English II next week.

[renesaB]

Allergories is to do a clear quote from others work.
Symbolism is the associations you get from random objects and gives meaning.

[Copper Bezel]

I'd say you have it backwards, just like Coleridge...
Well, luckily for both of us, all the dictionaries do as well.


So which one has the deeper meaning and connections (in other words the one that evokes), allegory or symbolism?
I don't really know what krapp is on about, but your instructors are more likely to use the term symbolism when the intent is primarily to evoke rather than to illustrate.

[Foobarz]

Thank you Copper Bezel I will think about the two that way.