Allegory

Allegory between Religion,
Politics and Science

Reham Mostafa


Along the years, literary forms and genres have developed, depending on the conditions of the time in which they were constructed. Allegory is one of these literary modes that have developed throughout the years. It is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative. The underlying meaning has a moral, social, religious or a political significance and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic one. In each era, the form of allegory is molded according to the dominant power. In the medieval era the clergymen tried so hard to reach people's souls and fill their hearts with the love of God and Jesus, whereas in the modern age politics ruled and controlled people's lives. In this postmodern time we look around us and wonder how we got caught up in the middle of all the chaotic events around us and how they affect our works of art.

Religion was the basic cornerstone in the Middle Ages. Allegory came in, hiding in its pocket religious teachings and thoughts in the shape of a catching story to be more easily accepted and comprehend by the public. William Langland’s The Vision of Piers Plowman is a medieval Christian allegory concerned with the narrator’s energetic quest for the true Christian life revealed in the form of a dream. In this dream he sees himself standing in a field full of folk between the tower of heaven and the pit of hell. The folk appear only concerned with money-making. Meeting people like “Study”, “Wit”, “Scriptures”, “Knighthood”, “Do Well”, “Do better” and “Do best”, Plowman gains more knowledge, as he is instructed on how to behave in his life. Scripture teaches him the three kinds of love which must be observed: love of God, of fellow Christians and finally heathens. He is also taught how to care for the poor and help the hungry. These are the moral lessons that are delivered to the public indirectly through religious allegory.

As politics was the main power of the modern age, it was dangerous to reveal political opinions directly. That is why writers had to hide their thoughts between the lines of their allegorical writings. One of these writers was George Orwell, a democratic socialist and a member of the Independent labor Party for many years, who had to dip his criticism for the political events of his age inside the pages of his novel Animal Farm. Allegory could be read on a variety of different levels. It can be read as a stinging critique of the history of the Russian Revolution and a strong condemnation of the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals. Thus, the story of the emergence and development of Soviet communism takes the form of an animal fable. We read in its last chapter that Mr Pilkington congratulates the pigs on the low rations, long working hours and absence of pampering which he observed in the farm: “if you have your lower animals to contend with, we have our lower classes.” Orwell shows us the true events such as the overworking of the working class, the justification of luxuries indulged in by the ruling class and the spreading of propaganda to cover up government failure or ineffectiveness.
Allegory adopts another role in our age where technology controls our lives. Machines are everywhere, overwhelming and controlling our whole lifestyle. The film directors Andy and Larry Wachowski knew that, when they decided to make Hollywood’s Sci-Fi hit The Matrix with some exaggerating effects. The dominant idea of our age is greatly presented describing a future in which our world is actually the Matrix, an artificial reality created by machines in order to pacify and make use of the human population as an energy source by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with cybernetic implants. A computer hacker learns from rebels the true nature of his own reality: “Reality that world is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by all powerful machines of artificial intelligence that control us.” We see that he is a machine just like everything else and that he cannot fight the evil, destructive machines except when he is plugged in. The lesson derived from such a scientific allegory is that no matter how stupid the machines are, we can never live without them anymore. We cannot live without electricity or cars; machines are all around us and we will always depend on them.

Medieval or modern, allegories will always have the same purpose at all times: to deliver a hidden meaning through an attractive story representing the culture of the age and its dominant modes. The only difference is the goal of the allegorical piece of art, whether to teach a moral lesson, criticise a political situation or warn against an upcoming disaster.