Allegory, Symbolism & Typology in Literature
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Writers have a number of literary traditions and tools of language at their disposal, and each will shape these much-used elements to fit their own specific themes and interests. Among the methods used are those which make language and character serve the task of representing ideas, the clash of ideas, and the power of imagery to represent ideas. Allegory is a way of shaping a story so that the characters and the setting are developed so as to have both a literal meaning on the primary level and a secondary meaning on the next level. Symbolism is the use of the literary symbol, or the use of an object so that the attributes of the object become a substitute for some idea or entity with special significance. Typology is subtly different from symbolism and is in fact often used as a synonym for symbolism, but it refers more specifically to the representation of things by objects in the sense of representing an entire class or type in one symbolic representation or character. The working of these three linguistic representations can be seen in the novels and short stories of two American authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. These three elements are not mutually exclusive and often occur in the same piece of fiction, sometimes to such a degree that it is difficult to separate them into their different aspects. They occur with regularity in the works of both Hawthorne and Melville, writers of the same era who indeed knew one another well. Both writers invest t
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orne states that Faith "was aptly named," and yet that appellation will be tested by what her husband believes he sees on his journey. The fact that Hawthorne says she is aptly named, however, should help in deciding the meaning of what takes place. Johnson compares the main character in this story with the protagonist in another Hawthorne tale, "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux." She says that both young men enter other worlds in the twilight:
Both landscapes are externalizations of an inner hell, presided over by Satan. The important critical question in interpretation of this tale is often seen as whether Brown experiences reality or a dream. Despite the narrator's ambiguity, Goodman Brown's journey has all the uncertainty and vagueness of a dream.
Allegory is a strong element in Melville's Moby Dick, the primary allegory being the battle of good against evil on the sea of life. Melville develops conceptions of good and evil and imbeds them as allegory in the events of the novel. In Moby Dick, the physical journey that takes place in search of whales becomes a spiritual journey on the part of Captain Ahab as he searches for the white whale, which represents his own inner turmoil. The different members of the crew each ha
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Approximate Word count = 2992
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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