Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Allegory

[image error] Allegory: noun - a narrative written under theguise of another and sharing points of correspondence with it; symbolicrepresentation; an extended metaphor; an emblem; a picture where meaning is representedsymbolically.
Allegory in the visualarts is almost as old as the art form itself. I could list hundreds ofexamples, but will make do with just three representatives of the form: SandroBotticelli' s Primavera ,also known as Allegory of Spring ,Johann Vermeer's Allegoryof the Catholic Faith and Il Bronzino's Venus,Cupid, Folly and Time
In literature, there isthe famous case of the 'mistaken' allegory as exemplified by JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which many criticsassumed to be an allegory of WWII, in spite of Tolkien's emphatic denial ofsuch and his assertion that he loathed the very idea of allegory.Amongst those works thatare recognised as allegory, of which there are many, a few are as follows:Jonathan Swift's politicalallegory, Gulliver's Travels ,William Golding's Lord of the Flies ,an allegory about the conflicting forces that apply to civilisation and power,and, of course, the famously allegorical work by George Orwell. In Animal Farm the author skilfullycaricatures the rise of Stalin and the follies of the communist state.
Many works of fictioncontain elements of allegory and some have said that my own Breaking Faith isan allegory of good and evil. I'd argue that 'good and evil' is too wide atopic to be the subject of allegory and, in any case, is more a theme than asubject for allegory. But it is nevertheless true that many novels that are notspecifically allegorical do carry an element or elements of allegory withinthem. Often, however, these are interpretations made by readers and critics,rather than intentional designs of the authors.

1696 - A window tax wasimposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoidthe tax. It was repealed on the 24th July 1851, following much lobbying. Asimilar tax was imposed in France from 1798 and lasted until 1926. A realexample of the wealthy law-makers being oblivious to the harm caused bythoughtless legislation on those less well-off, it was responsible for seriousdeterioration in living conditions for many of those who lived in poverty. Thelack of light and air caused innumerable illnesses and deaths amongst the poor.Walking around England's historical urban areas it is easy to mistake somearchitectural devices for examples of attempts to defeat the window tax. Manywindows were, or course, bricked up as a result of the imposition, but thehabit of designing 'mock' windows continued long after the tax had beenrepealed and goes on today, with the decorative elements now used to harmonise andbring symmetry into the design of some buildings.