Lewis defined allegory as “a composition (whether pictorial or literary) in which immaterial realities are represented by feigned physical objects, e.g. a pictured Cupid allegorically represents erotic love (which in reality is an experience, not an object occupying a given area of space) or, in Bunyan, a giant represents Despair.”6 The two key components of this definition are: allegories are imagined (“feigned”) physical objects, and they represent non-physical (“immaterial”) realities.
