The linguistic mecanism to produce an allegorical message in a play narrative - Essay Example

Confounded with trying to discern the difference between symbolism and allegory, it is important, as a starting point, to pose one guiding definition of each of these terms. For purposes of this discussion, the term ‘symbolism’ refers to elements within a piece that transforms appearance into an idea and the idea into an image in such a way that the idea remains always infinitely effective and unreachable in the image and remains ineffable even if uttered in all languages. In other words, symbolism presents an idea in such a way that it cannot be separated from the image selected to portray it as well as impossible to describe as well in words regardless of the language used.

Allegory, on the other hand, transforms appearance into a concept, rather than an idea. This concept is also transformed further into an image, but this time it is done in such a way that the concept can be grasped and described as something different from the image even as it is being expressed in it (Goethe, 1991, p. 88). With these two concepts – allegory and symbolism – clearly defined and separated, it is also important to realize that allegory can be developed through the use of personification and/or through conceptual allegory, the “presentation of the concrete to suggest a long train of mental associations, conscious and subconscious […] the one-to-one recognition process of allegory” (Haworth, 1980, p. 14). Through this paper, it will be discussed how the character can become an allegory through the process of personification as well as how conceptual allegory emerges as a result of the careful use of narrative.

The principle way in which this is done is through the use of semiotics. The term ‘semiotics’ is today defined as “the theory and study of signs and symbols, especially as elements of language or other systems of communication, and comprising semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics” (“Semiotics”, 2002). However, the first person