Metaphor vs. Allegory: What Are the Differences?

A metaphor (from the Greek “metaphora”) is a figure of speech that directly compares one thing to another (usually unrelated) for rhetorical effect. While the most common metaphors use the structure “X is Y,” the term is broad and can include other literary terms, like similes.

There are several different types of metaphors, including simple metaphors and implied metaphors. Sometimes, writers will make comparisons that don’t quite function as true metaphors, like mixed metaphors (a combination of incompatible metaphors) and dead metaphors (overused sayings that have lost metaphorical potency, like “heart of gold”).

An allegory represents a larger point about society or human nature in a story, whose different characters may represent real-life figures or personifications of abstract ideas. Sometimes, situations in the story may echo stories from history or modern-day life without explicitly stating this connection. The word “allegory” comes from the Latin “allegoria,” meaning speaking to imply something else.

Common types of allegories include biblical allegory, classical allegory, political allegory, and modern allegory. Related figures of speech include parables, fables, and fairy tales.

Allegories and metaphors are similar in that both illustrate symbolic meaning through comparison. However, they have a few key differences:

• Length: Metaphors are often brief figures of speech, only a handful of words long, while longer metaphors—like extended metaphors—can span several paragraphs. On the other hand, allegories are much longer, often spanning the length of an entire story.
• Content: Metaphors comprise simple words and phrases—for example, in Shakespeare’s line “All the world’s a stage,” the key elements are “the world” and “a stage,” which form a simple, sentence-level comparison. Allegories are more complex, typically taking the form of a story with fictional characters and plot points to make a larger comparison across many pages.
• Purpose: Writers use metaphors, at their most basic, to make a direct comparison between two different things, ascribing a particular quality to the first. By contrast, writers use allegories in more ambitious ways, expressing large, sometimes abstract, or complex ideas or commenting on society through a risky hidden meaning.

Literature is full of creative metaphors, the best of which demonstrate the power of this literary device when wielded with skill. Here are a few good metaphor examples:

1. 1. William Shakespeare’s As You Like It (1623): In this iconic play, Shakespeare writes, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” The playwright compares two unrelated objects—the world to a stage—by saying one is the other. However, he doesn’t believe the world is a stage in the literal meaning; the comparison is rhetorical. Shakespeare uses metaphorical language to invite us to think about the similarities between the world and the stage and, by extension, the meaning of human nature and our place in the world.
2. 2. Emily Dickinson’s “Hope” (1886): In this poem, Dickinson writes, “Hope is the thing with feathers—that perches in the soul.” Here, Dickinson makes an implied comparison, using a metaphor to compare hope to a bird without directly using the word “bird.”
3. 3. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954): In Lord of the Flies, Golding writes, “The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid near and nearer the sill of the world.” Here, he compares the sun to a drop of molten gold, and metaphor allows him to compare the horizon to a windowsill.

Writers have used allegories in their works for hundreds of years. Here are some examples of famous allegories:

1. 1. Aesop’s Fables: These fables were originally part of an oral tradition in ancient Greece by an ancient Greek slave named Aesop. They are a collection of fables, often aimed at children, offering guidance on various social, political, and religious topics. Aesop’s Fables are in the form of instructive lessons with allegorical interpretations—stories that teach children how to behave and what to value in the real world.
2. 2. Plato’s The Cave (380 BCE): One of the best-known classical allegories is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In this piece of literature, Plato imagines people living in a cave, only ever seeing objects as shadows reflected on the wall from the light of a fire—rather than seeing the objects directly. Plato used the cave symbolically to represent how humans live in the world, contrasting reality versus how humans interpret it.
3. 3. Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene” (1590): This epic English poem follows several Arthurian knights and explores twelve virtues. Contemporary writers and critics read the poem’s characters as allegorical figures and the poem itself as a commentary on the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. (Academics continue to debate whether the use of allegory is positive or negative.)
4. 4. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850): In Hawthorne’s novel, set in the 1600s, Hester Prynne undergoes public humiliation, including wearing the scarlet letter “A” (standing for “adulteress”), after she becomes pregnant out of wedlock. The scarlet letter is itself an allegorical representation of sin and how society inflicts punishment. Scholars read the novel as a criticism of the hypocrisy of a Puritanical society.
5. 5. George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945): Teachers often use this classic book to introduce allegories to high-school English classes. In this farm fable, animals run a society that divides into factions and mirrors the rise of Leon Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. Scholars can read the work as a fable of farm animals running a society or an allegorical story chronicling the author’s criticism of communism.

Become a better writer with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Roxane Gay, Neil Gaiman, Walter Mosley, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, Dan Brown, and more.