Allegory: A figurative illustration of truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience in a narrative or description by the use of symbolic fictional figures and actions which resemble the subject's properties and circumstances. NOTE: Though similar to both a series of symbols and an extended metaphor, the meaning of an allegory is more direct and less subject to ambiguity than a symbol; it is distinguishable from an extended metaphor in that the literal equivalent of an allegory's figurative comparison is not usually expressed. NOTE: Probably the best-known allegory in English literature is Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. (Compare aphorism, apologue, didactic poetry, epigram, fable, gnome, proverb) (See also metaphor, personification)