Help with Allegories

[BumRush]

I need to write an essay on whether the Cask of Amontillado can be read as an allegory. I am having trouble understanding what an allegory really is. From my understanding it is something that can be read with 2 meanings. For example the story of the ants and the grasshopper. It would be considered an allegory with one meaning being the story itself of the grasshopper just waiting to collect food and the second meaning would be the moral of the story which is don't procrastinate. Am I correct with my understanding of allegories or am I completely off base? Thanks for the help

[Wilde woman]

I think your definition is incomplete. An allegory can be used to prove a moral point, but I think allegorical stories can always be read on more than just the literal level. The entire story can be read in some other capacity...maybe philosophical or historical or moral. For example, the characters in an allegory always represent more than just their individual selves...they represent some idea. (Ex: the pigs in Animal Farm represent a Communist mindset)

Your example of the Grasshopper and Ant is, I believe, one of Aesop's fables. From my understanding, a fable (not an allegory) is written specifically to convey a moral.

I'm not sure how the Cask of Amontillado can be read as an allegory, but here's a website with a discussion on symbols in the story: http://www.shmoop.com/literary-device/literature/edgar-allan-poe/the-cask-of-amontillado/symbols-imagery-allegory.html

[JCamilo]

an allegory is a form of symbolism that use an universal symbol with a particular meaning (hence the famous obscurity, good example, the beast of apocalypse and the emperor Nero). (A metaphor is not an allegory, but also have more than one meaning). Not everything in a fable is allegorical and sometimes it is quite difficulty to see the difference. (This defintion is derivated from Chesterton and Borges)
The Cask can be read as an allegory because the way you read is up to you. But Poe would never write an allegory. He was a dire enemy of the use of allegory. Simple as that.