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Allegorical Character

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"We live in a world where even kings have vices. Well then we are the kings and we are your vice!"
— Rocky Romero, Roppongi Vice

While some fictional characters are only meant to represent themselves, others are meant to represent something larger than themselves in order to make a point. The author uses this character to represent X, whether X is "Women," "Christians," "Atheism," "Illegal Aliens," "The Bush Administration," or even "You." It's the difference between "Oh, Bob just tripped over the cat again; he is such an idiot" vs. "Bob just tripped over the cat again; men are such idiots."

Sometimes characters are created to be this. Other times, an existing character is (either temporarily or not) drafted into the role by being written as the voice/face/advocate of (topic) for an episode. This can even happen outside of the official canon; in fact, the more this is used outside of the original work, the stronger the case may be for the character being an effective symbol of X.

Please note that the character in question may be a perfectly well-rounded and very much individualized character, but he is so closely linked to a certain concept, that he is often used allegorically as a way of talking about that concept (e.g. Superman and idealism).

If all of the characters in the work are written this way, then you might just have a full-blown Allegory on your hands. It's also possible to have characters be this in-universe, particularly in a Mental World or in a World of Symbolism-type of story.

When no extra meaning is intended by the creators, then it may be that you have Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory—although adherents to Death of the Author would point out that just because the allegory wasn't intended, doesn't mean it isn't there.

A form of Characters as Device. Compare Archetypal Character.

Subtropes:

    Necessarily Allegorical 

    Often Allegorical 
  • Big Bad — This character often represents everything wrong with the world.
  • Big Good — This character often represents everything right in the world.
  • Blind Justice — This character represents unclouded moral righteousness.
  • The Cassandra — This character represents ignored truths.
    • Ignored Expert — This character represents ignored scientific truths.
  • Child Soldiers — These characters often represent the human cost of war.
  • The Conscience — This character represents someone else's inner moral voice.
  • Cousin Oliver — This character often represents the younger generation in a mostly older cast.
  • Damsel in Distress — This character represents everything the protagonist is fighting for.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support — This character often represents an empire in decline.
  • Founder of the Kingdom — This character often represents the ethos of the place they founded.
  • The Ghost — This unseen character often represents an external force of some sort.
  • Grande Dame — This character often represents a bygone era.
  • Greek Chorus — These pseudo-characters often represent the collective wisdom of a populace.
  • The Ingenue — This character often represents innocence and purity.
  • The Last DJ — This character represents a dying field or way of life.
  • Lead You Can Relate To — This character represents people like the presumed viewer.
  • Mysterious Waif — This young female character often represents a larger theme within the work.
  • Naïve Everygirl — This character represents that default young woman.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat — This character often represents a larger, obstructive system.
  • The Ophelia — This young, mad female character often represents societal decay and corrupted innocence.
  • The Pollyanna — This character often represents optimism and the never-give-up aesop.
  • Present Absence — This character, significantly absent for much of the narrative, often represents a similarly absent concept.
  • Save This Person, Save the World — Saving this character represents saving everything else. Often literal, but sometimes allegorical.
  • The Smurfette Principle — This character often represents women in general.
  • Token Black Friend — This character often represents Black people in general.
  • Tragic Monster — This character often represents some real-life emotional or physical problem.
  • What If God Was One of Us? — This human character represents the divine.

Example subpages:

Other examples

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • In Arifureta, there's Kouki Amanogawa. In a Deliberate Values Dissonance way. Kouki's views of "justice" (in a Good Feels Good way), The Needs of the Many (i.e. thinking of the group besides one's own individuality), bullying and the use of Victim-Blaming aren't all that different from what most of Japanese society thinks and functions as, and showing the ugly sides of it.
  • In Sailor Moon:
    • Helios/Pegasus represents the personification of dreams and faith. Chibiusa is content to befriend him and keep their dreams pure, despite being tempted to do more. This is in contrast to Big Bad Nehellenia whose corrupted dreams include wanting to own him.
    • Nehellenia can be seen as the embodiment of childish nihilism. Her entire motive in Stars is wanting to destroy Usagi's life, kidnap her friends and lover and erase Usagi's daughter out of existence because she is deeply envious of the happiness Usagi has with her loved ones.
  • Tomie: Junji Ito has stated he wrote Tomie as a representation of his fears of emotionally manipulative women. She's also been noted as a stand-in for the cycle of abuse, representing a regenerating, cyclical force that was created as a result of her teacher committing statutory rape and getting her killed by accident. She haunts the world by relying on parasitic exploitation and driving innocents into either obsession or hatred, which both lead to their doom. Similar to real-life abusers, the most viable tactic for survival seems to be to ignore her.

    Art 

    Comic Books 
  • American Born Chinese: Chin-Kee represents Jin's frustration with his Chinese roots and how he perceives the way other people, namely his white peers, perceive him because of them. Every year, he comes to Danny's school and ruins his life. No matter what Danny (Jin) does, he can't escape him, because Chin-Kee is part of him whether he likes it or not.
  • Flex Mentallo: In practice, the entire cast is allegorical to a variety of different concepts. The main ones are Flex Mentallo (who represents all that is pure and idealistic about superhero stories and innocent fantasies in general), Wally Sage (who stands for the many complexities of being both audience and author to art) and Lord Limbo (who stands for the enigmatic, transcendental nature of superhero fiction). Other prominent characters such as Lt. Harry (a all-purpose stand-in for the hapless citizens of superhero fiction and, by extension, regular humans outside of comics) and The Hoaxer (who gestures towards the impossibility of fully comprehending reality) are also examples, and it is part of the narrative's goal for the reader to navigate the allegories in the cast.
  • The DCU:
    • Superman — This Character is the pinnacle of humanity's ideals and faith in humanity.
    • Batman — This Character is the determination to stand up to injustice and always doing the right thing no matter the cost.
    • The Joker — This Character is the epitome of madness incarnate.
    • Harley Quinn — This Character is the representation of a toxic relationship and then breaking free of one.
    • Wonder Woman — This Character is Women's Strength & Courage (often associated with Feminism).
    • Queen Atomia — This Character is the dangers of nuclear experimentation.
    • Darkseid — This Character is the representation of tyranny and oppression.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Captain America — This Character is The American Dream (and often the Dream's disconnect from modern American politics and social trends.
    • Spider-Man — This Character is the will to overcome tragedy and strife.
    • The Punisher — This Character symbolizes the will to kill criminals and other villains, despite the objections of the superhero community.
    • Jean Grey — This Character is the representation of how absolute power can corrupt absolutely.
    • The Sentry: A recurring enemy of Sentry, even appearing more than the Void, in the Age of the Sentry mini is a villain named Cranio who has three brains. He always boasts of being three steps ahead of him and is a recurring figure in hallucinations. Given Sentry normally has three personalities in conflict with each other he might be a representation of Bob being his own greatest enemy and the greatest threat to others.

    Films — Animated 
  • Son of the White Horse: The three main dragons, representing the evil side effects of technological progress. Certain interpretations of the source tales also view Fanyűvő and his brothers under the same light, especially in the versions where they're villains. The movie obviously adopts a different approach to their portrayal, but they're still walking mythological symbols rather than individual, fleshed-out characters.
  • The Kidnapping Of The Sun And The Moon: The dragon can represent anything bad and the hero can symbolize humanity's strength to fight back and restore peace.
  • In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the Wolf bounty hunter may appear to be symbolizing "death", as he gives an appearance usually associated with The Grim Reaper - he has sickles, a black poncho with a hood, and a face mark that resembles that of a skull. The Wolf's defeat of Puss after the cat learns he is on his last life of nine works as a symbolic reckoning with mortality after a life of reckless danger. Defied when the Wolf reveals he is Death. Not metaphorically, rhetorically, poetically, theoretically, or any other fancy way. He is Death straight up, and he's here to reap Puss early because the cat didn't value any of his previous lives.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger is the embodiment of Generational Trauma. While Freddy was a child-killer when he was human, as a Nightmare Weaver he had since become Springwood's Dark Secret and the adults of the town have since tried to suppress the truth of his existence rather than confront it. At best, the adults ignore or gaslight the kids into thinking that Freddy is nothing more than a figment of their collective imagination. At worst, the adults will arrest, drug and/or institutionalize the kids (as was the case in The Dream Warriors and Freddy vs. Jason), doing everything they can to control the kids while leaving them all the more helpless against him.
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy:
    • The Joker is practically the face of Terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. After taking control of organized crime and murdering many of the criminals involved, the Joker turns to large scale terrorism, with all law enforcement agencies taking action. Certainly, the level of State of Emergency during the film's climax is very evocative of the 9/11 attacks. In fact, some commentators and authors have compared the premise of the film to the Global War on Terrorism.
    • Bane from The Dark Knight Rises seems to represent the idea of Revolution, particularly those that involve uprisings and armed rebellions. In fact, Bane's revolution in Gotham is explicitly designed to be evocative of The French Revolution. Some commentators and authors have even noted parallels with The Arab Spring.
  • Game of Death: The characters in the pagoda are this in the original version. One could ask if they spend all of their lives in the pagoda waiting for some challenger, however, they represent the formalized system of martial arts that Bruce Lee wanted to prove wrong. They are all beaten with some ease, however Kareem-Abdul Jabbar has an unknown fighting style that represents the highest level of martial arts.
  • Grimcutty: The titular monster is a personification or parental worry (and to a degree, mistrust of their children). It appears to attack children whose parents are worried about, often cutting them or harming them in such a way that justifies the worries of the parents, which in turn makes it more likely to appear to hurt the children further. The first child to be afflicted with it has his mother become so paranoid with the idea of him getting hurt that she eventually locks him up in a padded room.
  • Manila in the Claws of Light: Julio is a metaphor for the hand-to-mouth Filipino poor, who are kept in hopeless situations by those in power and can only respond with either patience or small-scale violence.
  • Godzilla himself started in Godzilla (1954) as an allegorical character representing the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the destruction caused. His flesh was designed to resemble the keloid scarring of the hibakusha, and footsteps were deliberately made to sound like explosions.
  • The Three-headed Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail can be seen as a Take That! towards bureaucracy. The body of the knight can only act once all three heads agree. But by that time, new developments have taken place that render their previous agreement useless. In this case, Sir Robin appeared, causing the Three Headed Knight to argue how to deal with him. But after reaching an agreement, Robin already left. Likewise, a large company or institution might run into trouble adapting to new technological advancements or other societal developments. When the administration of said company or institution finally decided how to deal with said developments, other developments have already taken place.
  • In many films about the RMS Titanic, a handful of named characters take up traits, quotes or actions of different people onboard, to avoid having to spend time with lots of characters. Sometimes fictional characters are used to avoid Historical Villain Upgrade.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • Across the First Class trilogy, Professor X represents empathy, and depending on the story, he can also be a figure of peace, hope or love. For X-Men: First Class, he's emblematic of serenity, and without his participation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the planet would've plunged into World War III (no Charles = no peace). For X-Men: Days of Future Past, his 1973 self must regain hope, otherwise by 2023, mutantkind is doomed to extinction (a hopeless past Xavier = a hopeless future for mutants). For X-Men: Apocalypse, his love is the only thing that can conquer fear (Jean Grey's trepidation over her Phoenix Force disappears when she senses the utmost trust the Professor has in her), hate and anger (the last two are felt by Magneto, but once he recalls how much he loves his old friend, he betrays Apocalypse); in this case, Charles = The Power of Love.
    • Furthermore, Xavier's emotional state is a metaphor for America's mindset during the time period these movies depict. In 1962, the character's optimism is an extension of the hopeful outlook President Kennedy's administration tended to exude, whereas Charles' melancholia in 1973 is not unlike the general malaise American citizens felt while under the shadow of The Vietnam War. Xavier's descent into despair began in 1963, which is the same year Kennedy was assassinated—the end of "Camelot"note  parallels the end of Professor X's school. At least in the Alternate Timeline, Charles starts to piece himself together again shortly after the Paris Peace Accords are signed. The '80s in the USA was an era of excess and materialism (both were regarded as not just acceptable, but desirable), so Xavier's vanity is at its peak in 1983, and we get to see much more of his lavish estate and everything he owns within its boundaries. The combination of his smug demeanour, dressing like he had just stepped off the set of Miami Vice, and driving around in a gorgeous, well-maintained vintage car announces to everyone that "I'm beautiful, I'm rich, and I love it."
  • The Thief: Toljan clearly symbolizes Josef Stalin. The Stalin tattoo on his chest is the most obvious sign. Katya and Sanya represent the Russian people, looking for a father figure/protector, meekly submitting and accepting his crimes as the Russian people submitted to Stalin.
  • Pan's Labyrinth

    Literature 
  • Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is meant to represent a naive Germany unaware of the actions of Nazis.
  • The Garden of Eden atop Dante's Purgatorio is littered with people who represent moral and religious concepts, some falling under Anthropomorphic Personification and some being too weird to fall under a specific sub-trope:
    • The twenty-four elders with wreaths on their head represent the books of the Old Testament of The Bible.
    • The four green animals with six wings each and many eyes represent The Four Gospels.
    • Two elders appear in together, one being a doctor to represent Luke's Acts of the Apostles and the other a swordbearer to represent Saint Paul's letters.
    • Four humble men who follow without comment represent the writers of the lesser epistles.
    • At the end of the parade, an old man who looked as if he was asleep advances, representing the Book of Revelation.
  • Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo has characters portraying the status of the Philippines and its people during its colonial era.
  • Atlantis in the dialogues of Plato, Timaeus and Critias. Atlantis was an empire that embodied everything Plato saw as flaws that an ideal nation state should avoid. This is why despite all of Atlantis' power it still ultimately is unable to overcome Athens and sinks beneath the seas.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Twilight Zone (1959): In episode He's Alive, Hitler is the literal manifestation of hatred and prejudice, with his return being only possible when Peter attempts to revive the Nazi movement in his city. Once Peter is killed at the end of the episode, Hitler simply returns to the shadows to seek out another Neo-Nazi. As Ron Serling puts it, Hitler is alive and immortal so long as people continue to practice hatred and prejudice.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series's Freudian Trio:
  • Star Trek: Discovery: President Laira Rillak's a perfect representation of the problems that the Federation has always faced, in that she preaches about unity and goodwill in public, but in private she’s The Needs of the Many (even if Jerkass Has a Point about Michael’s trauma) and concerned with military prowess and getting everyone in under the Federation again.
  • In Jessica Jones (2015), Kilgrave is pretty much the personification of stereotypically masculine vices, often associated with rape, entitlement, and negative aggression.
  • Doctor Who: The Skithra from "Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror" are a distillation of all of Thomas Edison's flaws with none of his redeeming qualities - They both exploit inventors like Tesla for their own benefit, but unlike the merely-less-prolific Edison, the Skithra don't create anything at all.
  • The Boys (2019)
    • Vought International is an allegory for modern-day commercialism. Vought International has no integrity and is content to turn a blind eye to Supe misdemeanors and outright deaths because the supes are too valuable and profitable an asset to see locked behind bars and will use corporate intervention to either silence witnesses or throw money at the problem to ensure it stays away. Vought will only publically condemn the problem to pay lip service and have no issues with ignoring the problem altogether behind closed doors. As shown with Compound-V and Soldier Boy, Vought has the power to make a difference but would rather use their power to make money than do anything practical.
    • Homelander embodies the dark underbelly of America by voicing its most controversial standpoints, i.e. the America First policy, hypermasculinity, religious fundamentalism, reproductive rights, and the war on terror. His name is based on Homeland Security, and he even wears a cape in the style of the American flag with eagle imagery on his costume, and while he is picky enough to curl up his cape when he sits so as not to sit on the American flag, it becomes drenched in the blood of his victims on more than one occasion.
    • Soldier Boy’s pretty much the physical embodiment of toxic masculinity and the US military.
      • As the embodiment of toxic masculinity, Soldier Boy matches the criteria for the stereotypical Manly Man, i.e. has a beard, hot-blooded, muscular, and stoic, but these traits are shown to be unhealthy. His hot-bloodedness makes him aggressive and abusive toward his teammates in Payback, he discriminates against the non-whites and non-heterosexuals, he's sexist and misogynistic, and his bottled-up emotions are now symbolically expressed through nuclear blasts whenever his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is triggered by a Russian song called "Escape".
      • As the embodiment of the US military, Soldier Boy is one of the most powerful and influential forces in the world, but he accidentally kills innocent people with nuclear explosions and then acts like he’s the good guy for the most part. Homelander's response to the danger he represents also mirrors the Trump Administration's "nothing to see here" response to the then-emerging COVID-19 pandemic.
    • Supes: The supes in the series are used as a critique of celebrity culture, namely the greed for fame, how their egos outpace their capabilities, and how their misdeeds are usually covered up through corporate intervention.
    • Blue Hawk's the embodiment of police brutality and his costume resembles a motorcycle police officer's uniform. While Blue Hawk insists that his actions aren't racially motivated, he displays police brutality by revealing that he's quick to anger, relies on lying to save himself from the consequences of his actions, and has no qualms using his powers on unarmed black civilians. He's also believed to be based on George Zimmerman.note 
    • Todd, the new husband of the ex-wife of Mother's Milk, personifies people who peddle baseless conspiracy theories and blindly follow people with personality cults built around them. In Todd's case, he's an overzealous fan of Homelander who tries to push his beliefs onto his stepdaughter Janine, which disturbs her father Marvin who has seen what Homelander is really like. He also follows the baseless conspiracy theory that Starlight is sex trafficking children, which he got from the Homelander rally he brought his stepdaughter to, one that is reminiscent of Trump rallies. Notably, at the end of the Season 3 finale, he has become so devoted to supporting Homelander that he is the first person who cheers after the supe executes a protestor in broad daylight.
  • Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Warren the Eagle's the embodiment of intrusive thoughts and insecurities. Warren feeds Yellow Guy's fears that Red Guy and Duck hate him and he literally crawls into Yellow Guy's brain and ruins his happy place. After removing him from Yellow Guy's head, Red Guy and Duck sing about how everyone has a worm in their brain that tells them negative and upsetting things (such as how Red Guy can't wear denim and that Duck is responsible for many deaths after forging documents) and they should be ignored.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In episode The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7 this is discussed, while trying to make a new villain, Dennis explains why they chose Karen White. According to Dennis, entitled white women are the only group they can vilify for their movie but the gang finds her too "cunty" for their movie and decide to switch Karen with a flood to avoid controversy. Instead, they now find the character unlikable and eventually make "Don Cheadle" the director, who turns the film into a documentary about white saviors.
  • Just Beyond: In episode "My Monster", The Squeember is a physical representation of stress and anxiety.

    Music 

    Tabletop Games 
  • In Magic: The Gathering the ancient sphinx Azor represents colonialism, specifically the conceit that it's done to benefit the colonized — he travels between planes remaking their governance into what he considers to be perfect, orderly systems, and when chaos and suffering result because of his interventions he blames the people for failing to live up to his designs.
    Azor: I fixed this plane—
    Vraska: This plane was never broken!

    Theater 
  • Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto has Angelo, a Florentine commoner who befriends Cesare Borgia at school. As his name implies, he's angelic, and often represents a more pure view of the situation than what occurs to the other characters, who are used to the Crapsack World of politics in 15th-century Italy. As soon as Cesare hears his name, he sings a song about how it means "Angel", and that leads him to think about how far the Vatican is from the purity it should have. Angelo also isn't afraid to challenge upper-class characters on their views — Cesare himself doesn't mind a little disputatio in the classroom, but others aren't so nice. Cesare ends up having to rescue Angelo quite a few times until the end where Angelo returns the favor, stepping in front of a dagger for Cesare.
  • Medieval morality plays tended to feature a character called the Vice, who was a personification of a sin, such as Covetousness, Lust, or Gluttony. While originally played for drama, the Vice was eventually played for comedy and tended to be the most popular character in the play.
  • In A Street Car Named Desire, Blanche is the classical antebellum south that's dying away, and Stanley is the new, more industrial south that's emerged since the then-recent end of World War 2. Neither of them are exactly sympathetic.

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 

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