A New Conception of itsTypes and Functions

Hierarchically speaking the image is prior to conception and speech. For human beings before starting to generate speech open their eyes to see the concrete form of reality and having gone through the experience begin to practice imagining and thinking about them and then the medium of language comes as a means of expressing those thoughts and communicating with other people. In terms of image order and replacement of one fact and reality for another first stands allegory through which the pictorial totality of a passage is a virtual reality that replaces a general image of a concrete reality. Second in ranking is symbolic image, and third metaphorical image ـthe metaphor specifically used in poetry rather than its general sense that includes symbols and synecdoche. In this paper a different classification of allegory is presented: reflective didactic, beast, mythological, fantastic - imaginary, legendary, symbolic, truthful, fictional, pictorial, and instantiating.