How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow,
If they sweet virtue answer not they show!
Allegory (from Greek allos and agoreuein, an "other-speaking,") suggests a more expanded use of deceptive and oblique language. Allegory is a work of written, oral, or artistic expression that uses symbolic fictional figures and actions to convey truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience. Allegory, as the basic process of arousing in the reader or listener a response to levels of meaning, provides writers with the structure of fables, parables, and other related forms. By awakening the impulse to question appearances and by bringing order to mythological interpretation, allegory imparts cultural values. Allegory 1: the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence; also: an instance (as in a story or painting) of such expression 2: a symbolic representation. (Taken from the encyclopedia Britannica web page)
Shakespeare’s sonnet #93 uses the literary device of allegory to convey the similarities between the lamenting poet and the character of Adam. This can be seen in the last two lines of the sonnet, which compare his girlfriend to the character of Eve. If the girlfriend is compared to Eve, it follows that the poet must be comparable to Adam. The poet represents Adam because just as Adam fell to disgrace due to his love and trust of an unworthy woman, so has the poet the opportunity to fall based on the trustworthiness of his woman. The allegory of the poet and Adam allows Shakespeare to convey the problems of the relationship between the poet and his girlfriend without delving into the details of the situation. The simple allegory with Adam gives the reader everything necessary for understanding the poem. Just as Adam trusted Eve, in regards to eating the apple, so this poet seems to trust his wench, in regards to her use of her physical beauty. Since Eve was untrustworthy, and brought about mans fall from grace, and caused Adam much unhappiness, so the woman in this poem seems destined to misuse her beauty, break the poets heart, and cause him to lose faith in womankind.
The device of allegory can also be redefined in terms of the mathematical concepts of concentricity in circles and tori. In this case, Adam is the originating point, and all the allegories using the idea of Adam since the bible was first written form concentric circles around this beginning point. This means that each time an author or storyteller uses an allegory, the originating idea is expanded and enlarged. The ripple effect of the concentric circles could also, if illustrated, demonstrate the concept of a multi-dimensional torus. Each concentric circle is its own torus, because different authors would use the figure of Adam in different ways, and to demonstrate different concepts (which are the points connected by the tori), however, they would all originate from that central point of the biblical Adam character.
Therefore, in terms of mathematical concepts, the device allegory has the definition of being a central originating point, surrounded by concentric circles representing the stories told, which are not simply two dimensional circles, but really three or more dimensional tori, which then represent the different points used to convey the meaning that the author wishes to express.