ABSTRACT
The allegory is introduced by Thomas Hobbes in the figure of the Leviathan in the Introduction, and developed in the course of the work in the language Hobbes uses to discuss the character of the “civil and ecclesiastical commonwealth”. The kinds of imagery introduced by Hobbes in the Introduction fall into two groups, mechanical and organic, and the important point to bear in mind is that the figure of the Leviathan is portrayed as both a mechanism and an organism at the same time. The combination of mechanical and organic movement which gives life to the figure of the Leviathan becomes, as the allegory develops in the course of the book, an analytical movement. The role of the allegory in the work as a whole revolves around the way in which, having read the text, the image of the Leviathan can be understood to capture and contain the full meaning of the text.
