The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan (published 1678) is an allegorical novel. Bunyan wrote this book while imprisoned in 1675 for violations of the Conventicle Act which punished people for conducting unauthorised religious services outside of the Church of England. An expanded edition, with additions written after Bunyan was freed, appeared in 1679. The Second Part appeared in 1684. This work is one of the greatest classics of literature, widely translated into more than 100 languages other than its original English text. The text consists of 108,260 words and, within each of its two parts, is not further divided, e.g. into chapters, but reads as a continuous narrative.

Plot synopsis and Bunyan's notable insights

The allegory tells of Christian, an Everyman character, who must make his way from the "City of Destruction" to the "Celestial City" of Zion. The figure of his being weighed down by a great burden stands for the awakened sinner's being convicted of his sins by God's law as written in the Bible. The burden, which would cause him to sink into hell, is Christian's acute, immediate concern that impels him on his journey. He is directed by the character Evangelist to the "Wicket Gate," which is the direction indicated by a "shining light" that Christian thinks he sees. The "place of deliverence" where Christian is finally relieved of his burden is the hill Calvary and the open selpulchre of Christ. During his travel, he must make his way past hazards such as the "Slough of Despond," the "Hill Difficulty," the "Valley of the Shadow of Death," and the "Enchanted Ground," temptations like "Vanity Fair," and foes like "Apollyon," and "Giant Despair." He also has pleasant stopping places like the "House of the Interpreter," the "House Beautiful," the "Delectable Mountains," and the "Land of Beulah." Due to the long popularity of this devotional book, many of these phrases have become proverbial in English. Christian has two longtime companions, who accompany him: Faithful, a former resident of the City of Destruction, who is martyred at Vanity Fair, and Hopeful, a resident of Vanity Fair, who accompanies Christian all the way to the Celestial City.

Related Topics:
Everyman - Proverb

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In The Second Part his wife, Christiana, and sons, who once denounced his ideas, follow his path to the Celestial City. With a longer time taken by the pilgrims to reach their journey's end, which includes marriage and childbearing, the Second Part illustrates more than the First the idea that the pilgrimage is the life of the Christian figuratively traveling from this world to heaven. By its female heroines it shows how women too can be brave pilgrims as well as men. Gaius the Pilgrim's host extols women: "I will now speak on the behalf of women ... God sent forth his Son, made of a woman .... women rejoiced in him, before either man or angel . I read not that ever any man did give unto Christ so much as one groat; but the women followed him, and ministered to him of their substance . Twas a woman that washed his feet with tears, , and a woman that anointed his body at the burial . They were women who wept when he was going to the cross , and women that followed him from the cross , and sat over against his sepulchre when he was buried . They were women that were first with him at his resurrection-morn , and women that brought tidings first to his disciples that he was risen from the dead . Women

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therefore are highly favored, and show by these things that they are sharers with us in the grace of life." The guide and protector of the pilgrims, servant of the Interpreter, Mr. Great-Heart takes the stage as the hero that kills four giants and leads them in safety to the Celestial City. Alexander M. Witherspoon, professor of English at Yale in a prefatory essay writes: "Part II, which appeared in 1684, is much more than a mere sequel to or repetition of the earlier volume. It clarifies and reinforces and justifies the story of Part I. The beam of Bunyan's spotlight is broadened to include Christian's family and other, men, women, and children; the incidents and accidents of everyday life are more numerous, the joys of the pilgrimage tend to outweigh the hardships, and to the faith and hope of Part I is added in abundant measure that greatest of virtues, charity. The two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in reality constitute a whole, and the whole is, without doubt, the most influential religious book ever written in the English language" .

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