English 230 - Literature for Younger Readers
Dr. Wally Hastings - Northern State University
 
 

John Bunyan
(1628-1688)

LIFE:
     Bunyan was born near Bedford, England, to a tinker, and received a rudimentary education at the local grammar school.  Bedford was at the time a major center for Puritan reforms, so he was early introduced to the major tenets of this severe faith; as he recounts, “even in my childhood [the Lord] did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with fearful visions” (qtd. in Hinson 253).  His mother’s death in 1644 apparently triggered a personal crisis (Hinson 253), in the midst of which he was drafted into the army during the English Civil War, serving with the Parliamentary forces from 1644-46.  He married shortly after his discharge, to a woman whose name has not come down to us; as dowry, she brought with her two devotional books.  In 1650, he had a daughter, who was born blind.  His first wife died in 1658 and the next year he married again, to his second wife Elizabeth.
     Beginning in 1648, Bunyan underwent a crisis of faith, after which he became convicted of his calling.  He became affiliated with a Dissenting church in Bedford and began to preach; in 1660, he was arrested and imprisoned for unauthorized preaching during a period of renewed persecution of the Puritans.  He could have secured his release by agreeing to cease preaching, but refused to do so and so spent almost 12 years in prison.  During this period, he began work on The Pilgrim’s Progress.  On his release, he became minister of a Baptist congregation in Bedford.
     In 1676, Bunyan was imprisoned again, this time for six months; he is believed to have finished (the first part of) Pilgrim’s Progress during this second imprisonment.  (However, Hinson believes he more likely wrote it in 1675, while he was out of prison (256).) The story of Christian’s journey was published in 1678, and the second part in 1684.  The sequel was no doubt written at least in part because of the phenomenal success of the first part; in the century after its first printing, there were 31 editions of the first part alone (three of these coming within the first year) and 59 editions of the combined book.
     Other works of interest include his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) and at least one book that was specifically written for children, A Book for Boys and Girls.

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS:
     This is “the supreme classic of the English Puritan tradition” (Sharrock vii), “the most popular allegory in our literature” (Abrams 1851), “one of the few books which act as a religious bond for the whole of English Christendom” (Cambridge History), "perhaps the most important imaginative work encountered by children in households where there was no other fiction" (Zipes et al. 515).  On the other hand, a less enthusiastic critic commented, “No book, not even one with such pious claims to greatness, has a right to be as dull as this.” (Qtd. in Hinson 251) Although it was not written with children particularly in mind, it quickly became directed at a child audience, as evidenced by the appearance over the next 200 years of numerous illustrated editions (Myers 135).  Hinson argues, however, that promoters of children reading Pilgrim’s Progress “may have erred” since the theological demands of the book are beyond most children (251).  On the other hand, the Cambridge History notes that the book “won the hearts of children at an age when its spiritual meaning is little perceived.”
     The work appears to be an episodic adventure novel, but each encounter that Christian has represents a stage in the development of his faith, the conversion experience as Puritans understood it (Sharrock xvi).  First becoming convinced of his own sinfulness, Christian sets out on a journey during which he encounters various threats to his salvation: his own despair at his sinful nature (the Slough of Despond), the enticements of the material world (Vanity Fair), various fellow travelers who would lead him astray through their own faulty belief, and the devil himself (Apollyon).  He also receives support, from the assurance of his own election (his being reclothed and marked as one of the elect), from the guiding hand of Christ, from the Bible (the scroll he is given at his conversion) and from other fellow travelers who adhere to the “true” faith.
     Many readers also view Pilgrim’s Progress as a somewhat more universal symbolic retelling of Bunyan’s own spiritual progression as he described it in Grace Abounding.  In addition to autobiography, sources for Pilgrim’s Progress include medieval and Renaissance emblem books (collections of symbolic pictures with inscribed moral verses); the Bible itself, which provides much of the language and imagery that Bunyan used; Puritan theology, with its doctrines of divine election, salvation through grace, and predestination; romance literature (Gibson notes that even the Bible was read by the younger Bunyan as a “romance” (365)); his own previous works (Gibson points out several published and unpublished earlier writings that seem to presage the structure and import of Pilgrim’s Progress); and his dreams (Gibson establishes the use of a narrative dream structure was a common mode in Bunyan’s writing (277)).

    This is an allegory (i.e., a narrative in which the characters and events all symbolize abstract concepts; so "Christian" is understood not just to be a name, but to identify the proper religious orientation; the "Slough of Despond" is a physical representation of the emotional state of despondency). Is it likely that child readers will recognize or understand the symbolic meanings?  Certainly, children even in Bunyan's time would have been unlikely to have the knowledge base to fully understand the symbolism behind the story.  Bunyan assists the reader in interpreting the symbolism by explaining the intended meaning, as for example when the Interpreter shows Christian specific images and then tells him what they mean.  Does it matter if the reader is conscious of a symbolic meaning – will it still have an impact anyway?

Important symbolic places in Pilgrim's Progress, many of which have entered into the language (page references to the text are to the Penguin edition of Pilgrim's Progress):

    Along the way, Christian meets various people with whom he shares faith narratives/spiritual experiences - a common element in Bunyan's dissenting faith (Hinson 258) and even today a part of Christian evangelism.  Faithful recounts his own different battle, which is reminiscent of the folk tales of the old man of the sea (p. 63).  While traveling as Christian's companion, Faithful provides a foil for the exchange of ideas about the true faith.  The exchanges are not always between followers of the true religion (as Bunyan saw it); for instance, after escaping Vanity Fair, they encounter By-Ends, a minister who has accommodated to the world (87-95).  The theology of Christian is very strict, while that of By-Ends, though more comfortable, also is shown to be spiritually and logically empty (p. 91).  They also share stories of other people, not just their own; for example, Christian tells the story of Little-Faith being attacked by Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, who set upon him as highwaymen; however, he is saved because they flee the apparent approach of Great-grace (109-110).  Little-Faith is saved by the little bit of faith he does have (112) – like the parable of the mustard seed and the traveling companions draw from it the moral that one must be prepared against such onslaughts through a reliance on God’s grace (115).
    The characters in Pilgrim’s Progress, though heavily allegorized as evidenced by their symbolic naming, also reflect the people Bunyan encountered in his ordinary life and, to some extent, may be different facets of himself (Hinson 257).  The events, also, are drawn from the world of ordinary experience, involving “homely and commonplace” locations such as the slough, the highway, the town fair, etc. (Abrams 1851).
     One of the things that may make Pilgrim’s Progress difficult for the modern reader is Bunyan’s repeated sermonizing, along with his very narrow view of "true" Christianity (for instance, he is resolutely anti-Papist, equating Catholics with error and paganism - see p. 37 and the giants Pope and Pagan, p. 59).  Hinson suggests that the didactic sections (though not the specific theology) may have been included “[l]est simple and modestly educated readers lose their way in his symbolism. . . and perhaps to pacify critics” (257).

PART TWO:
      The second part of the book, written six years after the first, is different from Christian’s solitary journey; instead, it is “a bustling social novel” (Sharrock xx).  Hinson calls this section “anticlimactic” (260), but it contains many of the episodes most enjoyed by the later child audience, including Greatheart’s battles with the giants.   One aesthetic problem here is how Bunyan can make a second journey over the same ground remain interesting.  Note how frequently he refers to Christian’s journey – all of the people that Christiana and company meet along the way have heard of the exploits of her husband, and key locations are noted and celebrated.  However, new dangers appear, either that were sleeping when Christian passed or that were not threats to him – note that the book suggests that each individual may face different major temptations (as, e.g., is made by the comparison between Christian and Faithful in Part One (p. 62 and fn. p. 284 – Faithful is more susceptible to fleshly temptations (hence the “Old Man and the Sea” story of hi struggle with the world) and Christian to spiritual despair).  Because their experience has been different, and because their faith has different forms and expressions, each of the pilgrims in part II faces his/her own particular hazards.  Note, for instance, that the Valley of Humiliation, where Christian met with Apollyon, is a very comfortable place for those without excessive pride (211-213).
    Part II provides evidence in two instances of a child readership – first in the introductory verse (150):

The very children that do walk the street,
 If they do but my holy pilgrim meet,
 Salute him will, will wish him well and say,
 He is the only stripling of the day.
which seems to demonstrate that children had read the first installment. Then, his comment about the metaphor of music seems to indicate he is now projecting children as a significant target audience:
 I make bold to talk thus metaphorically, for the ripening of the wits of young readers. . . (226)
Bunyan also demonstrates his greater awareness of the child reader through his increased reliance on action derived from folk materials and through the formal catechizing that is included in the narrative at the House Beautiful (199-201 and 206-207), the home of Prudence, Charity, and Piety.  The children seem to be models for the evangelical children of later fiction, who always seem to know instinctively and to speak correctly about the relationship of this world to the next (e.g., p. 192) and of themselves to God (the exception being the story of Matthew eating the forbidden fruit (172), which is a cautionary tale leading to his near-death (203-205)).
     There is a great deal more emphasis on the communal nature of the Christian journey in this book than in the first – as Christian makes his way to the Celestial City, it often seems that the landscape is peopled by various isolates, with the exception of the foray into Vanity Fair, but as Christiana follows, the company frequently puts up at various inns and homes of religious people, where fellowship and camaraderie is emphasized as much as, if not more than, religious doctrine.  And whereas Christian’s journey brings him into contact primarily with those who are not going to be saved, Christiana encounters many others who will eventually make their way to Heaven – beginning with her own sons and Mercy, then gradually adding various others.
     What unites the pilgrims here is a fervent desire to arrive at their goal and some personal limitation (gender, age, feebleness of mind, fear, physical crippling) that means they require assistance.  From the beginning, they work together and help one another – as when Mercy, Christiana, and the boys make their way through the Slough of Despond with greater ease than Christian did (166).  To provide them with the needed assistance to counter greater dangers later on, Bunyan gives us the heroic character of Great-heart, who brings with him a greater reliance on folkloric motifs – in particular the battles with the giants.
     Great-heart encounters four giants and becomes a model of the secular folk hero Jack the Giant-Killer, whose story was widespread in England in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Note that as his success continues, he becomes more actively adventurous; the first two giants attack him, but he seeks out the third and fourth giants:     Other folkloric elements include the citing of popular proverbs (e.g., in Interpreter’s House, p. 181), riddles (234-36), the motif of  Mercy’s desire during her pregnancy for an object (the mirror) from the shepherds’ palace (256) and the Monster (247-48), another emblem of Catholicism that has been weakened over time by the attacks of various worthies – suggesting the waning power of the Church (as Bunyan perceived it).
    Although the journey does not seem excessively long, we perceive that it allegorically represents the entire span of one’s life because the boys, who begin as young children, all marry in the course of the journey (235, 240, 247), and the couples have children (249, 256).  At the end, though the journey is accomplished through collective effort, each must pass on his/her own through death and enter heaven (271-78).

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS as a chapbook

    In the chapbook version of Pilgrim's Progress which appears in the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, many of the features that excited child readers in the past remain present in the illustrations but have been stricken from the text itself.  The various dialogues between Christian and those he encounters on his way, which allowed Bunyan to develop his theological argument, are absent - but despite the often didactic purpose of the dialogue, it nevertheless functioned to carry the reader along the text.  The power of the various temptations to woo Christian from the path of right are also flattened by the plain narration; instead of getting Worldly-wiseman's arguments, we are told only that Christian "was afterwards beguiled by Worldly-wiseman; but was again put right way by Evangelist" (Zipes et al. 517).

    If the abbreviated text obliterates much of the narrative flow along with the theological arguments, the woodcut illustrations present most of the allegorically significant figures, functioning much like stained-glass windows.  The chapbook version looks as if it would be more effective with readers who already knew at least the basic outlines of the argument Bunyan is making.  But in addition to allegorical human characters and richly detailed scenes, the illustrations also present some exciting monster pictures for the delight of readers.

SOURCES: :  M.H. Abrams, et.al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, New York: Norton, 1993 (pp. 1850-51); Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol. 7, 1907-21;  Daniel Gibson, Jr., “On the Genesis of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’,” Modern Philology 32,4 (May 1935) 365-82; E. Glenn Hinson, “The Progression of Grace: A Re-Reading of The Pilgrim’s Progress,” Spiritus 3 (2003): 251-62;  Mitzi Myers, “Moral Majorities? Reconceiving the Literary World We Have Lost,” Lion & Unicorn 19, 1 (June 1995)134-44; Roger Sharrock, Introduction to Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Penguin, 1965; Jack Zipes et al., Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.

Useful Websites about John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress:
    On the didacticism of the book: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/facdialogue/25/mccoll25
    In the context of other literature of the times: http://www.systers.com/rdimon/herbert.html
    The Cambridge History entry on Bunyan and Andrew Marvell: http://www.bartleby.com/217/0705.html
    Illustrations from a 19th-century edition of the book: http://www.anesi.com/pilgrim.htm
    A brief essay about his life: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=640
    A review of Bunyan's life and the book from a Christian website: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan5.html
    The International John Bunyan Society website: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~dgay/Bunyan.htm
    The John Bunyan Museum in Bedford, England: http://www.museums.bedfordshire.gov.uk/sites/bunyan/
    An early Encyclopedia Britannica article by the Victorian writer Thomas Macaulay: http://www.ccel.org/b/bunyan/bunyan.html
    A biographical article from the Christian History Institute: http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps086.shtml

A. Waller Hastings
Professor of English
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD  57401

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This page last updated September 20, 2006