The Pilgrim's Progress

The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator. The allegory's protagonist, Christian, is an everyman character, and the plot centres on his journey from his hometown, the "City of Destruction" ("this world"), to the "Celestial City" ("that which is to come": Heaven) atop Mount Zion. Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin—which he believed came from his reading "the book in his hand" (the Bible). This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the "Wicket Gate" for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the "Wicket Gate" in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a "shining light," which Christian thinks he sees.[11] Christian leaves his home, his wife, and children to save himself: he cannot persuade them to accompany him. Obstinate and Pliable go after Christian to bring him back, but Christian refuses. Obstinate returns disgusted, but Pliable is persuaded to go with Christian, hoping to take advantage of the Paradise that Christian claims lies at the end of his journey. Pliable's journey with Christian is cut short when the two of them fall into the Slough of Despond, a boggy mire-like swamp where pilgrims' doubts, fears, temptations, lusts, shames, guilts, and sins of their present condition of being a sinner are used to sink them into the mud of the swamp. It is there in that bog where Pliable abandons Christian after getting himself out. After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate.

Burdened Christian flees from home

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Pilgrim's Progress

On his way to the Wicket Gate, Christian is diverted by the secular ethics of Mr. Worldly Wiseman into seeking deliverance from his burden through the Law, supposedly with the help of a Mr. Legality and his son Civility in the village of Morality, rather than through Christ, allegorically by way of the Wicket Gate. Evangelist meets the wayward Christian as he stops before Mount Sinai on the way to Mr. Legality's home. It hangs over the road and threatens to crush any who would pass it; also the mountain flashed with fire. Evangelist exposes Worldly Wiseman, Legality, and Civility for the frauds they are: they would have the pilgrim leave the true path by trusting in his own good deeds to remove his burden. Evangelist directs Christian to return to the way to the Wicket Gate, and Christian complies.

At the Wicket Gate begins the "straight and narrow" King's Highway, and Christian is directed onto it by the gatekeeper Goodwill who saves him from Beelzebub's archers at Beelzebub's castle near the Wicket Gate and shows him the heavenly way he must go. In the Second Part, Goodwill is shown to be Jesus himself.[12] To Christian's query about relief from his burden, Goodwill directs him forward to "the place of deliverance."[9][13]

Christian makes his way from there to the House of the Interpreter, where he is shown pictures and tableaux that portray or dramatize aspects of the Christian faith and life. Roger Sharrock denotes them "emblems".[9][14]

From the House of the Interpreter, Christian finally reaches the "place of deliverance" (allegorically, the cross of Calvary and the open sepulchre of Christ), where the "straps" that bound Christian's burden to him break, and it rolls away into the open sepulcher. This event happens relatively early in the narrative: the immediate need of Christian at the beginning of the story is quickly remedied. After Christian is relieved of his burden, he is greeted by three angels, who give him the greeting of peace, new garments, and a scroll as a passport into the Celestial City. Encouraged by all this, Christian happily continues his journey until he comes upon three men named Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. Christian tries to help them, but they disregard his advice. Before coming to the Hill of Difficulty, Christian meets two well-dressed men named Formality and Hypocrisy who prove to be false Christians that perish in the two dangerous bypasses near the hill, named Danger and Destruction. Christian falls asleep at the arbor above the hill and loses his scroll, forcing him to go back and get it. Near the top of the Hill of Difficulty, he meets two weak pilgrims named Mistrust and Timorous who tell him of the great lions of the Palace Beautiful. Christian frightfully avoids the lions through Watchful the porter who tells them that they are chained and put there to test the faith of pilgrims.

Atop the Hill of Difficulty, Christian makes his first stop for the night at the House of the Palace Beautiful, which is a place built by God for the refresh of pilgrims and godly travelers. Christian spends three days here, and leaves clothed with the Armour of God (Eph. 6:11–18),[15] which stands him in good stead in his battle against the demonic dragon-like Apollyon (the lord and god of the City of Destruction) in the Valley of Humiliation. This battle lasts "over half a day" until Christian manages to wound and stab Apollyon with his two-edged sword (a reference to the Bible, Heb. 4:12).[16] "And with that Apollyon spread his dragon wings and sped away."

William Blake: Christian Reading in His Book (Plate 2, 1824–27)

As night falls, Christian enters the fearful Valley of the Shadow of Death. When he is in the middle of the Valley amidst the gloom, terror, and demons, he hears the words of the Twenty-third Psalm, spoken possibly by his friend Faithful:

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4.)

As he leaves this valley the sun rises on a new day.

Just outside the Valley of the Shadow of Death he meets Faithful, also a former resident of the City of Destruction, who accompanies him to Vanity Fair, a place built by Beelzebub where every thing to a human's taste, delight, and lust is sold daily, where both are arrested and detained because of their disdain for the wares and business of the Fair. Faithful is put on trial and executed by burning at the stake as a martyr. A celestial chariot then takes Faithful to the Celestial City, martyrdom being a shortcut there. Hopeful, a resident of Vanity Fair, takes Faithful's place to be Christian's companion for the rest of the way.

Christian and Hopeful then come to a mining hill called Lucre. Its owner named Demas offers them all the silver of the mine but Christian sees through Demas's trickery and they avoid the mine. Afterward, a false pilgrim named By-Ends and his friends, who followed Christian and Hopeful only to take advantage of them, perish at the Hill Lucre, never to be seen or heard from again. On a rough, stony stretch of road, Christian and Hopeful leave the highway to travel on the easier By-Path Meadow, where a rainstorm forces them to spend the night. In the morning they are captured by Giant Despair, who is known for his savage cruelty, and his wife Diffidence; the pilgrims are taken to the Giant's Doubting Castle, where they are imprisoned, beaten and starved. The Giant and the Giantess want them to commit suicide, but they endure the ordeal until Christian realizes that a key he has, called Promise, will open all the doors and gates of Doubting Castle. Using the key and the Giant's weakness to sunlight, they escape.

The Delectable Mountains form the next stage of Christian and Hopeful's journey, where the shepherds show them some of the wonders of the place also known as "Immanuel's Land". The pilgrims are shown sights that strengthen their faith and warn them against sinning, like the Hill Error or the Mountain Caution. On Mount Clear, they are able to see the Celestial City through the shepherd's "perspective glass", which serves as a telescope. (This device is given to Mercy in the Second Part at her request.) The shepherds tell the pilgrims to beware of the Flatterer and to avoid the Enchanted Ground. Soon they come to a crossroad and a man dressed in white comes to help them. Thinking he is a "shining one" (angel), the pilgrims follow the man, but soon get stuck in a net and realize their so-called angelic guide was the Flatterer. A true shining one comes and frees them from the net. The Angel punishes them for following the Flatterer and then puts them back on the right path. The pilgrims meet an Atheist, who tells them Heaven and God do not exist, but Christian and Hopeful remember the shepherds and pay no attention to the man. Christian and Hopeful come to a place where a man named Wanton Professor is chained by the ropes of seven demons who take him to a shortcut to the Lake of Fire (Hell). This reminds them of a man named Little Faith, who had been mugged by thieves that stole his jewels, although the thieves did not take Little Faith's scroll.

On the way, Christian and Hopeful meet a lad named Ignorance, who believes that he will be allowed into the Celestial City through his own good deeds rather than as a gift of God's grace. Christian and Hopeful meet up with him twice and try to persuade him to journey to the Celestial City in the right way. Ignorance persists in his own way that he thinks will lead him into Heaven. After getting over the River of Death on the ferry boat of Vain Hope without overcoming the hazards of wading across it, Ignorance appears before the gates of Celestial City without a passport, which he would have acquired had he gone into the King's Highway through the Wicket Gate. The Lord of the Celestial City orders the shining ones (angels) to take Ignorance to one of the byways of Hell and throw him in.

Christian and Hopeful, with deep discourse about the truth of their glorious salvation, manage to make it through the dangerous Enchanted Ground (a place where the air makes them sleepy and if they fall asleep, they never wake up) into the Land of Beulah, where they ready themselves to cross the dreaded River of Death on foot to Mount Zion and the Celestial City. Christian has a rough time of it because of his past sins wearing him down, but Hopeful helps him over, and they are welcomed into the Celestial City.

A Plan of the Road From the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, Adapted to The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, 1821.

The Second Part of The Pilgrim's Progress presents the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana; their sons; and the maiden, Mercy. They visit the same stopping places that Christian visited, with the addition of Gaius' Inn between the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Vanity Fair, but they take a longer time in order to accommodate marriage and childbirth for the four sons and their wives. The hero of the story is Greatheart, a servant of the Interpreter, who is the pilgrims' guide to the Celestial City. He kills four giants called Giant Grim, Giant Maul, Giant Slay-Good, and Giant Despair and participates in the slaying of a monster called Legion that terrorizes the city of Vanity Fair.

When Christiana's party leaves Gaius's Inn and Mr. Feeble-Mind lingers in order to be left behind, he is encouraged to accompany the party by Greatheart. Christiana, Matthew, Joseph, Samuel, James, Mercy, Greatheart, Mr. Feeble-Mind, and Mr. Ready-To-Halt come to Bypath-Meadow and, after much fight and difficulty, slay the cruel Giant Despair and the wicked Giantess Diffidence, and demolish Doubting Castle for Christian and Hopeful who were oppressed there. They free a pale man named Mr. Despondency and his daughter named Much-Afraid from the castle's dungeons.

When the pilgrims end up in the Land of Beulah, they cross over the River of Death by appointment. As a matter of importance to Christians of Bunyan's persuasion reflected in the narrative of The Pilgrim's Progress, the last words of the pilgrims as they cross over the River of Death are recorded. The four sons of Christian and their families do not cross but remain for the support of the church in that place.

Christian enters the Wicket Gate, opened by Goodwill. Engraving from a 1778 edition printed in England.

"Beelzebub and them that are with him shoot arrows"

• Christian, who was born with the name Graceless, the protagonist in the First Part, whose journey to the Celestial City is the plot of the story.
• Evangelist, the religious man who puts Christian on the path to the Celestial City. He also shows Christian a book, which readers assume to be the Bible.
• Obstinate, one of the two residents of the City of Destruction, who run after Christian when he first sets out, in order to bring him back. Like his name, he is stubborn and is disgusted with Christian and with Pliable for making a journey that he thinks is nonsense.
• Pliable, the other of the two, who goes with Christian until both of them fall into the Slough of Despond, a boggy mire composed of the decadence and filthiness of sin and a swamp that makes the fears and doubts of a present and past sinner real. Pliable escapes from the slough and returns home. Like his name, he is insecure and goes along with some things for a little while but quickly gives up on them.
• Help, Christian's rescuer from the Slough of Despond.
• Mr. Worldly Wiseman, a resident of a place called Carnal Policy, who persuades Christian to go out of his way to being helped by a friend named Mr. Legality and then move to the City of Morality (which focuses salvation on the Law and good deeds instead of faith and love in Jesus Christ). His real advice is from the world and not from God, meaning his advice is flawed and consists of three objectives: getting Christian off the right path, making the cross of Jesus Christ offensive to him, and binding him to the Law so he would die with his sins. Worldly Wiseman has brought down many innocent pilgrims and there will be many more to come.
• Goodwill, the keeper of the Wicket Gate through which one enters the "straight and narrow way" (also referred to as "the King's Highway") to the Celestial City. In the Second Part, we find that this character is none other than Jesus Christ Himself.
• Beelzebub, literally "Lord of the Flies," is one of Satan's companion archdemons, who has erected a fort near the Wicket Gate from which he and his soldiers can shoot arrows of fire at those about to enter the Wicket Gate so they will never enter it. He is also the Lord, God, King, Master, and Prince of Vanity Fair. Christian calls him "captain" of the Foul Fiend Apollyon, who he later met in the Valley of Humiliation.[9]
• The Interpreter, the one who has his House along the way as a rest stop for travelers to check in to see pictures and dioramas to teach them the right way to live the Christian life. He has been identified in the Second Part as the Holy Spirit.
• Shining Ones, the messengers and servants of "the Lord of the Hill," God. They are obviously the holy angels.
• Formalist, one of two travelers and false pilgrims on the King's Highway, who do not come in by the Wicket Gate, but climb over the wall that encloses it, at least from the hill and sepulchers up to the Hill Difficulty. He and his companion Hypocrisy come from the land of Vainglory. He takes one of the two bypaths that avoid the Hill Difficulty but is lost.
• Hypocrisy, the companion of Formalist and the other false pilgrim. He takes the other of the two bypaths and is also lost.
• Timorous, one of two men who try to persuade Christian to go back for fear of the chained lions near the House Beautiful. He is a relative of Mrs. Timorous of the Second Part. His companion is Mistrust.
• Watchful, the porter of the House Beautiful. He also appears in the Second Part and receives "a gold angel" coin from Christiana for his kindness and service to her and her companions. "Watchful" is also the name of one of the Delectable Mountains' shepherds.
• Discretion, one of the beautiful maids of the house, who decides to allow Christian to stay there.
• Prudence, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part.
• Piety, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part.
• Charity, another of the House Beautiful maidens. She appears in the Second Part.
• Apollyon, literally "Destroyer;" the King, Lord, God, Master, Prince, Owner, Landlord, Ruler, Governor, and Leader of the City of Destruction where Christian was born. He is one of Satan's companion archdemons, who tries to force Christian to return to his domain and service. His battle with Christian takes place in the Valley of Humiliation, just below the House Beautiful. He appears as a huge demonic creature with fish's scales, the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear, second mouth on his belly, and dragon's wings. He takes fiery darts from his body to throw at his opponents. Apollyon is finally defeated when Christian uses the Sword of the Spirit to wound him two times.
• "Pope" and "Pagan," giants living in a cave at the end of the fearsome Valley of the Shadow of Death. They are allegories of Roman Catholicism and paganism as persecutors of Protestant Christians. "Pagan" is dead, indicating the end of pagan persecution with Antiquity, and "Pope" is alive but decrepit, indicating the then-diminished power and influence of the Roman Catholic pope. In the Second Part, Pagan is resurrected by a demon from the bottomless pit of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, representing the new age of pagan persecution, and Pope is revived of his deadly wounds and is no longer stiff and unable to move, representing the beginning of the Christian's troubles with Roman Catholic popes.
• Faithful, Christian's friend from the City of Destruction, who is also going on pilgrimage. Christian meets Faithful just after getting through the Valley of The Shadow of Death. He dies later in Vanity Fair for his strong faith and first reaches the Celestial City.
• Wanton, a temptress who tries to get Faithful to leave his journey to the Celestial City. She may be the popular resident of the City of Destruction, Madam Wanton, who hosted a house party for friends of Mrs. Timorous.
• Adam the First, "the old man" (representing carnality and deceit) who tries to persuade Faithful to leave his journey and come live with his three daughters: the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life.
• Moses, the severe, violent avenger (representing the Law, which knows no mercy) who tries to kill Faithful for his momentary weakness in wanting to go with Adam the First out of the way. Moses is sent away by Jesus Christ.
• Talkative, a pilgrim that Faithful and Christian meet after going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He is known to Christian as a fellow resident of the City of Destruction, living on Prating Row. He is the son of Say-Well and Mrs. Talk-About-The-Right Things. He is said to be better-looking from a distance than close up. His enthusiasm for talking about his faith to Faithful deceives him into thinking that he is a sincere man. Christian lets Faithful know about his unsavory past, and in a conversation that Faithful strikes up with him, he is exposed as shallow and hypocritical in his Christianity.
• Lord Hate-Good, the evil judge who tries Faithful in Vanity Fair. Lord Hate-Good is the opposite of a judge, he hates right and loves wrong because he does wrong himself. His jury is twelve vicious rogue men.
• Envy, the first witness against Faithful who falsely accuses that Faithful shows no respect for their prince, Lord Beelzebub.
• Superstition, the second witness against Faithful who falsely accuses Faithful of saying that their religion is vain.
• Pick-Thank, the third witness against Faithful who falsely accuses Faithful of going against their prince, their people, their laws, their "honorable" friends, and the judge himself.
• Hopeful, the resident of Vanity Fair, who takes Faithful's place as Christian's fellow traveler. The character Hopeful poses an inconsistency in that there is a necessity imposed on the pilgrims that they enter the "King's Highway" by the Wicket Gate. Hopeful, did not; however, of him, we read "... one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes to be a companion with Christian in his pilgrimage." Hopeful assumes Faithful's place by God's design. Theologically and allegorically it would follow in that "faith" is trust in God as far as things present are concerned, and "hope," biblically the same as "faith," is trust in God as far as things of the future are concerned. Hopeful would follow Faithful. The other factor is that Vanity Fair is right on the straight and narrow way. Ignorance, in contrast to Hopeful, was unconcerned about the end times of God, unconcerned with true faith in Jesus Christ, and gave false hope about the future. Ignorance was told by Christian and Hopeful that he should have entered the highway through the Wicket Gate.
• Mr. By-Ends, a false pilgrim met by Christian and Hopeful after they leave Vanity Fair. He makes it his aim to avoid any hardship or persecution that Christians may have to undergo. He supposedly perishes in the Hill Lucre (a dangerous silver mine) with three of his friends, Hold-the-World, Money-Love, and Save-All, at the behest of Demas, who invites passersby to come and see the mine. A "by-end" is a pursuit that is achieved indirectly. For By-Ends and his companions, it is the by-end of financial gain through religion.
• Demas, a deceiver, who beckons to pilgrims at the Hill Lucre to come and join in the supposed silver mining going on in it. He is first mentioned in the Book of Second Timothy by the disciple Paul when he said, "Demas has deserted us because he loved the world". Demas tries two ways to trick Christian and Hopeful: first, he claims that the mine is safe and they will be rich, and then he claims that he is a pilgrim and will join them on their journey. Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, is able to rebuke Demas and expose his lies.
• Giant Despair, the savage owner of Doubting Castle, where pilgrims are imprisoned and murdered. He is slain by Greatheart in the Second Part.
• Giantess Diffidence, Despair's wife, known to be cruel, savage, violent, and evil like her husband. She is slain by Old Honest in the Second Part.
• Knowledge, one of the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains.
• Experience, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds.
• Watchful, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds.
• Sincere, another of the Delectable Mountains shepherds.
• Ignorance, "the brisk young lad", (representing foolishness and conceit) who joins the "King's Highway" by way of the "crooked lane" that comes from his native country, called "Conceit." He follows Christian and Hopeful and on two occasions talks with them. He believes that he will be received into the Celestial City because of his doing good works in accordance with God's will. For him, Jesus Christ is only an example, not a Savior. Christian and Hopeful try to set him right, but they fail. He gets a ferryman, Vain-Hope, to ferry him across the River of Death rather than cross it on foot as one is supposed to do. When he gets to the gates of the Celestial City, he is asked for a "certificate" needed for entry, which he does not have. The King upon hearing this, then, orders that he be bound and cast into Hell.
• The Flatterer, a deceiver dressed as an angel who leads Christian and Hopeful out of their way, when they fail to look at the road map given them by the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains.
• Atheist, a mocker of Christian and Hopeful, who goes the opposite way on the "King's Highway" because he boasts that he knows that God and the Celestial City do not exist.

• Mr. Sagacity, a guest narrator who meets Bunyan himself in his new dream and recounts the events of the Second Part up to the arrival at the Wicket Gate.
• Christiana, wife of Christian, who leads her four sons and neighbor Mercy on pilgrimage.
• Matthew, Christian and Christiana's eldest son, who marries Mercy.
• Samuel, the second son, who marries Grace, Mr. Mnason's daughter.
• Joseph, the third son, who marries Martha, Mr. Mnason's daughter.
• James, fourth and youngest son, who marries Phoebe, Gaius's daughter.
• Mercy, Christiana's neighbor, who goes with her on pilgrimage and marries Matthew.
• Mrs. Timorous, a relative of the Timorous of the First Part, who comes with Mercy to see Christiana before she sets out on pilgrimage.
• Mrs. Bat's-Eyes, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. Since she has a bat's eyes, she would be blind or nearly blind, so her characterization of Christiana as blind in her desire to go on pilgrimage is hypocritical.
• Mrs. Inconsiderate, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She characterizes Christiana's departure "a good riddance" as an inconsiderate person would.
• Mrs. Light-Mind, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She changes the subject from Christiana to gossip about being at a bawdy party at Madam Wanton's home.
• Mrs. Know-Nothing, a resident of The City of Destruction and friend of Mrs. Timorous. She wonders if Christiana will actually go on pilgrimage.
• Ill-favoured Ones, two evil characters Christiana sees in her dream, whom she and Mercy actually encounter when they leave the Wicket Gate. The two Ill Ones are driven off by Great-Heart himself.
• Innocent, a young serving maid of the Interpreter, who answers the door of the house when Christiana and her companions arrive; and who conducts them to the garden bath, which signifies Christian baptism.
• Mr. Greatheart, the guide and bodyguard sent by the Interpreter with Christiana and her companions from his house to their journey's end. He proves to be one of the main protagonists in the Second Part.
• Giant Grim, a Giant who "backs the [chained] lions" near the House Beautiful, slain by Great-Heart. He is also known as "Bloody-Man" because he has killed many pilgrims or sent them on mazes of detours, where they were lost forever.
• Humble-Mind, one of the maidens of the House Beautiful, who makes her appearance in the Second Part. She questions Matthew, James, Samuel, and Joseph about their godly faith and their hearts to the Lord God.
• Mr. Brisk, a suitor of Mercy's, who gives up courting her when he finds out that she makes clothing only to give away to the poor. He is shown to be a foppish, worldly-minded person who is double-minded about his beliefs.
• Mr. Skill, the godly physician called to the House Beautiful to cure Matthew of his illness, which is caused by eating the forbidden apples and fruits of Beelzebub which his mother told him not to, but he did it anyway.
• Giant Maul, a Giant whom Greatheart kills as the pilgrims leave the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He holds a grudge against Greatheart for doing his duty of saving pilgrims from damnation and bringing them from darkness to light, from evil to good, and from Satan, the Devil to Jesus Christ, the Savior.
• Old Honest, a pilgrim from the frozen town of Stupidity who joins them, a welcome companion to Greatheart. Old Honest tells the stories of Mr. Fearing and a prideful villain named Mr. Self-Will.
• Mr. Fearing, a fearful pilgrim from the City of Destruction whom Greatheart had "conducted" to the Celestial City in an earlier pilgrimage. Noted for his timidness of Godly Fears such as temptations and doubts. He is Mr. Feeble-Mind's uncle.
• Gaius, an innkeeper with whom the pilgrims stay for some years after they leave the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He gives his daughter Phoebe to James in marriage. The lodging fee for his inn is paid by the Good Samaritan. Gaius tells them of the wicked Giant Slay-Good.
• Giant Slay-Good, a Giant who enlists the help of evildoers on the King's Highway to abduct, murder, and consume pilgrims before they get to Vanity Fair. He is killed by Greatheart.
• Mr. Feeble-Mind, rescued from Slay-Good by Mr. Greatheart, who joins Christiana's company of pilgrims. He is the nephew of Mr. Fearing.
• Phoebe, Gaius's daughter, who marries James.
• Mr. Ready-to-Halt, a pilgrim who meets Christiana's train of pilgrims at Gaius's door, and becomes the companion of Mr. Feeble-Mind, to whom he gives one of his crutches.
• Mr. Mnason, a resident of the town of Vanity, who puts up the pilgrims for a time, and gives his daughters Grace and Martha in marriage to Samuel and Joseph respectively.
• Grace, Mnason's daughter, who marries Samuel.
• Martha, Mnason's daughter, who marries Joseph.
• Mr. Despondency, a rescued prisoner from Doubting Castle owned by the miserable Giant Despair.
• Much-Afraid, his daughter.
• Mr. Valiant, a pilgrim they find all bloody, with his sword in his hand, after leaving the Delectable Mountains. He fought and defeated three robbers called Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt.
• Mr. Stand-Fast For-Truth, a pilgrim found while praying for deliverance from Madame Bubble.
• Madame Bubble, a witch whose enchantments made the Enchanted Ground enchanted with an air that makes foolish pilgrims sleepy and never wake up again. She is the adulterous woman mentioned in the Biblical Book of Proverbs. Mr. Self-Will went over a bridge to meet her and never came back again.

The Pilgrim's Progress was much more popular than its predecessors. Bunyan's plain style breathes life into the abstractions of the anthropomorphized temptations and abstractions that Christian encounters and with whom he converses on his course to Heaven. Samuel Johnson said that "this is the great merit of the book, that the most cultivated man cannot find anything to praise more highly, and the child knows nothing more amusing." Three years after its publication (1681), it was reprinted in colonial America, and was widely read in the Puritan colonies.

Because of its English Protestant theology, The Pilgrim's Progress shares the then-popular English antipathy toward the Catholic Church. It was published over the years of the Popish Plot (1678–1681) and ten years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and it shows the influence of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. Bunyan presents a decrepit and harmless giant to confront Christian at the end of the Valley of the Shadow of Death that is explicitly named "Pope":

Now I saw in my Dream, that at the end of this Valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of Pilgrims that had gone this way formerly: And while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied a little before me a Cave, where two Giants, Pope and Pagan, dwelt in old times, by whose Power and Tyranny the Men whose bones, blood ashes, &c. lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place Christian went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that Pagan has been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet alive, he is by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger dayes, grown so crazy and stiff in his joynts, that he can now do little more than sit in his Caves mouth, grinning at Pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails, because he cannot come at them.[39]

When Christian and Faithful travel through Vanity Fair, Bunyan adds the editorial comment:

But as in other fairs, some one Commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so the Ware of Rome and her Merchandize is greatly promoted in this fair: Only our English Nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.[40]

In the Second Part, while Christiana and her group of pilgrims led by Greatheart stay for some time in Vanity, the city is terrorized by a seven-headed beast[41] which is driven away by Greatheart and other stalwarts.[42] In his endnotes W.R. Owens notes about the woman that governs the beast: "This woman was believed by Protestants to represent Antichrist, the Church of Rome. In a posthumously published treatise, Of Antichrist, and his Ruine (1692), Bunyan gave an extended account of the rise and (shortly expected) fall of Antichrist."[43]

African version of Pilgrim's Progress from 1902

Not long after its initial publication, The Pilgrim's Progress was being translated into multiple languages starting with Dutch in 1681, German in 1703 and Swedish in 1727, as well as over eighty African languages.[44] Beginning in the 1850s, illustrated versions of The Pilgrim's Progress in Chinese were printed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Fuzhou and widely distributed by Protestant missionaries. Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Christianity-inspired Taiping Rebellion, declared that the book was his favorite reading.[45]

H. A. Krishnapillai's magnum opus, Ratchanya Yaathrigam(The Journey of Salvation) is an adaptation of The Pilgrim's Progress in the Tamil language and is considered as one of the most finest Tamil literary works of the 19th century.

Little did the missionaries who distributed The Pilgrim's Progress know that the foreigners would appropriate it to make sense of their own experiences. Heaven was often a place designed to resemble what they had gone through in life. For example, in South Africa, a version was written where the injustices which took place in that country were reformulated.[46]

There are collections of old foreign language versions of The Pilgrim's Progress at both Elstow's Moot Hall museum, and at the John Bunyan Museum in Mill Street Bedford.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress

Tender-Conscience, hero of Part Three, awakens from sleep in the palace of Carnal-Security

The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress was written by an anonymous author; beginning in 1693, it was published with Bunyan's authentic two parts. It continued to be republished with Bunyan's work until 1852.[47] This third part presented the pilgrimage of Tender-Conscience and his companions.

The book was the basis of a condensed radio adaptation, originally presented in 1942 and starring John Gielgud, which included, as background music, several excerpts from Vaughan Williams' orchestral works.

The book was the basis of The Pilgrim's Progress (opera) by Ralph Vaughan Williams, premiered in 1951.

The radio version was newly recorded by Hyperion Records in 1990, in a performance conducted by Matthew Best. It again starred Gielgud, and featured Richard Pasco and Ursula Howells.

English composer Ernest Austin set the whole story as a huge narrative tone poem for solo organ, with optional 6-part choir and narrator, lasting approximately 2½ hours.

Under the name The Similitude of a Dream, the progressive rock band of Neal Morse released a concept album based on The Pilgrim's Progress in November 2016. A sequel, entitled "The Great Adventure", focusing on Christian's son Joseph, was released in January 2019. Both albums received critical acclaim.

A number of illustrations created by Henry Melville appear in the Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books under the editorship of Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Each is accompanied by a poem, either by Bernard Barton or by Miss Landon herself. These plates are as follows:

• 1835
  • The River of the Water of Life. (L. E. L.)
  • Christian and Hopeful Escaping from the Doubting Castle (Bernard Barton)
  • Christian Got up at the Gate (Bernard Barton)
  • The Shepherd Boy in the Valley of Humiliation as The Shepherd Boy. (L. E. L.)
• 1836
  • The Pilgrims (Bernard Barton)
  • The Land of Beulah (Bernard Barton)
  • Destruction of the Doubting Castle (Bernard Barton)
  • The Palace Called Beautiful. (L. E. L.)
• 1837
  • The Delectable Mountains. (L. E. L.)

The Pilgrim's Progress was a favorite subject among painters in 1840s America, including major figures of the Hudson River School and others associated with the National Academy of Design. Daniel Huntington, Jasper Cropsey, Frederic Edwin Church, Jesse Talbot, Edward Harrison May, and others completed canvases based on the work. Thomas Cole's The Voyage of Life was inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress.[48]

In 1850, Huntington, Cropsey, and Church contributed designs to a moving panorama based on The Pilgrim's Progress, conceptualized by May and fellow artist Joseph Kyle, which debuted in New York and traveled all over the country.[49] A second version of the panorama, organized by Kyle and artist Jacob Dallas, premiered in 1851.[50] The second version exists today in the collections of the Saco Museum.

Charles Dickens' book Oliver Twist (1838) is subtitled 'The Parish Boy's Progress'. The titular character of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) and his companion Smike start to read it but are interrupted.

The title of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel Vanity Fair alludes to the location in Bunyan's work.

Mark Twain gave his 1869 travelogue, The Innocents Abroad, the alternative title The New Pilgrims' Progress. In Twain's later work Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the titular character mentions The Pilgrim's Progress as he describes the works of literature in the Grangerfords' library. Twain uses this to satirize the Protestant Southern aristocracy.

E. E. Cummings makes numerous references to it in his prose work, The Enormous Room.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "The Celestial Railroad", recreates Christian's journey in Hawthorne's time. Progressive thinkers have replaced the footpath by a railroad, and pilgrims may now travel under steam power. The journey is considerably faster, but somewhat more questionable.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter makes reference to it by way of the author John Bunyan with a metaphor comparing a main character's eyes with the fire depicted in the entrance to Hell in The Pilgrim's Progress.

John Buchan was an admirer of Bunyan's, and Pilgrim's Progress features significantly in his third Richard Hannay novel, Mr. Standfast, which also takes its title from one of Bunyan's characters.

Alan Moore, in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, enlists The Pilgrim's Progress protagonist, Christian, as a member of the earliest version of this group, Prospero's Men, having become wayward on his journey during his visit in Vanity Fair, stepping down an alleyway and found himself in London in the 1670s, and unable to return to his homeland. This group disbanded in 1690 after Prospero vanished into the Blazing World; however, some parts of the text seem to imply that Christian resigned from Prospero's League before its disbanding and that Christian traveled to the Blazing World before Prospero himself. The apparent implication is that; within the context of the League stories; the Celestial City Christian seeks and the Blazing World may in fact be one and the same.

In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the protagonist Jo and her sisters read it at the outset of the novel, and try to follow the good example of Bunyan's Christian. Throughout the novel, the main characters refer many times to Pilgrim's Progress and liken the events in their own lives to the experiences of the pilgrims. A number of chapter titles directly reference characters and places from Pilgrim's Progress.

The cartoonist Winsor McCay drew an allegorical comic strip, entitled A Pilgrim's Progress, in the New York Evening Telegram. The strip ran from 26 June 1905 to 18 December 1910. In it, the protagonist Mr. Bunion is constantly frustrated in his attempts to improve his life by ridding himself of his burdonsome valise, "Dull Care".[51]

C. S. Lewis wrote a book inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress, called The Pilgrim's Regress, in which a character named John follows a vision to escape from The Landlord, a less friendly version of The Owner in The Pilgrim's Regress. It is an allegory of C. S. Lewis' own journey from a religious childhood to a pagan adulthood in which he rediscovers his Christian God.

Henry Williamson's The Patriot's Progress references the title of The Pilgrim's Progress and the symbolic nature of John Bunyan's work. The protagonist of the semi-autobiographical novel is John Bullock, the quintessential English soldier during World War I.

The character of Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-5: The Children's Crusade, is a clear homage to a similar journey to enlightenment experienced by Christian, although Billy's journey leads him to an existential acceptance of life and of a fatalist human condition. Vonnegut's parallel to The Pilgrim's Progress is deliberate and evident in Billy's surname.

Charlotte Brontë refers to Pilgrim's Progress in most of her novels, including Jane Eyre,[52] Shirley,[53] and Villette.[54] Her alterations to the quest-narrative have led to much critical interest, particular with the ending of Jane Eyre.[55]

Walt Willis and Bob Shaw's classic science fiction fan novelette, The Enchanted Duplicator, is explicitly modeled on The Pilgrim's Progress and has been repeatedly reprinted over the decades since its first appearance in 1954: in professional publications, in fanzines, and as a monograph.

Enid Blyton wrote The Land of Far Beyond (1942) as a children's version of The Pilgrim's Progress.

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath mentions The Pilgrim's Progress as one of an (anonymous) character's favorite books. Steinbeck's novel was itself an allegorical spiritual journey by Tom Joad through America during the Great Depression, and often made Christian allusions to sacrifice and redemption in a world of social injustice.

The book was commonly referenced in African American slave narratives, such as "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" by Ellen and William Craft, to emphasize the moral and religious implications of slavery.[56]

Hannah Hurnard's novel Hinds' Feet on High Places (1955) uses a similar allegorical structure to The Pilgrim's Progress and takes Bunyan's character Much-Afraid as its protagonist.

In Lois McMaster Bujold's The Borders of Infinity (1989), Miles Vorkosigan uses half a page torn from The Pilgrim's Progress as a coded message to his fleet to rescue him and 9,000 others from a POW camp.

Sir Walter Scott uses Bunyan's tale in chapter 32 of his novel The Heart of Midlothian (1818) to illustrate the relationship between Madge Wildfire and Jeanie Deans. Madge explains: "But it is all over now.—But we'll knock at the gate and then the keeper will admit Christiana, but Mercy will be left out—and then I'll stand at the door trembling and crying, and then Christiana—that's you, Jeanie,—will intercede for me. And then Mercy,—that's me, ye ken,—will faint[.]"

In Marguerite Young's novel, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, the titular character always carries a copy of Pilgrim's Progress with her. The structure of the novel is inspired by Pilgrim's Progress too, being composed largely of the narrator's seemingly omniscient reminiscences about other characters' inner lives and dreams.

• The Children's Pilgrim's Progress. The story taken from the work by John Bunyan. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1866.

• Pilgrim's Progress retold and shortened for modern readers by Mary Godolphin (1884). Drawings by Robert Lawson. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1939. [a newly illustrated edition of the retelling by Mary Godolphin]
• The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable by Mary Godolphin. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1869.
• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read. Edited by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1909.
• John Bunyan's Dream Story: the Pilgrim's Progress retold for children and adapted to school reading by James Baldwin. New York: American Book Co., 1913.
• The Land of Far-Beyond by Enid Blyton. Methuen, 1942.
• Eliot Wirt, Sherwood (1969). Passport to Life City: A Modern Pilgrim's Progress. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. ISBN 9780854212200. The story is set in a 20th-century America, concerned about the threat of World War Three, where the hero turns to Christ as there is a crisis involving China and the places he goes to are more futuristic.
• Pilgrim's Progress in Today's English – as retold by James H. Thomas. Moody Publishers. 1971. ISBN 080246520X. LCCN 64-25255.
• Pilgrim's Progress, from This World to That Which Is to Come. Rev., 2nd ed., in modern English – Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, Penn., 1981.
• Little Pilgrim's Progress – Helen L. Taylor simplifies the vocabulary and concepts for younger readers, while keeping the storyline intact. Published by Moody Press, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1992, 1993.
• John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as retold by Gary D. Schmidt & illustrated by Barry Moser published by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Copyright 1994.
• The Evergreen Wood: An Adaptation of the "Pilgrim's Progress" for Children written by Linda Perry, illustrated by Alan Perry. Published by Hunt & Thorpe, 1997.
• The New Amplified Pilgrim's Progress (both book and dramatized audio) – as retold by James Pappas. Published by Orion's Gate (1999). A slightly expanded and highly dramatized version of John Bunyan's original. Large samples of the text are available[64]
• "The Aussie Pilgrim's Progress" by Kel Richards. Ballarat: Strand Publishing, 2005.
• "Quest for Celestia: A Reimagining of The Pilgrim's Progress" by Steven James, 2006
• The Pilgrim's Progress – A 21st Century Re-telling of the John Bunyan Classic – Dry Ice Publishing, 2008 directed by Danny Carrales[74]

• Pilgrim's Progress – a graphic novel by Marvel Comics. Thomas Nelson, 1993.
• Stephen T. Moore (2011). "The Pilgrim's Progress" A very graphic novel. 150. ISBN 978-1-4610-3271-7.
• Sato, Masako (2012). マンガ天路歴程. ISBN 978-4904656075. A manga version of Pilgrim's progress.
• Pilgrim's Progress the Graphic Novel, written and illustrated by Ralph Sanders, 2018, Whistle Key Books, ISBN 978-0-692-96574-0
• RUN: The Pilgrim's Progress (ピルグリムのプログレス）, 2018, illustrated by Alpha Yu (Shonen Bag Studio). A webmanga retelling the basic framework of the book with contemporary character designs heavily influenced from popular anime, as well as retooling the story to wrap it around manga tropes and conventions. (The creator has gone on record stating that the character of the Interpreter was designed to resemble a pre-pubescant version of Rei Ayanami.[75] He has also gone of record saying that the character of Faithful is "best waifu"[76] multiple times.) Drastic changes were made to the underlying puritan philosophy of the original text.[77]