John Bunyan Bunyan’s life Bunyan’s literary creation Textual study: The Pilgrim’s Progress allegory Textual study:

Bunyan’s life Born in 1628, uneducated tinker; From the reformation he received an excess of the spiritual independence which had caused the Puritan struggle for liberty; The religious ferment of the age made a tremendous impression on Bunyan’s sensitive imagination; The dowry of his wife, two books entitled The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and The Practice of Piety, gave fire to his imagination; Became an open-air preacher, imprisoned because of his refusal to obey the law prohibiting religious meetings without the authority of the Established Church;

Bunyan’s life Wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress while in prison.

Bunyan’s literary creation The Pilgrim’s Progress: its story The story tells of the spiritual pilgrimage of Christian who, with a book in his hand and a burden on his back, flees from the City of Destruction and meets the perils and temptations of the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle. He faces and overcomes the demon Appollyon, journeys through the interpreter’s House, the Palace Beautiful, the Valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and the Delectable Mountains and finally reaches the Celestial City.

Bunyan’s literary creation The Pilgrim’s Progress: an allegory A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. The most famous allegory in English literature is John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan’s hero, Christian, makes a journey to the Celestial city, during which he meets such characters as Hope, Shame, and Despair. The symbolic meaning of the journey is the search for spiritual salvation.

Textual study The Pilgrim’s Progress: its theme The allegory depicts the Puritan struggle for freedom of worship, the eternal struggle of man to find unity with God. 1.It is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils. 2. The satires in the book are centered upon the ruling class. Bunyan revealed a realistic picture of the moral depravity of the ruling class.

Textual study The Pilgrim’s Progress: a brief comment The Pilgrim’s Progress is written in the form of allegory and dream; The allegory is written in an effective style: simple, strong, masculine and direct; He uses the language of the common people; He links the religious allegory with realistic character sketches. He ticks off a character by merely giving him a name—Obstinate, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Lord Hate-good.

Textual study: comment on the fair This part is the description of the Vanity Fair that Christian and Faithful pass through on their way to the Celestial City. Vanity means “emptiness” or “worthlessness,” and hence the fair is an allegory of worldliness and the corruption of the religious life through the attractions of the world. The serious business of buying and selling was accompanied by all sorts of diversions – eating, drinking, and other fleshly pleasures, as well as spectacles of strange animals, acrobats, and other wonders. This selection gives the bitterest satire, which is invariably directed at the ruling class. In the descriptions of the Vanity Fair, Bunyan not only gives us a symbolic picture of London at the time of the Restoration but of all bourgeois society.

Textual study The Pilgrim’s Progress: scenes that are most satirical (1) One scene is the description of the Vanity Fair, where all sorts of vanity are sold. People can buy merchandise and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, bodies, souls and what not. People can also see cheats, fools and even adulteries in the fair. In this satire, Bunyan gives us a symbolic picture of London in Bunyan’s time.

Textual study The Pilgrim’s Progress: scenes that are most satirical (2) Another scene is the one in which the persecution of Christian and his friend Faithful are described. Christian and faithful come Vanity Fair. As they refuse to buy anything but Truth, they are beaten and put in a cage, and then taken out and led in chains up and down the fair, and at length brought before a court. Judge Hate-good summons three witnesses: Envy, Superstition and Pickthank, who testify against him. The case is submitted to the jury, composed of Mr. Badman, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, etc. each gives a verdict against Faithful, who is presently condemned. Here Bunyan intends to satirize the state trials in the reactionary reigns of Charles II and James II.

Point of View Religiously, Bunyan was a devout Christian. He insisted that Biblical doctrines be the best way of life and everyone be entitled to understand Bible in his own way. He believed that man’s final salvation could be achieved only by one’s own spiritual struggle. Politically, Bunyan had a deep hatred for the corrupted and hypocritical rich who accumulated their wealth by hook and by crook (illegal way). He eulogized the truth-seeking Chrisitan, who was a symbol of the virtuous common people.

Literature Features Bunyan makes his style after that of English Bible. Thus his language is concrete, living and colloquial. He adopts the allegorical form in telling history, but his presentation is true to life.