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2. Pilgrim’s Progress
Pilgrim’s Progress is Bunyan’s masterpiece, and is generally agreed
to be the most successful allegory in English literature. After publishing
in 1678, the book won immediate popularity. About a hundred thousand books
were sold within a year. Before his death ten editions had been sold. After
William Thackeray named his novel with Vanity Fair, Pilgrim’s Progress
became more influential.
The success of the book led the author to write a sequel. It
deals with the pilgrimage of Christian’s wife, children, and neighbors. But
it is much inferior to the first book because Bunyan could not avoid
repetition in plot and writing skill. This book was written for religious
instructions in the form of allegory and dream. In his dream, the author
sees Christian, the main Character, with a burden on his back is reading a
book, the Bible. From the book, Christian learns that the city where he
lives will be burned down with fire. After failing to convince his wife,
children and neighbors of the coming danger, he decides to flee from the
City of Destruction to the Celestial City. On the way he meets many pitfalls
and hindrances, such as, the Slough of Despond, Hill of Difficulty, Valley
of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair and River of Death, and with the help of
many wise and firm men, such as, Mr. Evangelist, Faithful, and Hopeful, he
finally arrives at the Celestial City.
This book is usually considered as a religious allegory. This
spirit reflects the sublime side of human nature. Furthermore, the allegory
is like a novel because it is written with attractive stories and vivid
characters. Last but not least, the book has realistic elements. Although
the characters are not true, they reflect the features of English society in
the 17th century as well as the moral and spiritual problems that obsessed
common people at that time. The bypaths and short cuts through fields, the
town fair, the hill, and the river in the book are real scenes in Bunyan’s
life.
The most famous part of that book is the sixth chapter
“Vanity Fair”. It tells how Christian and his friend Faithful come to Vanity
Fair on their way to Heaven, “a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of
vanity, and that it should last all the year long; therefore at this fair
all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours,
preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of
all sorts as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives,
blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones and what not.
”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. They are
sentenced to death -- to be put to the most cruel death that can be
invented. Faithful is burned to death, but immediately after he is burned to
death, he ascends to the Celestial City. By the help o f God, Christian, for
the time being, escapes. Vanity Fair is a satirical picture of English
society, law, and religion in Bunyan 's day. He might even be aiming at
concrete situation or real persons.
In “Vanity Fair”, Bunyan criticized the money-seeking and
immoral capitalist society. There, everything, including honors, titles,
kingdoms, pleasures, etc., except faith, can be sold and bought. Vanity Fair
is a satirical picture of English society, law and religion in Bunyan’s day.
The following part is the description of Vanity Fair.
This Fair is no
new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will shew you the
original of it.
Almost five thousand years ago, there were Pilgrims walking to the Celestial
City, as these two honest persons are; and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion,
with their Companions, perceiving by the path that the Pilgrims made, that
their way to the City lay through this Town of Vanity, they contrived here
to set up a Fair; a Fair wherein should be sold all sorts of Vanity, and
that it should last all the year long: therefore at this Fair are all such
Merchandize sold, as Houses, Lands, Trades, Places, Honours, Preferments,
Titles, Countries, Kingdoms, Lusts, Pleasures, and Delights of all sorts, as
Whores, Bawds, Wives, Husbands, Children, Masters, Servants, Lives, Blood,
Bodies, Souls, Silver, Gold, Pearls, Precious Stones, and what not? And
moreover, at this Fair there is at all times to be seen Jugglings, Cheats,
Games, Plays, Folls, Apes, Knives, and Rogues, and that of every kind. Here
are to be seen too, and that for nothing, Thefts, Murders, Adulteries,
false-swearers, and that of a blood-red color.
Pilgrim's Progress warns that a Christian in search of
salvation will meet m any difficulties -- that is to say, various kinds of
temptation and trials. Only by steadfastness and faithfulness can he win the
way to Heaven. In a more general sense, Christian can really be any man who
struggles through life searching for goodness. The basic metaphor of the
book is “Life is a journey.”
Like Milton, Bunyan is a well-known figure in the 17th
century English literature. While Milton voiced the Puritan ideals for the
educated class, John Bunyan spoke for the common people.
3.Features of Bunyan's works
Bunyan uses the simple, unaffected language of the
common people, as well as a simple, lively and vivid prose style, ennobled
by the solemn dignity of the English Bible. Everyday idiomatic expressions
are used naturally and forcefully. In his works we can also find carefully
observed and vividly rendered details taken from ordinary circumstances of
ordinary life.
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