John BunyanThe Pilgrim’s Progress The Pilgrim’s Progress was first published in 1678, andswiftly achieved the popularity, which it has retained ever since. Furthereditions and revisions soon followed, and in 1684 Part 2 was added. Its author,John Bunyan, wrote much of The Pilgrim’s Progress in prison, probably in thecounty gaol rather than in the tiny lock-up in Bedford which legend used toclaim as its birthplace.Bunyan had been imprisoned because he refused to accept thedemands for religious conformity imposed after the Restoration of 1660. He hadin earlier years served in the Civil War on the Parliamentary side; he had alsoundergone a severe crisis of faith in which he struggled to hold on to hisreligious belief. The first literary fruit of this crisis was Grace Aboundingto the Chief of Sinners, an intense autobiographical account of his period ofspiritual turmoil. The Pilgrim’s Progress followed, in which he turned thispersonal material into the great work of fiction we know today. The Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegorical account of theheroic journey of Christian towards heaven and salvation. The story clearly hassomething of the quality of epic, and also echoes the older English traditionof the knightly romance — much of it is couched in terms of a holy war betweenGood and Evil. There is, too, an obvious echo of Everyman, the medievalmorality play, yet its memorable opening — ‘As I walked through the wildernessof this world...’ — has a poetic urgency which recalls that other medievalclassic of spiritual journeying, Piers Plowman. That urgency, that yearning forsalvation set against the terror of damnation, is to sustain the narrativethroughout. As an allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress inevitably relies onpersonification, but there is nothing strict or pedantic about Bunyan’sequivalents: the characters Christian encounters frequently rise above merefunction to become vividly realized figures — people like the self-serving,hypocritical By-ends, whose language is full of smooth, would-be courtlyevasions. For him, religion must be made an easy thing: ‘My wife is a veryvirtuous woman, the daughter of a virtuous woman. She was my Lady Faining’sdaughter, therefore she came of a very honorable family, and is arrived to sucha pitch of breeding, that she knows how to carry it to all, even to prince andpeasant. Tis true, we somewhat differ in religion from those of the strictersort...’ Modern readers may be shocked by Christian’s abandonment ofwife and children. We should remember, however, the powerfully personalemphasis on Calvinist doctrine: Christian must create his own relationship withhis God, achieve his own salvation — and perhaps there is a recollection, too,of the way in which Christ’s disciples had to be ready to give up family andwork to follow Him. At any rate, Christian passionately urges his family toaccompany him, but the appeal falls on stony ground... Thereafter, Christian goes through the various stages offull conversion to the faith. He begins by becoming ‘convicted of sin’ — awareof his moral and spiritual shortcomings — and moves on to a process ofinstruction (the House of the Interpreter), before shedding the burden of hissin by the Cross and receiving the roll which represents his guarantee of salvationas one of the elect. From now on he must resist all temptation as he travelsthe hard road to the Gates of Heaven. Part 2 tells how Christiana (his wife) and their fourchildren follow his example and, indeed, his road. Some of Part One’s dramatic power is sacrificed for agentler, more pastoral narrative. Accompanied and protected by Great-heart,Christiana, her friend Mercy and the children never seem to be in real danger,but Bunyan’s thoughtful treatment of ‘the problems of the small urban communityof Nonconformists’ (Roger Sharrock) offers much in compensation for thisreduction in intensity. The natural, almost domestic way in which the pilgrimsare eventually called to their reward provides a moving conclusion: ‘So hepassed over, and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.’ What of Bunyan’s language? His style is a triumph ofdignified colloquialism, always able to achieve a plain tenderness — as in thedescription of the Delectable Mountains — or a domestic simplicity which owesmuch to the Authorized Version of the Bible: ‘Now while they lay here andwaited for the good hour, there was a noise in the town that there was a Postcome from the Celestial City...the contents whereof was, Hail, good woman, Ibring thee tidings that the Master calleth for thee, and expecteth that thoushouldest stand in his presence, in clothing of immortality, within these tendays.’ Yet Bunyan is also equal to the demands of the sinister, the smoothlyhypocritical, or the depiction of vigorous action, as in the great fights withGiant Despair and Apollyon. Throughout, he makes the ordinary extraordinary —suffusing the simple good things of everyday life with a sense of theirultimate source, God. John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow in Bedfordshire. Hisfather’s family, originally of yeoman stock, had fallen on harder times, butJohn was nevertheless educated at the local school. At the age of 16 he wascalled up into the Parliamentary army, in which he served for two years.Married in 1649, his wife bore him four children and encouraged his interest inreligious reading; his earliest writings were pamphlets attacking the Quakers.His wife died in 1656 and he married again in 1659. Following his arrest in1660 for nonconformist preaching, he spent most of the subsequent twelve yearsin Bedford prison. Here he produced Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners(1666) and began The Pilgrim’s Progress. In his later years he became a pastor noted for the energy and power ofhis preaching. Other works include The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) andThe Holy War (1682). Bunyan died in 1688. Notes by Perry Keenlyside Edward de Souza Edward de Souza has played leading roles in over a dozenWest End plays and in several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company,Stratford, at the Old Vic and the National Theatre. His film credits includeThe Thirty-Nine Steps and The Spy Who Loved Me.