About "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan

“The Pilgrim’s Progress from this world to that which is to come”, is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in 1678, which regarded as one of the most significant works of the religious English literature. In the first part, Christian, an everyman character, is the protagonist of the allegory, which centers itself in his journey from his hometown to the top of the Mt. Zion. In the allegory, Christian’s hometown means “the city of destruction”, and the top of the Mt. Zion means “the celestial city”. Moreover, Christian is weighed down by a great burden, the knowledge of the sin, which he believed came from his reading “the book in his hand”, Bible. This burden, which would cause him sink into hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as his guide, who directs him to “Wicket Gate” for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the "Wicket Gate" in the distance, and go to a “shining light”, which the Christian thinks he sees. In the second part, author presents the pilgrimage of Christian’s wife, their sons, and the maiden. They visit the same place that Christian visited. But, they take a longer time in order to accommodate marriage for the four sons. The hero of the story is Greatheart, the servant of the interpreter, who is a pilgrim’s guide to the Celestial City and kills four giants. To summarize, the passage of years allegorizes the journey of the Christian life and uses heroines to illustrates the idea that woman can be brave pilgrims as well as men.

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