The Pilgrim's Progress

Christiana is Christian’s wife and the mother of four sons. In Part 1, she is not exactly an antagonist, but she is also not on Christian’s side: She doesn’t think he needs to go on his journey (i.e., seek salvation). Like Christian, Christiana has flaws. She too doesn’t live a godly life at first.

However, Christiana is thoughtful and self-critical, so she doesn’t take her husband’s departure lightly. The narrator writes, “She was moreover much broken with recalling to remembrance the restless Groans, brinish Tears and self-bemoanings of her Husband” (178). She chides herself for pushing Christian away, and her dream about her ungodly behavior reinforces her conscientious character. This leads her to becoming the main character and the protagonist of Part 2. As with Christian, the reader is supposed to root for Christiana and hope her journey is successful.

Dialogues with other characters reinforce Christiana’s Christian beliefs and desire for salvation. Her rebuff of Mrs. Timorous creates a juxtaposition. Mrs. Timorous tries to talk Christiana out of making the pilgrimage, drawing attention to Christiana’s gender: “For if [Christian], tho’ a man, was so hard put to it, what canst thou being but a poor Woman do?” (703). Christiana counters Mrs. Timorous’s belief that women are weak: She has the courage and strength to endure the journey.

Nevertheless, Christiana’s gender does impact the character of her pilgrimage. After “two very ill-favoured ones […] began to lay hands upon them” (739), Christiana and Mercie realize they’re entitled to special protections. Unlike Christian, the women have someone to help them navigate the dangerous journey. Christiana doesn’t battle monsters: Mr. Great-heart fights them. She also converses less with the other male pilgrims, traditional gender roles limiting her interactions with the external world. Christiana’s story shows that Christian women’s experiences differ from Christian men’s, and for Bunyan the distinction is both descriptive (a reflection of women’s actual status in the world) and prescriptive (a reflection of the role women “should” have).

Mercie is Christiana’s primary companion. While Christian has two friends on his journey—Faithful and then Hopeful—Mercie stays with Christiana until Christiana reaches heaven. Mercie and her husband, Mathew, remain in the temporal world to promote God. Mercie’s marriage to Mathew makes her part of Christiana’s family, so Christiana becomes her “Mother-in-law” or “Mother” (1027).

As her name implies, Mercie’s character has mercy. While most of Christiana’s neighbors mock her newfound belief in God, Mercie takes her side: “I will yet have more talk with this Christiana, and if I find Truth and Life in what she shall say, my self with my Heart shall also go with her” (705-06). Mercie also demonstrates a mixture of fear and faith. Unlike Christiana, she didn’t get a special summons to the Celestial City, but she overcomes her fears of rejection and showcases her passion for salvation by knocking at the Wicket Gate. With Mercie’s character, Bunyan explores the idea of predestination. Not everyone fated for heaven receives a notice or a mysterious visitor. Sometimes, a person has to trust that their Christian living reflects God’s grace.

Bunyan also uses Mercie’s character to expand upon the motif of gender. Mr. Brisk—“a man that stuck very close to the World” (838)—asks to marry her, but Mercie gets out of the proposal, albeit passively. When Mr. Brisk visits, Mercie is “at her old work, a making of things for the Poor” (840). She has no say in her marriage to Mathew, yet Mathew lacks a voice too. Their marriage suggests that what makes a good husband and wife is similar ideology: Mathew and Mercie are both faithful Christians. Bunyan continues to explore gender with Mercie’s pregnancy. Mercie marries Mathew partly so “that the Name of their Father, and the House of his Progenitors may never be forgotten in the World” (930). As a woman, Mercie can give birth and keep her and Christian’s family line going.

Bunyan develops Mercie’s character by juxtaposing her with her sister, Bountiful. Bountiful is a good Christian, but her husband isn’t: He “first cried her down at the Cross, and then turned her out of his Doors” (843). The phrase “cried her down at the Cross” means he tried to sell her—an illegal but permitted custom in the 1600s. When that didn’t work, he forced her from their home. With Bountiful’s character, Bunyan points out the unique hardships that Christian women face, as well as the conflicts that arise when a Christian doesn’t marry a Christian.

Faithful and Christian join up shortly after Christian’s battle with Apollyon—possibly because this is the moment when Christian reckons with his past sins, making him ready to receive a companion. With Faithful, Bunyan shows that people don’t have to make their pilgrimage alone. That Faithful is one of Christian’s most loyal companions highlights the centrality of faith to Christianity; in fact, for Protestants like Bunyan, faith is the most important virtue and the only path to salvation.

Like Christian, Faithful has to overcome adversity. His confrontation with Wanton develops Bunyan’s ideas about gender and sexuality. Sex for procreation is acceptable, but sex for Wanton’s reasons—she’s “all carnal and fleshly content” (1394)—isn’t godly. Minor characters like Wanton and Madam Bubble—a “bold and impudent Slut [who] will talk with any Man” (1072)—serve as “femme fatales” who try to seduce good pilgrims like Faithful from their path. Faithful and Mr. Stand-fast establish their faith by resisting Wanton and Bubble.

In the town of Vanity, Faithful displays the deep meaning of his name. At the trial, Faithful defends his religion, telling the courtroom, “[A]s to the King you talk of; since he is Beelzebub, the Enemy of our Lord, I defie him and all his Angels” (443). His unrelenting faith results in a brutal death and immediate salvation. Faithful’s character isn’t so much a hero as a martyr. He dies because he won’t denounce God.

Hopeful’s character provides Christian with his second traveling companion. The prominence of Hopeful indicates hope’s importance to Christian living, while his relationship to Faithful illustrates its connection to faith. Hopeful helped Faithful find God and gave him “a Book of Jesus” (590); faith is what allows a Christian to hope for salvation. Hopeful’s background also reinforces the idea that it can take some time for a person to become religious. Hopeful is from the town of Vanity and embraces an ungodly lifestyle at first: He tells Christian that he liked things that would have “drowned [him] in perdition and destruction” (578). However, seeing Christian and Faithful suffer mightily for God transformed him into Hopeful.

Many pivotal events involving Hopeful highlight Christian’s faults and virtues. At the Silver Mine, Christian saves Hopeful from falling in. Trapped in the castle due to Christian’s erroneous shortcut, Hopeful becomes an encouraging interlocutor. Christian thinks they should do as Giant Despair wants and kill themselves. Hopeful, true to his name, cautions against despair: “Thou shalt do no murther, no not to another man’s person; much more then are we forbidden to take his counsel to kill our selves” (512). Like Christian and Faithful, Hopeful makes it to the Celestial City.

Mr. Great-heart’s character is central to the journey of Mercie, Christiana, her children, and the other pilgrims. Even though Christiana’s journey is the impetus for Part 2, Mr. Great-heart becomes the main guide and protector. His leading role relates to the motif of gender; he represents courageous masculinity and protects the women pilgrims as they travel. He’s familiar with the treacherous journey on the way to salvation and has little difficulty confronting monsters and beasts. As the narrator says about Mr. Great-heart and the lions, “Now Mr. Great-heart was a strong man, so he was not afraid of a Lion” (812). Mr. Great-heart is the Interpreter’s servant, suggesting that serving someone doesn’t compromise a person’s masculinity.

Apollyon is a monster and an antagonist. Christian’s battle with him reveals his heroic characterization and exposes his character’s background. Christian admits that he served Apollyon once but now serves God. As Apollyon symbolizes the devil, the dialogue between Apollyon and Christian allows Bunyan to talk about how the devil works on humans. The devil acts like a god whose sinful commands people obey. Apollyon tells Christian, “I perceive thou art one of my Subjects, for all that Countrey is mine; and I am the Prince and God of it” (332). Apollyon thinks of himself as the ultimate ruler. He’s satanic because God is the only true authority.

While Christian comes across a slew of ungodly characters, Bunyan singles out these five characters for marked punishments. This suggests that there is something particularly objectionable about pliability, simplicity, presumptuousness, slothfulness, and ignorance.

Pliable joins Christian for a little while but then turns back at the Slow of Dispond. He lacks the backbone to stand up to difficulty and commit himself to salvation. Faithful later provides an update on Pliable, telling Christian that people “mock and despise him, and scarce will any set him on work. He is now seven times worse than if he had never gone out of the City” (367). Pliable is now an outcast.

Christian tries to help the sleepy and chained Simple, Presumption, and Sloth, but they’re not interested. Unlike Hopeful, who welcomes guidance from Faithful, these three men have no interest in salvation. In Part 2, Christiana and her fellow pilgrims discover them hanging from their chains. Mr. Great-heart explains, “These three men, were Men of very bad Qualities, they had no mind to be Pilgrims themselves” (796).

Ignorance remains an outcast even as he travels with Christian and Hopeful. They hope to break through to him, but Ignorance is a smug and complacent character. He thinks he’s a good Christian, and Christian’s words can’t change his mind. Bunyan emphasizes the sinful traits of Ignorance by singling him out and sending him to hell.

Mr. Worldly-Wiseman and Mr. Talkative are two antagonists in Part 1, and each develops the theme of Human Laws and Customs Versus Christian Devotion. Mr. Worldly-Wiseman asks Christian a seemingly reasonable question: “[W]hy should a man so carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger [i.e., God]?” (208). Christian’s ensuing journey indicates that human logic and God are often at odds. Discourse too can deviate from God if a person’s words don’t match their actions.

Little Faith’s character is portrayed as something of a victim. Thieves take his money but not his certificate for the Celestial City. However, his mind returns to the theft and the memories “swallow up all” (546). Little Faith lacks the faith that would help him overcome adversity. As Christian says, “Some are strong, some are weak, some have great faith, some have little: this man was one of the weak, and therefore he went to the walls” (555). The phrase “went to the walls” refers to churches from the Middle Ages. These churches lacked pews, so they put benches along the walls for older or sick people. Little Faith’s faith keeps him under God’s wings, but he’s not front and center.

Giant Despair imprisons Christian and Hopeful and, under the sway of his wife, Diffidence, tries to get them to kill themselves. Through Giant Despair and Diffidence, Bunyan brings up the Christian idea of the sinfulness of suicide, as well as the motif of gender. Giant Despair’s deference to his wife is at odds with masculine norms. Diffidence deviates from gender norms. In the context of the story, her name signifies mistrust, which figuratively encourages despair.

Mr. Fearing, Mr. Feeble-mind, and Mr. Ready-to-hault appear near the end of Christiana’s journey, and their characters illustrate that pilgrims can (and will) have flaws. Mr. Fearing is excessively frightful, Mr. Feeble-mind has a weak mind and body, and Mr. Ready-to-hault requires a cane to walk. They do not perform heroic deeds—for instance, they do not participate in destroying Doubting Castle—yet all three make it to heaven. Marked imperfections don’t preclude salvation.