The Pilgrim's Progress

Like Part 1, Part 2 begins with a preface by the author. In verse form, Bunyan engages in dialogue with the reader. The tone is less modest and more confident. He calls out authors that “Counterfeit the Pilgrim, and his name” (664), and he all but boasts about the success of the first book. He declares, “My Pilgrims Book has travel’d Sea and Land” (666). Once again, he structures the introduction like a debate, with the hypothetical reader providing objections and Bunyan answering them. Bunyan switches back to a teacherly tone when he expresses his wish that Part 2 can help the reader with their spiritual journey.

Bunyan introduces Christiana’s story by repeating, with slight differences, the beginning of Part 1. An unnamed narrator has a dream, which reintroduces the motif of sleep and unconscious visions. Bunyan uses dialogue to summarize how people changed their views on Christian. Mr. Sagacity tells the narrator that people no longer mock Christian.

Christiana’s plight involves elements of Alienation and Antagonism Versus Self-Awareness and Community. She berates herself and tells her children, “[W]e are all undone. I have sinned away your Father, and he is gone” (689). However, her dream and Secret’s visit imply that her fate involves heaven, introducing the idea of predestination. As she adopts a new greeting to reflect her growing spirituality, Bunyan spotlights the growing contrast between Christiana and her neighbors. The narrator writes, “[T]he Women were stun’d, for this kind of Language they used not to hear, or to perceive to drop from the Lips of Christiana” (699). Mrs. Timorous perpetuates a restricted idea of gender when she asks Christiana, “For if [Christian], tho’ a man, was so hard put to it, what canst thou being but a poor Woman do?” (703).

As with Part 1, the names of the characters tend to reveal their allegorical meaning. Mercie has mercy, so she joins Christiana; like Christian, Christiana has a traveling companion. There’s further repetition as Christiana leaves home, as her journey parallels her husband’s pilgrimage; for example, she too passes by the Slow of Dispond. New elements also appear. The dog at the gate symbolizes fear and the need to overcome it. Mercie’s dilemma at the gate further develops the idea of fear. Unlike Christiana, she didn’t receive a mysterious visitor, but her powerful knocks represent her passion for God and salvation. The children also encounter new obstacles as Mathew eats fruit from the devil’s garden—an allusion to Eve eating the forbidden fruit.

The attempted sexual assault relates to the motif of gender. As women, Christiana and Mercie face dangers that Christian men don’t. That their “Reliever” holds them partly accountable for the episode reflects the era’s views on gender and sexuality. According to him, the women should have anticipated potential sexual violence and secured a protector; he even implies that rape would “count” as illicit sexual activity despite the absence of consent.

As with Christian, the Interpreter shows Christiana situations that instruct her and the reader on how to lead a godly life. The Interpreter’s lessons are allegorical, and his proverbs provide Christiana and the reader with additional information about the elements of a true Christian life. Mercie’s story emphasizes the theme of self-awareness and alienation: Like Christian, Mercie left her unbelieving family. The motif of gender returns as the Interpreter tells the armed Mr. Great-heart to accompany the women and children. His presence promotes the idea that women require special protection. Christian didn’t have Mr. Great-heart around to help him.

The story takes on a philosophical tone as Mr. Great-heart unpacks the complexities of Christ’s righteousness and how it relates to his identity as both God and man. The pilgrims and the reader learn that Christ can give his righteousness to others because he’s “perfectly so without it” (788). Christiana herself explains the significance of the hanging of Simple, Sloth, and Presumption: “I think it is well that they hang so near the High-way that others may see and take warning” (799). Both in and out of the text, the men’s fate is meant to evoke fear.

At Porter’s Lodge, Mr. Great-heart exhibits his heroic character and masculine traits by protecting the women and children from the lions and Mr. Grim. Mercie’s dream continues the motif of visions. The dialogue between Prudence and the boys represents catechism. Their question-and-answer session informs the reader of Christian beliefs on creation, salvation, heaven, and hell.

Mr. Brisk’s entrance is quick and his actions hasty as he pressures Mercie to marry him and then discards her when he learns she has no interest in acquiring wealth. The episode suggests that one of the most important choices in a Christian woman’s life is the choice of a husband. Mercie’s sister, Bountiful, illustrates the perils of choosing poorly: Her husband didn’t like her godly ways, so he “cried her down at the Cross, and then turned her out of his Doors” (843). He even tried to sell her before kicking her out. While the emphasis on women’s role in marriage reinforces traditional gender roles, it also reflects the historical reality that a “bad” choice of partner was much more dangerous for a wife than for a husband. Most women of the era would not have the cultural or economic power to abandon their husband as Bountiful was abandoned.

Mathew’s delayed illness indicates that sin doesn’t always “hurt” a person right away; its harmful effects accumulate over time. Skill’s treatment reflects the healing power of Christ. What heals Mathew is a potion “made ex Carne & Sanguine Christi” (846-47)—that is, Christ’s flesh and blood. Christ is the ultimate healer because his sacrifice cures humanity of sin and its associated spiritual malaise and death. In its composition and effects, Skill’s “universal Pill” suggests the Eucharist, although the question of whether the Eucharist literally becomes Jesus’s body and blood was a point of great division between Catholics and Protestants, with Protestants arguing that the act was symbolic.