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Pilgrim's Progress Characters and Places: Who Each One Stands For

AllegoryChristian Life

John Bunyan gave nearly everyone in The Pilgrim's Progress a name that tells you what they are. Obstinate is obstinate. Pliable bends. Giant Despair throws men into a dungeon of despair. That is the heart of an allegory: the story works on the surface as an adventure, and underneath, each person and place pictures something real in the life of a believer. Below are the main characters and places in the order Christian meets them, what each stands for, and Bunyan's own words about them.

If you haven't read the story yet, start with the stage-by-stage summary, or read the book free on its own.

The pilgrims

Christian

Christian is every believer who has been woken up by the Word of God to see his sin and his danger. He starts the book with no name at all, just "a man," and the first picture of him is the book's most famous image:

I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.

The Pilgrim's Progress, the opening dream

The rags are his own righteousness, the book is the Bible, and the burden is the guilt of sin. Later he tells the porter at the Palace Beautiful how he got his name:

My name is now Christian, but my name at the first was Graceless

The Pilgrim's Progress, at the Palace Beautiful

Christian is no plaster saint. He takes bad advice, sleeps when he should climb, loses his roll, leads his friend into By-path Meadow, and nearly drowns in fear at the last river. Bunyan shows a real man kept by grace.

Faithful

Faithful comes from the same city and is a little way ahead of Christian on the road until Christian catches him up after the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He stands for steady, plain faithfulness to Christ. He resists the woman Wanton, the old man Adam the First (the old sinful nature) and the bully Shame, and he speaks the truth to Talkative's face. At Vanity Fair he is tried, condemned and killed, the book's martyr. Bunyan sums up his end in one line:

Thus came Faithful to his end.

The Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair

Hopeful

Hopeful is the fruit of Faithful's death. He watches the two pilgrims at the fair and follows Christ because of what he sees:

Thus, one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes, to be a companion with Christian in his pilgrimage.

The Pilgrim's Progress, after Vanity Fair

He stands for Christian hope. In Doubting Castle he talks Christian out of giving up, and in the river of death he holds his friend's head above water. Christian himself names the gift: "you have been Hopeful ever since I knew you."

The helpers

Evangelist

Evangelist is the faithful preacher of the gospel. He points Christian to the shining light and the gate, finds him again when he has turned aside to Mount Sinai, and meets him and Faithful before Vanity Fair to warn and strengthen them.

Help

Help pulls Christian out of the Slough of Despond and tells him why the place cannot be fixed. He pictures the help God sends through His promises and His people to a sinner sinking in fear.

Good-will

Good-will keeps the Wicket-Gate. He is Christ receiving sinners, and he makes no objection to anyone who comes. As he puts it, "They are in no wise cast out."

The Interpreter

The Interpreter is the Holy Spirit, who teaches by showing. His house is full of pictures that explain the way, and his explanations are some of the clearest teaching in the book:

This parlour is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel

The Pilgrim's Progress, the Interpreter's House

The Shining Ones

The three Shining Ones meet Christian at the cross. They are angels, ministering spirits. One declares his sins forgiven, one gives him new clothes, and one gives him a mark and a sealed roll. Shining Ones appear again in Beulah and at the river to bring the pilgrims home.

Watchful, Discretion, Prudence, Piety and Charity

Watchful is the porter at the Palace Beautiful, who keeps the door and tells the frightened pilgrim the lions are chained. The four women of the house stand for the graces found in a true church family. They question Christian about his faith and his home, feed him, give him rest, and arm him.

The Shepherds

Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere keep the flocks on the Delectable Mountains. They are faithful pastors who show the pilgrims warnings and comforts and give them directions for the road ahead.

The ones who turn aside

Obstinate and Pliable

Obstinate will not move at all. Pliable moves too easily. He is excited about heaven until the first hard place, then climbs out of the Slough of Despond on the side nearest home. Together they show two ways of refusing the call.

Mr. Worldly Wiseman

Mr. Worldly Wiseman lives in the town of Carnal Policy. He stands for the respectable, sensible advice that offers relief from guilt without the cross. He sends Christian to Mr. Legality in the village of Morality, which is salvation by keeping the law. Evangelist tells him the overhanging hill beside that house is Mount Sinai.

Formalist and Hypocrisy

These two climb over the wall instead of coming in at the gate. They keep the outward forms of religion and see no need for a new birth. At the Hill Difficulty they take the side roads called Danger and Destruction and are lost.

Talkative

Talkative can discuss any spiritual subject, but there is no change in his life. Christian describes him bluntly:

His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour.

The Pilgrim's Progress, Talkative

By-ends

By-ends of the town of Fair-speech is the man who follows religion only when it pays. He says his family is "always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers," and they never strive "against wind and tide." His motto is plain: "I shall never desert my old principles, since they are harmless and profitable."

Ignorance

Ignorance comes from the country of Conceit by a crooked lane, not through the gate. He trusts his own good heart and good life:

I know my Lord's will, and I have been a good liver; I pay every man his own; I pray, fast, pay tithes, and give alms

The Pilgrim's Progress, meeting Ignorance

He is Bunyan's sharpest warning, because he reaches the very gate of heaven and is turned away.

The enemies

Apollyon

Apollyon is Satan as a destroyer, claiming the pilgrim as his own subject. Bunyan's description is hard to forget:

he was clothed with scales, like a fish, (and they are his pride,) he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out of his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion

The Pilgrim's Progress, the Valley of Humiliation

Giant Despair and Diffidence

Giant Despair owns Doubting Castle, and his wife Diffidence (distrust) gives him his worst ideas. They stand for the despair and doubt that seize a believer who has strayed from the path. The way out was in Christian's pocket the whole time: "a Key in my bosom called Promise."

Lord Hate-good and the jury

Lord Hate-good judges Faithful at Vanity Fair, and the jury includes Mr. Blind-man, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Hate-light and Mr. Implacable. They picture a world that hates the truth.

Flatterer and Atheist

Flatterer is a dark man in a white robe who leads the pilgrims into a net. Atheist walks with his back to Zion and laughs at them for believing there is a city at all.

The places

For the best lines from all of these people and places, see the key quotes. To learn about the man who wrote them, read Who Was John Bunyan?, and for families, see The Pilgrim's Progress for kids. Or go straight to the book's page.

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