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The Pilgrim's Progress Summary: Christian's Road, Stage by Stage

AllegoryChristian Life

The Pilgrim's Progress is John Bunyan's story of a man named Christian who leaves the City of Destruction with a heavy burden on his back and walks, step by step, to the Celestial City. He loses the burden at the cross, fights Apollyon, sees Faithful die at Vanity Fair, escapes Giant Despair, and crosses the river of death into glory. The whole book is told as a dream, and every place and person in it stands for something in the Christian life.

This summary follows the first part of the book, which is the part most people mean when they say The Pilgrim's Progress. You can read the full text free or visit the book's page. For the people and places in more detail, see the characters guide.

1. The man with the burden

The book opens with the dreamer:

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.

The Pilgrim's Progress, opening

He sees a man in rags with a book in his hand and a great burden on his back. The book has shown him that his city will be burned and he is not ready to die. He cries out, "What shall I do to be saved?"

A man named Evangelist gives him a roll that reads "Flee from the wrath to come," and points him across a wide field toward a shining light and a little gate beyond it. The man runs. His family calls after him, but he puts his fingers in his ears and keeps going. His name, we learn, is Christian.

2. Obstinate, Pliable and the Slough of Despond

Two neighbors chase him. Obstinate tries to drag him home and gives up. Pliable likes the sound of the heavenly kingdom and comes along, until both men fall into a bog called the Slough of Despond. Pliable climbs out on the side nearest home and goes back. Christian, weighed down by his burden, struggles toward the far side until a man named Help pulls him out. The slough, Help explains, is where a waking sinner's fears and doubts collect.

3. Mr. Worldly Wiseman and Mount Sinai

Next Christian meets Mr. Worldly Wiseman from the town of Carnal Policy. He tells Christian there is an easier way to lose his burden: go to the village of Morality and ask for Mr. Legality or his son Civility. Christian turns aside, but the hill by Legality's house hangs over the road, flashes fire, and makes his burden heavier. Evangelist finds him there, shows him his error from Scripture, and sends him back to the right road.

4. The Wicket-Gate

Good-will opens the gate and pulls him through quickly, because the devil's archers shoot at those who come near, then shows him the straight and narrow way. When Christian asks about his burden, he is told to carry it "until thou comest to the place of deliverance; for there it will fall from thy back of itself."

5. The Interpreter's House

At the house of the Interpreter, Christian is shown scenes that each teach a lesson. A dusty parlor that chokes the room when swept, until a girl sprinkles it with water, shows the law stirring up sin and the gospel cleansing the heart. Two children, Passion and Patience, show the difference between those who want everything now and those willing to wait. A fire that keeps burning though a man throws water on it is fed by oil from Christ behind the wall. A brave man says "Set down my name, sir" and fights his way into a palace. A man in an iron cage of despair warns him what happens to those who turn back.

6. The cross

This is the turning point of the story:

So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

The Pilgrim's Progress, at the cross

Three Shining Ones greet him. One tells him his sins are forgiven, one gives him new clothes in place of his rags, and one sets a mark on his forehead and hands him a sealed roll to give in at the Celestial Gate.

7. The Hill Difficulty and the Palace Beautiful

Christian passes three sleepers, Simple, Sloth and Presumption, and two men named Formalist and Hypocrisy who climbed over the wall instead of coming through the gate. At the Hill Difficulty those two take side roads called Danger and Destruction. Christian climbs, falls asleep in an arbor halfway up, and loses his roll. He has to go back for it. Timorous and Mistrust run past him, frightened of lions ahead.

At the top stands the Palace Beautiful. The lions are chained, the porter Watchful tells him, so he keeps to the middle of the path and comes safe to the door. Inside, Discretion, Prudence, Piety and Charity talk with him, give him a room called Peace, and arm him before he leaves.

8. Apollyon and the Valley of the Shadow of Death

In the Valley of Humiliation Christian meets Apollyon, a monster with scales like a fish and wings like a dragon, who claims Christian as his subject. They fight for over half a day. Christian is wounded and drops his sword, but grabs it again and drives Apollyon off. A hand brings him leaves from the tree of life to heal his wounds.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death comes next: a narrow path between a ditch and a quag, with the mouth of hell beside the road. His sword is no help here, so he turns to "another weapon called All-prayer." Toward morning he hears a voice ahead reciting Psalm 23, and at the end of the valley he passes the cave of two old giants, Pope and Pagan.

9. Faithful and Talkative

Christian catches up with Faithful, a neighbor from his own city, and they walk on together. Faithful tells of his own trials: a woman named Wanton, an old man called Adam the First, a hard man named Moses who beat him down, and a bold fellow named Shame. Then they meet Talkative, who can speak well on any religious subject but lives otherwise at home. Faithful's plain questions about the power of grace in a life send him away.

10. Vanity Fair

Evangelist warns them that one of them will die in the next town. That town is Vanity, where a fair sells everything the world has to offer all year long. The pilgrims' clothes, speech and lack of interest in the goods cause an uproar. Asked what they will buy, they answer, "We buy the truth." They are beaten, caged and put on trial before Lord Hate-good. A jury with names like Mr. Blind-man and Mr. Hate-light condemns Faithful, and he is put to death. A chariot carries him straight to the Celestial Gate. Christian escapes.

11. Hopeful, By-ends and Demas

A man named Hopeful, won by what he saw of Christian and Faithful at the fair, joins Christian. They meet By-ends of the town of Fair-speech, who is happy to be religious when religion is popular and profitable. They pass Demas at a silver mine on the Hill Lucre and the pillar of salt marked "Remember Lot's Wife," then rest for several days by the river of the water of life.

12. By-path Meadow and Doubting Castle

When the road turns rough, Christian leads Hopeful over a stile into By-path Meadow, where the walking looks easier. Night falls, a storm comes, and they sleep on the grounds of Giant Despair. He locks them in the dungeon of Doubting Castle, beats them, and urges them to take their own lives. Hopeful keeps Christian from giving up. On Saturday night they pray until nearly dawn, and Christian remembers he has a key called Promise in his bosom. It opens every lock in the castle, and they escape.

13. The Delectable Mountains

They come to the Delectable Mountains, part of Immanuel's Land, where four shepherds named Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere show them sights that warn and encourage: men dashed to pieces at the foot of the Hill Error, blind men wandering among tombs, a by-way to hell, and through a glass, a glimpse of the gates of the Celestial City.

14. Ignorance, Little-faith, Flatterer and Atheist

Coming down, they meet Ignorance, a lad from the country of Conceit who expects to get in on the strength of his good life. Christian tells the story of Little-faith, robbed by three rogues but still holding his jewels. The pair forget the shepherds' warning, follow a man in a white robe called Flatterer, and land in a net until a Shining One cuts them free and chastens them. They meet Atheist, who laughs at them and turns back.

15. The Enchanted Ground and Beulah

The Enchanted Ground makes them drowsy, so they keep awake by talking. Hopeful tells how he came to faith, and they reason again with Ignorance. Then they reach the land of Beulah, where the sun shines night and day and the Celestial City is in sight.

16. The river and the Celestial City

There is no bridge over the last river. Christian begins to sink, full of fear. Hopeful holds his head up: "Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good." Christian sees Christ again, finds ground under his feet, and they cross. Shining Ones lead them up the hill, and they hand in their certificates and are let in, clothed in raiment like gold.

The last scene is a warning. Ignorance crosses in a boat rowed by Vain-hope, knocks at the gate, and has no certificate. He is bound and carried off to the door in the hillside.

Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction. So I awoke, and behold it was a dream.

The Pilgrim's Progress, closing lines

Where to find each stage

In the library's edition the first part is one long reading, so the full text runs from the Den to the dream's end without breaks. If you want to jump to a stage, the children's edition by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut keeps Bunyan's wording in most of the story and splits it into chapters:

More in this series: key quotes and where they occur, who John Bunyan was, and reading it with children.

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