Monday, October 8, 2018

Emily on Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (Emily Gunsett)




John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, lived in Bedford England during the 17th century. He was a poor man who Preached did tinkering for a living.  He was a Puritan and a Reformed Baptist who Preached at the Bedford Meeting House , however this was illegal because he was not recognized as a preacher by the state because he had no license to do so. This did not bother him and  refused to follow the required  Book of Common Prayer  when he was teaching the word of God, and because of this he was arrested and put in jail in 1660. This is where he first started to write this work, which is considered to be what lead the creation of the novel, even though it had been stated that “Bunyan is widely depicted as having no predecessors and no successors; he just sprang form the soil of Bedfordshire as unexpectedly as the volcano which erupted in a Mexican cornfield. His masterpiece, The Pilgrim's Progress, became and immediate success and for more than 200 years remained the most widely read book other than the bible”( Reeves, 64).  He ended up being in jail for over 12 years and didn’t release the work until 1678, and followed if with a second part in 1684.
            The Pilgrim's Progress, is an allegory that tells the story of a man named Christian who feels as though he is going to hell and so he goes on a journey to find the Celestial City, or heaven.  The story was his journey to salvation in part one and part two is basically the journey his wife and children to join him in the holy city, but he had made it slightly easier for them because he had already been through.

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