Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. In some ways Christian seems to learn
various things in the course of his pilgrimage, but in other ways
he hardly appears to change at all from the beginning to the end
of the book. Does Christian evolve or develop as a character?
2. While Bunyan hardly mentions money
or social status in his book, social differences do exist in
The Pilgrim's
Progress. How do differences in social rank in the book
play into the characters' experiences of pilgrimage and the religious
doctrine that supports it?
3. Standard Christian doctrine in Bunyan's
day taught that women were created by God to be the servants and inferiors
of men. How do the female characters in the book support or refute
official Christian teaching about female status?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Marriages and male-female bonds in general have an ambiguous
significance in the book. In a sense, religious awakening must be
an individual, solitary experience. Male-female relations sometimes
appear as dangerous diversions from one's true spiritual path, as
with Madam Bubble. Some marriages look evil, like Despair's marriage
to his wife. But, on the other hand, Bunyan shows a positive side
of marriage too. According to The Pilgrim's Progress, is
marriage good or bad for a pilgrim?
2. The narrator insists at the beginning that the reader
should not accept details in his book at face value but should look beneath
the surface to the hidden meaning. Yet Gaius at dinner tells Christiana's
son that sometimes apples are just apples, not symbols of sin. Are
these views inconsistent? Why or why not?
3. Christiana's pilgrimage is obviously very similar
to her husband's earlier one. She starts from exactly the same point and
proceeds to the same destination. Many of the obstacles she passes
through, like the Slough of Despond and the Doubting Castle, were
Christian's obstacles too. How does Bunyan avoid creating the impression
that Christiana simply repeats what her husband already did? How
is her pilgrimage unique?
4. Christian and Christiana both spend time with hosts
during their separate pilgrimages, sometimes with the same hosts.
Yet their interactions with those hosts are very different. What
do those differences suggest about Christian and Christiana as pilgrims?
Do they differ in their general attitudes toward others?
5. Christian ends his journey abiding in the Celestial
City and rejoicing in its glories. Christiana, by contrast, arrives
in the Celestial City only to make another departure. She is sent
off to see the Master. Her end is just as successful as Christian's, since
her pilgrimage has reached its desired destination. But it is darker
than the ending of Part I. What is the significance of Christiana's
ending a different emotional tone?
