At the top of the Hill of Difficulty, Christian stops at the House Beautiful, which is an allegory of the local Christian congregation. Christian spends three days here. When he leaves he is wearing armour which protects him when he fights a battle with the monster Apollyon. Then he goes to the Shadow of Death. He is not afraid because his friend Faithful reminds him of the words of Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." The sun rises as he leaves.
Just outside the Valley of the Shadow of Death he meets Faithful, who also used to live in the City of Destruction. They go together to Vanity Fair, where they are both arrested because they do not like the kind of business which is being done at the fair, all based on greed. Faithful is put on trial, and executed. Hopeful, who lives in Vanity, takes Faithful's place as Christian's companion for the rest of the way.
Together Christian and Hope have several adventures. They are captured by Giant Despair, who takes them to Doubting Castle, where they are imprisoned, beaten and starved. The giant wants them to commit suicide, but they refuse. Suddenly Christian realizes that a key he has, called Promise, will open all the doors and gates of Doubting Castle. Using the key, they escape.
They come to the Delectable Mountains where the shepherds show them some of the wonders of the place also known as 'Immanuel's Land'.
On the way, Christian and Hopeful meet a man called Ignorance. He thinks he can enter the Celestial City even though he does not believe. A ferryman called Vain Hope ferries Ignorance across the River of Death, but Ignorance is turned away from the gates of Celestial City and thrown into hell.
Christian and Hopeful eventually reach the Celestial City.
The Second Part of "The Pilgrim's Progress" presents the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana; their sons and the maiden, Mercy. They visit the same places that Christian visited, but they take a longer time. This is because the story includes the marriage of his sons, and children for the four sons and their wives.
The story shows that women can be as brave as men. They visit the same stopping places that Christian did, but they take longer because they marry and give birth to children on the way. The hero of the story is Greatheart, the servant of the Interpreter, who is a pilgrim's guide to the Celestial City. He kills four giants, including Giant Despair, and helps to kill a monster that terrorizes the city of Vanity.
Expert critics think the second part is important, and brings in more ideas: "Part II, which appeared in 1684, is much more than a mere sequel to or repetition of the earlier volume. It clarifies and reinforces and justifies the story of Part I. The beam of Bunyan's spotlight is broadened to include Christian's family and other men, women, and children; the incidents and accidents of everyday life are more numerous, the joys of the pilgrimage tend to outweigh the hardships; and to the faith and hope of Part I is added in abundant measure that greatest of virtues, charity. The two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in reality constitute a whole, and the whole is, without doubt, the most influential religious book ever written in the English language.
Part II shows human frailty: of women, children, and people with weak bodies or minds. When Christiana's party leaves Gaius's Inn, Mr. Feeble-mind lingers in order to be left behind. He is encouraged to come with the party by Greatheart: But brother ... I have it in commission, to comfort the feeble-minded, and to support the weak. You must needs go along with us; we will wait for you, we will lend you our help, we will deny ourselves of some things, both opinionative and practical, for your sake; we will not enter into doubtful disputations before you, we will be made all things to you, rather than you shall be left behind.
Although the language of "The Pilgrim’s Progress" may seem old-fashioned now, Bunyan wrote in a simple and direct style. He gave his characters symbolic names, which may have sounded lively and imaginative to a 17th century audience. Bunyan was of humble origin, and had no higher education. He was, however, highly literate, and wrote in a way that ordinary people could understand.
The book includes a poem which became the popular hymn "Who Would True Valour See" ("He Who Would Valiant Be" in some versions).
Some phrases from the book have become part of the English language, just as many English expressions come from the Bible. We often talk of a 'Slough of Despond' (when we feel a problem is too big for us). The expressions 'Vanity Fair' and 'House Beautiful' are also quite familiar. There are a large number of references to the book in later literature, and Bunyan's idea of how to tell a story has been borrowed and adapted many times.
The explicit Protestant theology of "The Pilgrim's Progress" made it popular. Bunyan's plain style breathes life into abstract ideas such as 'greed', 'envy', 'pride'. These ideas are turned into imaginary people, whom Christian meets and talks to, on his way to Heaven. Samuel Johnson said that "this is the great merit of the book, that the most cultivated man cannot find anything to praise more highly, and the child knows nothing more amusing". Three years after its publication (1681), it was reprinted in colonial America, and was widely read in the Puritan colonies.
Because of its explicit English Protestant theology "The Pilgrim's Progress" shares the feeling of most English, in the 17th century, against the Roman Catholic Church. It was published over the years of the Popish Plot (1678–1681) and ten years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and it shows the influence of John Foxe's "Foxe's Book of Martyrs". Bunyan presents a decrepit and harmless giant to confront Christian at the end of the Valley of the Shadow of Death that is explicitly named "Pope":Now I saw in my Dream, that at the end of this Valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of Pilgrims that had gone this way formerly: And while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied a little before me a Cave, where two Giants, "Pope" and "Pagan", dwelt in old times, by whose Power and Tyranny the Men whose bones, blood ashes, &c. lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place "Christian" went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that "Pagan" has been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet alive, he is by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger dayes, grown so crazy and stiff in his joynts, that he can now do little more than sit in his Caves mouth, grinning at Pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails, because he cannot come at them.
When Christian and Faithful travel through Vanity Fair, Bunyan adds the editorial comment:But as in other "fairs", some one Commodity is as the chief of all the "fair", so the Ware of "Rome" and her Merchandize is greatly promoted in "this fair": Only our "English" Nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.
The book was the basis of an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, first performed in 1951. Vaughan Williams also wrote a short anthem "Valiant for Truth". The story has been made into films and used in video games.
Because modern English has changed from Bunyan's day, many authors have provided their own versions of the story.
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Louis de Broglie
Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, (7th) Duke of Broglie, (August 15, 1892 in Dieppe – March 19, 1987 in Louveciennes) was a French physicist. He discovered that electrons are similar to both particles and waves. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1929.