The Pilgrim's Progress

At different times, Christian, Christiana, Mercie, and Hopeful all find themselves isolated and scorned. The pilgrims have to confront alienation and antagonism as their self-awareness about their fate brings them into conflict with their community. Their response is to seek a fresh community where people welcome them and their Christian beliefs.

In Part 1, Christiana and her sons become de facto antagonists—“sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect” Christian and his tormented soul (179). This is doubly painful, as Christian’s awareness of his own sinfulness makes him “greatly distressed” and in need of a genuine Christian community. The Interpreter, the Porter, and the other dedicated Christian characters provide him with this camaraderie. However, in between these meetings, Christian faces antagonism from inimical characters. Mr. Obstinate thinks Christian is one “of these Craz’d-headed Coxcombs” (189). Christian and his allies often make no secret of their disapproval of such figures. Faithful tells Talkative, “The Proverb is true of you, which is said of a Whore; to wit, That she is a shame to all Women; so you are a shame to all Professors” (415). More often, however, the antagonists antagonize one another. When Pliable returns home, people “mock and despise him” (367). This alienation and antagonism contrast with the kind that the work’s Christian characters experience; that the antagonists cannot get along even with those who share their beliefs (or non-beliefs) illustrates the petty, selfish, and discordant nature of evil.

In Part 2, it’s Christiana’s turn to confront alienation and antagonism. Her self-awareness leads her to repent for how she behaved toward her husband, but her embrace of God isolates her from her community: Mrs. Inconsiderate describes people like Christiana as “Fantastical Fools” (709). Mercie alone goes with Christiana, and like Christian and his companions, they find welcoming communities on the path toward salvation. As women, Christiana and Mercie arguably encounter fewer antagonists, though Mr. Brisk qualifies. If he somehow married Mercie, they would not have gotten along. He would have antagonized her—similar to how the husband of Bountiful, her sister, antagonized her. The episode underscores the particular perils of false community for Christian women, who spend so much of their lives in the small circle of their family.

At times, it seems like good Christians can’t or shouldn’t live in unchristian communities. Christian and Christiana each flee their homes, as does Faithful and Hopeful. About his family, Faithful tells Christian, “Since I became a Pilgrim, they have disowned me, as I also have rejected them; and therefore they were to me now no more than if they had never been of my Linage” (378). Faithful’s conduct and teachings inspire Hopeful to leave Vanity. Yet in Part 2, Mr. Mnason’s presence in Vanity—admittedly, a tamed Vanity—indicates Christians can create a community in ostensibly hostile places.

Other characters isolate themselves on purpose. The boy living in the Valley of Humiliation likes it because it’s an “empty and Solitary Place” (875). The Valley of Humiliation can be hostile to Christians. It’s where Christian fought Apollyon, but, as Mr. Great-heart says, “[I]n former times men have met with Angels here, have found Pearls here, and have in this place found the words of Life” (875). When it comes from an impulse towards self-knowledge, isolation is not necessarily a bad thing.