Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pilgrim’s Progress, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Burden of Sin and Salvation through Christ
The World vs. Christianity
Obstacles on the Journey
The Centrality of the Bible
Women as Pilgrims
Summary
Analysis
The place where Christian and Hopeful fall asleep is on the grounds of a Giant named Despair, whose home, Doubting Castle, is nearby. Early the next morning, Giant Despair discovers them and forces them into a stinking dungeon for trespassing on his property. They’re stuck there, without food or drink, for days. Christian grieves his fault in leading the two of them astray.
Now that they’ve ventured off the narrow way, Christian and Hopeful stumble into enemy territory. Their lack of material comforts is secondary to the spiritual effects of their isolation, despair and doubt.
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That night, Giant Despair asks his wife, Diffidence, for advice about the prisoners. She tells him to beat them mercilessly the next morning, so he does. Christian and Hopeful are left unable to move; they can only lay in the dungeon groaning. The next night, Diffidence advises Despair to provoke the prisoners into killing themselves. So Despair tries—he tells Christian and Hopeful that they’re never likely to escape, so they might as well commit suicide. When they refuse, however, Giant Despair falls into one of his occasional fits, which makes him temporarily unable to use his limbs, and leaves.
Christian and Hopeful are cruelly persecuted by Despair. Worse than the physical abuse is the temptation to give up hope and end their lives. However, they find that resisting Despair actually causes Despair harm, suggesting that a despairing state cannot actually hurt a pilgrim unless they choose to believe it—it doesn’t reflect reality.
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Christian and Hopeful discuss what to do. Christian feels that death is better than life. Hopeful agrees that things are terrible, yet their Lord forbids murder of anyone, including themselves. Besides, they’ve heard that others have escaped the Giant. How do they know that God won’t help them in some way? Hopeful encourages Christian to be patient and courageous.
Christian’s experience in Doubting Castle shows that even strong Christians who’ve endured many hardships can suffer from bouts of extreme depression and despair. Hopeful’s temperament, befitting his name, comes to the rescue, a reminder that pilgrims, with their various strengths and weaknesses, need one another.
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That evening, Giant Despair visits the dungeon and is furious to see that his prisoners are still alive; he promises them a dreadful fate. Christian becomes dejected again and briefly faints. Hopeful encourages him by reminding him that neither Apollyon nor the Valley of the Shadow of Death could conquer him. Besides, Hopeful adds, he himself is weaker than Christian and yet he still endures. They can both be patient a little longer.
When Christian succumbs to despair again, Hopeful reminds him of obstacles he’s overcome in the past. Bunyan sees this—especially reminders of God’s help in the past—as a key weapon against despair. Honing this weapon, and strengthening the virtue of patience, is one of a pilgrim’s primary tasks.
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That night, Diffidence advises Despair to take Christian and Hopeful outside and show them the bones of people he’s killed before, and warn them that he will kill them within the week. So he does, and after beating them again, sends them back into the dungeon. Despair doesn’t know what else to do. Diffidence suggests searching the prisoners to see if they have pick-locks with which they plan to escape.
It’s clear that Giant Despair is running out of ideas. The prisoners’ refusal to give in to despair, despite his best efforts, makes no sense to him. This is because the pilgrims’ hope rests on something beyond what’s visible.
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In the dungeon, Christian and Hopeful spend all night praying. Just before morning, Christian suddenly realizes he has been a fool. All this time, he’s had a key called Promise in his bosom, which will open any lock in the Castle. Sure enough, he withdraws a key which immediately opens the dungeon’s lock. Christian and Hopeful make their way through the other gates, and when the creaking of the last gate wakes Giant Despair, he suffers another fit which prevents him from pursuing the men. Soon, they’re back on the highway again. They build a pillar to commemorate their time in Doubting Castle.
The unlikely appearance of the miraculous key makes a deeper spiritual point. Fervent prayer reveals the key, suggesting that Christian’s hope has been with him all along—the promise of God’s salvation. Until now, he has simply failed to access the Promise by prayer. This is meant to remind Bunyan’s audience that, no matter what obstacles they face, their hope lies not in their immediate circumstances but in what God has promised to them.
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