Christian Quest Hero In The Pilgrim's Progress

Throughout the course of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character, Christian, is established as a quest hero. While it may be argued that Christian is not a traditional quest hero, because he does not experience a type of death and rebirth, or because his invocation comes from both an object, a book, as well as a person, Evangelist, there are still enough similarities between Christian’s journey and a traditional quest hero’s journey to establish him as a traditional quest hero. The novel introduces Christian as “a man clothed with rags…a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back” (11). After he has been reading the book and is met by Evangelist, Christian recognizes his world for what it is, becomes “greatly distressed

Apollyon, for example, “the monster…hideous to behold…with a disdainful countenance” (61), not only attempts to tempt Christian into worshipping him, but also tries to subjugate Christian by fighting him. The creature, “clothed with scales like a fish...had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out of his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion,” (61) clearly give the impression of being more powerful than Christian. Later in his journey, Christian and his companion Hopeful are met with the Giant Despair. Being a giant, he is obviously “stronger than they,” (116) as he “put them into his Castle, into a very dark Dungeon” (116) and “beats them fearfully” (117). Nevertheless, Christian and Hopeful are able to escape the dungeon with a key called Promise. Both of these encounters prove that while Christian meets obstacles that are seemingly impossible to overcome, he not only survives, but is able to arrive at his destination in the Celestial City. The Celestial City, a place of eternal peace, security, and freedom from the bondage of sin, is comparable in value to the difficulty of the trials Christian