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The answer to this question has been the subject of sharp disagreement among Bunyan specialists.
On the one hand, Bunyan's prominent Evangelical disciple and editor, George Offor,
was convinced that in his political views Bunyan was "a thorough loyalist"
and a proponent of "high monarchial principles."6
While Bunyan proclaimed his loyalty to the monarchy and disavowed sedition, such statements, Tindall
insisted, were required by both expediency and conformity to Baptist practice.
Although Particular and General Baptist confessions of faith typically contained articles professing
obedience to magistrates, Tindall has pointed to the treasonous activities of such Bunyan acquaintances as
Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, Henry Jessey, and Henry Danvers. 8
To mask his own seditious sentiments, according to Tindall, Bunyan used the oblique techniques of allegory
and biblical exegesis. Such "indirection relieved his feelings, communicated his ideas to the saints, and hid
them from all but the closest scrutiny of the authorities" (139). Despite the practice of this "politic duplicity,"
Tindall argues, Bunyan was telling the truth when he professed his innocence of sedition, for in his mind
those who were loyal to God's commands could not simultaneously be guilty of treason (142).
Christian
Allegory
in
the
Seventeenth
Century:
Branham
at
the
Conference
on
Dimon
Christianity
and
Literature
University
October 1983
The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of Christian allegory in seventeenth-century poetry
and prose by examining selections from George Herbert and John Bunyan. In comparing the allegorical
works of these two men, I will concentrate primarily on their characters as personified abstractions or as
metonymic representations -- that is, the name of one thing for something associated with it -- by examining
their uses of dialogue and the pilgrimage motif to create the images of their characters.
Angus Fletcher describes metonymy in allegories in his book Allegory.
Our earlier view was that all agents in allegory are becoming so fixed in sense that they begin to constitute
images (that was indeed how they were introduced into the poem, for a personified abstraction is necessarily
a sort of image).
This remark is further explained in a footnote as follows:
The intermediate stage between an image and an agent is a name, i. e., a metonymy. To fix the agent into a
name is to bring it from motion to rest.
Fletcher further points out a classical source of substituting the name of one thing for something associated
with it:
When [the ancient Romans] made gods and goddesses out of Luck, Force, Success in Love, Success in War,
and the like, they were employing these metonymic terms in the same way a primitive employes the
metonymic objects of his cult.
Continuing this religious significance, medieval art also shows the allegorical concepts adhered to by the
Church as an incentive for the parishes to follow a strict code of behavior. The Church's desire to keep a tight
rein on its followers resulted in an excessive use of the applications of allegories. Percy Houston suggests
that this had a deadening effect on man's intellectual development:
And indeed allegory hung like a pall over the literature of the [Middle Ages], its indirect interpretation of
nearly everything through the personification of abstractions preventing men from getting to close grips with
reality.
This understandable popularity of allegory as a literary form spread through the Renaissance with Dante and
Spenser and into the seventeenth century. Throughout most of the period allegory maintained a respectable
level of appeal. Jack Lindsay theorizes that the medieval "popular pulpit" was responsible for the allegorical
traditions that emerged in the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He states that "the trick of
personifying sins and virtues and states of mind was common to the whole period."
The emphasis of the Christian allegory, however, was primarily moral, supposedly "thought to convey the
wisdom of the ancients." George Herbert and John Bunyan were both involved in church-related vocations.
While Herbert was Anglican, Bunyan became a Dissenting Puritan. Both men felt a deep devotion to God
and spent their lives in His service. When these men began to turn to literature, it is not surprising that the
aim of their works would be religious in nature. George Herbert's devotion to God led him to use allegory in
his devotional poetry. His imagery and metaphors also give much emotion to his works, although he was
quite an intellectual. In his poems "Jordan [1]" and "Jordan [2]," Herbert applauds the simple language of
expresssion. This is not to say that Herbert used no figurative language. On the contrary, F. E. Hutchinson
writes:
His command of imagery serves him well. The experiences of the soul are not communicable by bare
statement; they can only be conveyed to other minds by a large use of comparison, metaphorical language,
succeeded. Bunyan's work is unique in its communicative power, as Rev. George B. Cheever points out:
Bunyan was as great a master of Allegory as Edwards was of Logic and Metaphysics; but not artificially so,
not designedly so, not as a matter of study . . . . It is not like the allegorical friezes of Spenser or of Dante, or
like those on a Grecian Temple, . . . . Bunyan's Allegory is a universal language.
In The Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan has created a very complex work. His use of dialogue between the
abstractions and personified characters is vital to his work. T. R. Glover remarks that the dialogue "is one of
the most charming features of his allegories." More recently, in The Pilgrim's Progress: Critical and
Historical Views, edited by Vincent Newey, David Seed discusses the abundance of Bunyan's dialogue. He
begins his article, "Dialogue and Debate in The Pilgrim's Progress with the following:
Dialogue accounts for most of both parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in terms of sheer bulk. It is surprising
that it has not received more critical attention . . . . In fact, Bunyan's use of dialogue shows an extremely
sophisicated awareness of different levels of discourse and considerable skill at characterization . . . . His
regional colloquialisms suggest that he wrote directly from life, but it is essential also to insist on his artistry.
The use of dialogue in a book given to Bunyan by his father-in-law became a great source of inspiration to
him in his own writings. Roger Sharrock comments on this book in the following passage:
The most outstanding example of [the use of dialogue] was Arthur Dent's The Plaine Man's Path-way to
Heaven (1601), which was one of the two books Bunyan's first wife brought him as her marriage
portion . . . . but the dialogue form clearly influenced Bunyan in these conversations [in Pilgrim's Progress]
and later in Mr. Badman.
I will now read an excerpt from a dialogue in Part II of The Pilgrim's Progress as an example of the
metonymic personification Bunyan gives even to a minor character. In this portion Great-heart is descrining
to Old Honest anoter pilgrim, Mr. Fearing, who had earlier been described as one who had a "Slough of
Despond in his mind."
But when he was come to the entrance of the Valley of the shadow of death, I thought I should have lost my
man; not for that he had any inclination to go back, that he always abhorred, but he was ready to died for
fear. "O, the hobgoblins will have me, the hobgoblins will have me," he cried; and I could not beat him out
on't. He made such a noise, and such an outcry here, that had they but heard him, 'twas enough to encourage
them to come and fall upon us.
This use of personified abstractions is secondary to Bunyan's use of metonymic personifications. The use of
these abstract forms in The Pilgrim's Progress seems to delineate negative characters, while in Part II of the
book, Old Honest particularly insists that his name is not in the abstract, but in the adjective form. Taking the
name of one thing for something associated with it, similar to taking the part to represent the whole, Bunyan
names his "good" characters with good qualities. In the same way, we can see in the scene at Faithful's trial
in Vanity Fair, the negative characters are the witnesses against Faithful: Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank,
whi mentions anothr group of abstractions: Lord Old Man -- referring to the fallen nature of man, Lord
Carnal Delight, Lord Luxurious, Lod Desire of Vain-glory, Lord Lechery, and Sir Having-Greedy. Bunyan
again insists these are abstraction rather than adjective names.
One warning given by Roger Sharrock compliments Bunyan's ability with his characterization of
Many allegories of pilgrimages are now known to have existed before his day, but it is supremely unlikely
that [Bunyan] could ever have heard of many of them . . . . No allegory known to Europe has any hint of
such life as those of Bunyan . . . . And the mode enabled him to give the fullest expression to the whole of
himself, gaiety and seriousness at once.
Herbert's poem "The Pilgrimage" again uses this archetypal journey pattern, often employing the allegory he
used in "The World." Traveling on the road of life, the persona is looking for a particular hill, Gladsome Hill.
He has come a long way past the Cave of Desperation and the Rock of Pride without much trouble, but we
do not know from whence his journey began. Herbert uses the in medias res technique possibly to signify the
idea that our consciousness of life as a journey may not always surface when we are young. At any rate,
danger confronts the persona as he progresses from Fancy's Meadow (compare Fortune's fancies in "The
World"), through Care's Copse, to the Wild of Passion (compare Pleasure of "The World"). When he arrives
at a hill, he is initially deceived into thinking he has arrived, but he soon realizes he must press on.
He hears a warning of certain death, and rejoices that his hill will bring ease from his journey, fulfilling his
hopes. Herbert's persona, however, never actually reaches Gladsome Hill in the poem.
In Bunyan's book, the story of Christian begins at the time of his awareness of the problem: he is living in the
City of Destruction and feels a great need to "Fly from the wrath to come." It is not until much later that
Christian learns of the Celestial City, while Herbert's persona has a definite goal. Eventually Christian sets
out to arrive at the city, and his adventures along the way, much like those of Herbert's persona, are
hazardous: he falls into a Slough of Despond, Herbert's Cave of Desperation; climbs the Hill of Difficulty,
Herbert's mistaken hill; and passes through the River of Death before he can enter the Celestial City,
Herbert's cry, "None goes that way and lives." The major difference between the two is that in Herbert's
poem the persona neither has an allegorical name, nor does he meet any other allegorial characters, as he did
in "The World," whereas Christian's story is permeated with both.
The obvious differences between poetry and prose determine to what extent allegory may be used in a work.
While Herbert was naturally limited by his genre, Bunyan used his advantage to great lengths. Instead of
merely creating abstract personages, Bunyan used metonymic personification to transcribe a dominant
feature of a character as the particular name by which the character is identified -- representing something
associated with it, adjective rather than abstraction, showing perhaps that all good comes from God, and
there is no good other than in God.