Marriage Good or Bad for a Pilgrim?

Is marriage good or bad for a pilgrim ?

Restoration and Eighteenth Century

According to the work of John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, I think that John Bunyan considers the marriage to be a bad thing for a pilgrim, or even a stumbling block to pilgrim’s religious quest. For pilgrims, the search for true road to the Celestial City is a solitary course that separates them from their friends and family, who don’t perceive the meaning of the search. As a consequence, in order to begin the journey to the Celestial City, the pilgrims should suffer from the formidable loneliness and intolerant isolation from family, which is also what the main character, Christian, experiences at the beginning of the story － when he knows his destiny is doomed to set out for religious search. “In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress.”(Anthology Page 2143) He can’t not talk to his wife about their destiny because he doesn’t think that his wife would understand and give him an encouraging smile. Even though he finally can not refrain himself anymore and tell his family what he is concerned, his family not only disbelieve what he said but also regard him as an insane person. This is how John Bunyan portrays the scenario: “At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head.”(Anthology Page 2143) What specifically demonstrates that a real Christian is alone and separated by family is as John Bunyan wrote this: “They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him: sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, sometimes they would quite neglect him.”(Anthology Page 2143-44) All of these are good evidence that illustrates a pilgrim should suffer from their marriage relationship. If the pilgrim is a single...