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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
A martyr is someone who is killed for a cause, particularly for their religious faith. Martyrdoms sometimes give rise to new followers. In the case of Hopeful, witnessing the sufferings of Christian and Faithful made him “hopeful” for a better way of life.
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Christian and Hopeful encounter a man named By-ends, who comes from the wealthy town of Fair-speech and is heading to the Celestial City. However, By-ends refuses to tell them his name. He says that he and his wife, the Lady Feigning’s daughter, differ from their stricter peers in that they never go against the prevailing tide in their religious beliefs, and they like religion best “in silver slippers.” Christian recognizes By-ends and quietly warns Hopeful that this man is a rascal.
The term “by-ends” refers to selfish personal advantage. Indeed, it quickly becomes clear that By-ends only follows religion when it serves him—conforming to the ways of the world, and even to riches (“silver slippers”), as much as possible while remaining outwardly Christian. By-ends doesn’t believe that Christianity and the world must be opposed.
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When Christian confronts By-ends, By-ends insists that he was unfairly nicknamed by people who are jealous of his good fortunes. Christian tells By-ends that if he wants to travel with him and Hopeful, he must be willing to resist the tide and also be content with a ragged religion, not just a fancy one that wins popular approval. By-ends accuses them of trying to override his conscience and refuses to accompany them further. Christian and Hopeful continue on their way alone. When By-ends is joined by a small group of fellow pilgrims, he disparages Christian and Hopeful as being overly rigid in their opinions. The group agrees that both Scripture and human reason support the idea that religion and worldly goods go together.
The other pilgrims warn By-ends that he cannot be a fellow pilgrim unless he pursues religion for its own sake—that is, being willing to do without riches or the honor of the world. By-ends cannot accept this, accusing Christian and Hopeful of being excessively strict and judgmental. He tells others the same, his action suggesting that when Christians are accused in this way, it is sometimes (as in Vanity) a reflection of the accuser’s guilty conscience. By-ends imagines he is more enlightened than the pilgrims in finding a way to reconcile Christianity and the world.
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By-ends poses a question to his new companion Money-love: if someone has the opportunity to obtain worldly advantages by becoming more outwardly zealous in their religion, shouldn’t they be allowed to use religion as a means to that end? Money-love agrees. Even if a minister, say, has the chance to obtain a more lucrative position by changing his preaching style and opinions, he should do it—there’s nothing wrong with wanting a better job, after all, and willingness to change one’s opinions suggests a humble temperament! Similarly, there’s nothing wrong with a tradesman becoming religious in order to gain a rich wife and more customers. The whole group applauds these answers.
By-ends describes scenarios in which a person should be allowed to use religion for worldly advantage (in his mind, at least)—whether it’s a minister changing his opinions for financial gain or a tradesman doing the same. By-ends claims that neither of these shows a lack of integrity and even justifies them as being more ethical. His justifications, and his new friends’ applause, suggest that people are eager to find ways to reconcile religion and worldly gain, no matter how flimsy the pretext.
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By-end’s group decides to pose these same questions to Christian and Hopeful. When they catch up to the others, Mr. Hold-the-world explains the scenarios. Christian immediately replies that it’s always wrong to use religion as a means to gain something else. He cites several biblical examples for proof, concluding that someone who becomes religious in order to gain worldly goods will also throw away religion on worldly grounds. By-ends and his friends can make no response to this, and Christian and Hopeful go on their way again.
Christian quickly disproves the claims that By-ends and his new friends make. Christian basically argues that once a person gives ground to the world, their religion will always be susceptible to compromise. His response is unsurprising, considering the harsh persecution he has just survived at the world’s hands. By-ends’ silence confirms that he wasn’t a true pilgrim to begin with.
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