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Abstract: The present thesis, in a perspective of psychological analysis of the vagrant desire of human being according to Jung, made a probe into John Bunyan's sentimental evolution and literary creation with an attempt to expound his composition. The author laid emphasis on precise analysis on the spiritual development throughout his life, aiming to trace his unusual existence as a vagrant and the motivations underlying his creation, thus revealing his unique value and referential significance in terms of a writer and his works.
Key Words: awareness of isolation; vagrant life; spiritual journey
I. lack of love of father
There seems to have been some early friction between Bunyan, who was an extremely robust, energetic, and self -willed youngster, and his father. In 1642, both his mother and his only sister suddenly took ill and died, and when, barely two month later, his father remarried, Bunyan, not yet sixteen, joined the Parliamentary Army. This childhood experience makes him feel that he is very lonely, thus he is very sensitive from his childhood.
After reenlisting twice Bunyan was honorably discharged and he returned home. Although he was reconciled to his father, who helped him get the tools necessary to set up as a tinker on his own, neither his work nor his happy marriage enabled him to accept his father. As we know, the family is very important in the psychoanalytic theory because we are each a product of the role we are given in the family complex. In one sense, the birth of the unconsciousness lies in the way we perceive in the family and how we react to it. With this unhappy experience, Bunyan developed to a sensitive person when he grows up. It's natural that he felt lonely without the love of his father. For the other children, the father is the pillar of their lives, However, it's not the case with Bunyan; he tried to find the pillar of his spiritual world. Finally, he got it , that is God, his spiritual father.
II. awareness of isolation
With unhappy childhood, Bunyan is keenly felt about the sense of loneliness. The religious ferment of the age makes a tremendous impression on Bunyan's sensitive imagination. He went to the church occasionally, only to find himself wrapped in terrors and torments by some fiery itinerant preachers, and he would rush violently away from church to forget his fears by joining in Sunday sports on the village green. As night came on the sports were forgotten, but the terror returned, multiplied like the evil spirits of the parable. Visions of the hell and the demons swarmed in his brain. He would groan aloud in his remorse, and afterwards, he bemoans the sins of his early life.
It is not surprising in the years immediately after his return to the narrow remote village life, he felt, as he tells us, utterly lost, cast away, in short, "damned." This last seemingly harmless indulgence was one he found it difficult to give up, and might account his agonies about that generally approved amusement as a purely personal idiosyncrasy if it were not for such passages as this; which we find in the journals of his contemporary, the great Quaker leader, George Fox, and others:
The black earthly spirit of the priest wounded my life; and when I heard the bell toll to call people together to the steeple house, it struck at my life; for it was just a market bell, to gather people together that the priest might set forth his wares to sale. Oh! the vast sums of the money that are gotten by the trade they make of selling the Scriptures; and by their preaching, from the highest bishop to the lowest priest ......
In 1659, after the birth of two sons, Bunyan's wife died and he, left with four young children, remarried a year later. In July, 1650, his wife gave birth to a blind baby whom Bunyan had christened Mary, and whom, as we shall see, he loved with extraordinary tenderness
Since 1653, he joined in a Baptist society and began to preach among the villagers with powerful effect. However, his missionary activity ruffled the other preachers. They said that Bunyan tried to remedy the people's soul in way of making up the pans. After years of struggle, chased about between hell and heaven, he emerged into a saner atmosphere, even as Pilgrim came out of horrible valley of shadow.
He is wrapped in the deep isolation; however, he is very sensitive and full of imagination and he often indulges in the surreal fantasies. The hero in Pilgrim's Progress Christian is the embodiment of Bunyan himself at the very beginning of the novel, very lonely and sensitive.
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid down in that place to sleep and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face fron his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back, I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept, and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he break out with a lamentable cry, saying, "What shall I do?" (Bunyan, 18)
The image of Christian is the real state of Bunyan's heart. He is tortured by his sense of sin. The man of course, the pilgrim; His book is the Bible; and the burden on his back is the weight of worldly cares and concerns. It is about a man named Christian. At the beginning, we find that Christian has a heavy burden on his back that he can't get rid of. He tries to take it off himself but he can't. He then meets a man named Evangelist. Evangelist tells him that the only way to get rid of this burden on his back is to go to the Celestial City. Now he has two choices, either to accept fate as mediocre person or leave to get a new way of life to release the pressures of life. So now Bunyan can't bear any more, the only way to solve his spiritual crisis is to be a vagrant.
III. Spiritual pursuit of God and Bible
According to Jung, man has tendency of vagrancy, which is a way to relieve his or her pressure or anxieties. Vagrancy is an experience of creation. Through it, one can get the repressed emotions released. Furthermore, man can have the energetic source of creation. Man would feel very bored and languish, so he would choose to travel in order to be energetic and robust and creative.
Man has the desire to vagabondage, because it would enable him to feel the isolation and solemnity. This is not the so-called escapism, but the experience and exploration of the life experience especially the sad experience in the childhood. That's why Bunyan chooses to be an itinerant preacher, wandering all his life. He would not give up his job even at the price of being put into the jail.
After the Restoration, the religious meeting without the authority of Established Church was prohibited. He was flung into prison in 1660, for refusing to obey the law prohibiting religious meetings. He was told that, if he gave up preaching, he would instantly be set free. His answer was, "If you let me free today, I'd preach tomorrow." Thus he was kept in prison for 12 years. The "Pilgrim's Progress" was probably written in prison, but for some reason he did not publish it until his release.
Now, let's analyze it from the content of the book "Pilgrim's Progress". Bunyan was known for his masterpiece "The Pilgrim's Progress", written in the old-fashioned, medieval form of allegory. It is about a man named Christian. In the beginning, we find that Christian has heavy burden on his back that he can't get rid of. He tries to take it off himself but he can't. He then meets a man named Evangelist. Evangelist tells him that the only way to get rid of this burden on his back is to go to the Celestial City. At the advice of Evangelist, Christian leaves his friends and family back in the City of Destruction and makes the long and treacherous journey to the Celestial City. Almost immediately he and his companion, Mr. Pliable stumble into the Slough of Despond. Christian manages to make the far side, but his companion returns to the City of Destruction. Christian learns that he cannot go on without passing through the Wicket Gate, but he is tempted by Mr. Legality to take another route to the City. A path up Mr. Saint ascends gradually at first, but in the end is so steep that he is exhausted and close to death. Evangelist appears again to direct his steps back to the Wicket Gate. There he is introduced to Interpreter who directs him into the narrow way called Salvation where he comes immediately unto a cross. The heavy burden rolls off his back and into an open sepulcher and he goes on his way rejoicing. On the way to the Celestial City Christian meets with many obstacles and sidetracks, most notably Giant Despair, the City of Vanity Fair, and Apollyon. Christian prevails over all with the help of his Scroll, Comforter and his companions Faithful and Hopeful. At length he comes to a final river separating him from the Celestial City, and in spite of diligent search, can find no bridge over the river. Having determined to wade across the water which comes up to his chin but the knowledge of his sins almost overwhelms him. Encouraged by his friends and the words of his Scroll his feet again finds the bottom and cross over into the Celestial City. He goes through many different obstacles and trials that get in his way on the way to the Celestial City.
In this book, Bunyan experienced the spiritual journey of his life. It is the search of his spiritual world. This is a book of realistic literature. Every trial, every difficulties, every experience of joy or sorrow, of peace or temptation, is put into the form and discourse of living characters. Other allegorists' works are unreal and shadow, but Bunyan is not. His characters like Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Ignorance, Piety, Demas, Talkative, Faithful and scores of others, who are not at all the bloodless creatures of the Romance of the Rose, but men real enough to stop you on the road and to hold your attention. Scene after scene follows, in which are pictured many of our own spiritual experiences.
He tried to find solace by traveling. In this great book, he projected all the miseries and injustice, hopes and wishes. Author, Bunyan himself upheld Bible, the Christian scriptures. The only book at Bunyan's hand was the Bible, which he read everyday and from which he got strength, encouragements as well as knowledge. The Bible no doubt made his belief in Christianity firmer. Bunyan also thought Christian should do according to the principles of the Bible, no matter what kind of situations they were in. As a staunch Christian and a successful preacher, Bunyan could recite all the verses in the Bible, so Bible had already become the indispensable part of his soul; his words were full of the Word of God. Spurgeon comments him: "Why, this man Bunyan is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bible, the very essence of the Bible flows through him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.
For a while the central symbol of life as a pilgrimage and a man as a pilgrim gives the story much of its emotional power and universality. Superficially, the book accepts the idea that this world is only ante-chamber through which the soul must pass on the way to everlasting bliss or damnation. Actually it brings us the opposite message. As Linday says:
The impression conveyed by the allegory is the exact opposite of what literally professes. The phantasm of good and evil become the real world; and in recounting them the pilgrim lives through the life that Bunyan had known in definite place and time. The pattern of his experience, the fall and the resolute rising up, the loss and the findings, the resistance and overcoming, the despair and joy, the dark moaning valleys and the singing in the places of flowers, which is the pattern of Bunyan's strenuous life. There are comrades and enemies, stout hearts and cravens, men who care only for the good of fellowship and men of greed and fear; and they are the men of contemporizes of England. (Annette, 189)
Especially well known is the description of Vanity Fair. Here Bunyan gives a symbolic picture of London at the time. In Bourgeois society, all things are sold and bought, including honor, title, kingdom, lusts, cheating, roguery, murder, and adultery prevail. The punishment of Christian and Faithful for disdaining things in the Vanity Fair may have its significance in alluding to Bunyan's repeated arrests and imprisonment for preaching.
At the Vanity Fair, pilgrim and faithful are called the aliens, meaning the person from the other cities, which is the most suitable name for them. The blood of Bunyan and his hero pilgrim belongs to Gypsy. Through this special way of living, he can pursue his dream and this urges his desire to have creative writing. We can felt deeply from his book about his pure soul of pursuing his dream by traveling and sincere attitude in writing.
IV. Conclusion
This thesis is based on the theory of Jung, the greatest psychologist. According to Jung, man has desire to experience vagrancy, which is important way to release the pressure of life and have the real and deep experience of life. This desire to experience the vagrancy can be dated to the family background and childhood experience. The man who suffers loneliness is easy to have such desire, because when they travel, they would experience the childhood experience, and greatly enjoy this feeling of loneliness and solemnity.
Bunyan is really a good illustration of this tendency, combined with childhood experience and religious belief. In the above part, this thesis have a thorough illustration of it. Without the love of his father at the childhood, Bunyan is very lonely as a child. He is a sensitive person with vivid imagination. He treats God as his spiritual father and has fervent religious belief. All his life, he is tortured by the sense of the sin. Having experienced much hardship in his life, such as the death of his first wife and lovely daughter, he even could not bear the pressure any more.
At this moment, he has great desire to experience vagrancy. Working as an itinerant preacher, he has chance to wander around, thus gets a way to release his pressure. He is very fond of this job, willing not to give up it even at the price of being sent at the jail. Furthermore, he realizes his desire of vagrancy by writing the book Pilgrim's Progress, which is the spiritual journey of him. In the book, Christian wanders around many places and meets all kinds of people. Bible is the guide of his spiritual journey. By working as an itinerant preacher and illustrating the vagrant travel of Christian, Bunyan gets his pressure released and gets the real charisma as a writer.
Bibliography：
[1]Brady, Frank. "The Symbolism in Pilgrim's Progress". Literature Studies 4(1990), 51-56.
[2]Freedman, William. “ New Study on John Bunyan” Modern Language Quarterly 32( 1996)，270-290.
[3]Hofme, Isabel. The Portable Bunyan: A transnational history of The Pilgrim's Progress, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004.
[4]Sanders, Andrew. The short History of English Literature Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
[5]荣格. 《荣格性格哲学》.李德荣编译. 北京：商务出版社，2003年8月.
Key Words: awareness of isolation; vagrant life; spiritual journey
I. lack of love of father
There seems to have been some early friction between Bunyan, who was an extremely robust, energetic, and self -willed youngster, and his father. In 1642, both his mother and his only sister suddenly took ill and died, and when, barely two month later, his father remarried, Bunyan, not yet sixteen, joined the Parliamentary Army. This childhood experience makes him feel that he is very lonely, thus he is very sensitive from his childhood.
After reenlisting twice Bunyan was honorably discharged and he returned home. Although he was reconciled to his father, who helped him get the tools necessary to set up as a tinker on his own, neither his work nor his happy marriage enabled him to accept his father. As we know, the family is very important in the psychoanalytic theory because we are each a product of the role we are given in the family complex. In one sense, the birth of the unconsciousness lies in the way we perceive in the family and how we react to it. With this unhappy experience, Bunyan developed to a sensitive person when he grows up. It's natural that he felt lonely without the love of his father. For the other children, the father is the pillar of their lives, However, it's not the case with Bunyan; he tried to find the pillar of his spiritual world. Finally, he got it , that is God, his spiritual father.
II. awareness of isolation
With unhappy childhood, Bunyan is keenly felt about the sense of loneliness. The religious ferment of the age makes a tremendous impression on Bunyan's sensitive imagination. He went to the church occasionally, only to find himself wrapped in terrors and torments by some fiery itinerant preachers, and he would rush violently away from church to forget his fears by joining in Sunday sports on the village green. As night came on the sports were forgotten, but the terror returned, multiplied like the evil spirits of the parable. Visions of the hell and the demons swarmed in his brain. He would groan aloud in his remorse, and afterwards, he bemoans the sins of his early life.
It is not surprising in the years immediately after his return to the narrow remote village life, he felt, as he tells us, utterly lost, cast away, in short, "damned." This last seemingly harmless indulgence was one he found it difficult to give up, and might account his agonies about that generally approved amusement as a purely personal idiosyncrasy if it were not for such passages as this; which we find in the journals of his contemporary, the great Quaker leader, George Fox, and others:
The black earthly spirit of the priest wounded my life; and when I heard the bell toll to call people together to the steeple house, it struck at my life; for it was just a market bell, to gather people together that the priest might set forth his wares to sale. Oh! the vast sums of the money that are gotten by the trade they make of selling the Scriptures; and by their preaching, from the highest bishop to the lowest priest ......
In 1659, after the birth of two sons, Bunyan's wife died and he, left with four young children, remarried a year later. In July, 1650, his wife gave birth to a blind baby whom Bunyan had christened Mary, and whom, as we shall see, he loved with extraordinary tenderness
Since 1653, he joined in a Baptist society and began to preach among the villagers with powerful effect. However, his missionary activity ruffled the other preachers. They said that Bunyan tried to remedy the people's soul in way of making up the pans. After years of struggle, chased about between hell and heaven, he emerged into a saner atmosphere, even as Pilgrim came out of horrible valley of shadow.
He is wrapped in the deep isolation; however, he is very sensitive and full of imagination and he often indulges in the surreal fantasies. The hero in Pilgrim's Progress Christian is the embodiment of Bunyan himself at the very beginning of the novel, very lonely and sensitive.
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid down in that place to sleep and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face fron his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back, I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept, and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he break out with a lamentable cry, saying, "What shall I do?" (Bunyan, 18)
The image of Christian is the real state of Bunyan's heart. He is tortured by his sense of sin. The man of course, the pilgrim; His book is the Bible; and the burden on his back is the weight of worldly cares and concerns. It is about a man named Christian. At the beginning, we find that Christian has a heavy burden on his back that he can't get rid of. He tries to take it off himself but he can't. He then meets a man named Evangelist. Evangelist tells him that the only way to get rid of this burden on his back is to go to the Celestial City. Now he has two choices, either to accept fate as mediocre person or leave to get a new way of life to release the pressures of life. So now Bunyan can't bear any more, the only way to solve his spiritual crisis is to be a vagrant.
III. Spiritual pursuit of God and Bible
According to Jung, man has tendency of vagrancy, which is a way to relieve his or her pressure or anxieties. Vagrancy is an experience of creation. Through it, one can get the repressed emotions released. Furthermore, man can have the energetic source of creation. Man would feel very bored and languish, so he would choose to travel in order to be energetic and robust and creative.
Man has the desire to vagabondage, because it would enable him to feel the isolation and solemnity. This is not the so-called escapism, but the experience and exploration of the life experience especially the sad experience in the childhood. That's why Bunyan chooses to be an itinerant preacher, wandering all his life. He would not give up his job even at the price of being put into the jail.
After the Restoration, the religious meeting without the authority of Established Church was prohibited. He was flung into prison in 1660, for refusing to obey the law prohibiting religious meetings. He was told that, if he gave up preaching, he would instantly be set free. His answer was, "If you let me free today, I'd preach tomorrow." Thus he was kept in prison for 12 years. The "Pilgrim's Progress" was probably written in prison, but for some reason he did not publish it until his release.
Now, let's analyze it from the content of the book "Pilgrim's Progress". Bunyan was known for his masterpiece "The Pilgrim's Progress", written in the old-fashioned, medieval form of allegory. It is about a man named Christian. In the beginning, we find that Christian has heavy burden on his back that he can't get rid of. He tries to take it off himself but he can't. He then meets a man named Evangelist. Evangelist tells him that the only way to get rid of this burden on his back is to go to the Celestial City. At the advice of Evangelist, Christian leaves his friends and family back in the City of Destruction and makes the long and treacherous journey to the Celestial City. Almost immediately he and his companion, Mr. Pliable stumble into the Slough of Despond. Christian manages to make the far side, but his companion returns to the City of Destruction. Christian learns that he cannot go on without passing through the Wicket Gate, but he is tempted by Mr. Legality to take another route to the City. A path up Mr. Saint ascends gradually at first, but in the end is so steep that he is exhausted and close to death. Evangelist appears again to direct his steps back to the Wicket Gate. There he is introduced to Interpreter who directs him into the narrow way called Salvation where he comes immediately unto a cross. The heavy burden rolls off his back and into an open sepulcher and he goes on his way rejoicing. On the way to the Celestial City Christian meets with many obstacles and sidetracks, most notably Giant Despair, the City of Vanity Fair, and Apollyon. Christian prevails over all with the help of his Scroll, Comforter and his companions Faithful and Hopeful. At length he comes to a final river separating him from the Celestial City, and in spite of diligent search, can find no bridge over the river. Having determined to wade across the water which comes up to his chin but the knowledge of his sins almost overwhelms him. Encouraged by his friends and the words of his Scroll his feet again finds the bottom and cross over into the Celestial City. He goes through many different obstacles and trials that get in his way on the way to the Celestial City.
In this book, Bunyan experienced the spiritual journey of his life. It is the search of his spiritual world. This is a book of realistic literature. Every trial, every difficulties, every experience of joy or sorrow, of peace or temptation, is put into the form and discourse of living characters. Other allegorists' works are unreal and shadow, but Bunyan is not. His characters like Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Ignorance, Piety, Demas, Talkative, Faithful and scores of others, who are not at all the bloodless creatures of the Romance of the Rose, but men real enough to stop you on the road and to hold your attention. Scene after scene follows, in which are pictured many of our own spiritual experiences.
He tried to find solace by traveling. In this great book, he projected all the miseries and injustice, hopes and wishes. Author, Bunyan himself upheld Bible, the Christian scriptures. The only book at Bunyan's hand was the Bible, which he read everyday and from which he got strength, encouragements as well as knowledge. The Bible no doubt made his belief in Christianity firmer. Bunyan also thought Christian should do according to the principles of the Bible, no matter what kind of situations they were in. As a staunch Christian and a successful preacher, Bunyan could recite all the verses in the Bible, so Bible had already become the indispensable part of his soul; his words were full of the Word of God. Spurgeon comments him: "Why, this man Bunyan is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bible, the very essence of the Bible flows through him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.
For a while the central symbol of life as a pilgrimage and a man as a pilgrim gives the story much of its emotional power and universality. Superficially, the book accepts the idea that this world is only ante-chamber through which the soul must pass on the way to everlasting bliss or damnation. Actually it brings us the opposite message. As Linday says:
The impression conveyed by the allegory is the exact opposite of what literally professes. The phantasm of good and evil become the real world; and in recounting them the pilgrim lives through the life that Bunyan had known in definite place and time. The pattern of his experience, the fall and the resolute rising up, the loss and the findings, the resistance and overcoming, the despair and joy, the dark moaning valleys and the singing in the places of flowers, which is the pattern of Bunyan's strenuous life. There are comrades and enemies, stout hearts and cravens, men who care only for the good of fellowship and men of greed and fear; and they are the men of contemporizes of England. (Annette, 189)
Especially well known is the description of Vanity Fair. Here Bunyan gives a symbolic picture of London at the time. In Bourgeois society, all things are sold and bought, including honor, title, kingdom, lusts, cheating, roguery, murder, and adultery prevail. The punishment of Christian and Faithful for disdaining things in the Vanity Fair may have its significance in alluding to Bunyan's repeated arrests and imprisonment for preaching.
At the Vanity Fair, pilgrim and faithful are called the aliens, meaning the person from the other cities, which is the most suitable name for them. The blood of Bunyan and his hero pilgrim belongs to Gypsy. Through this special way of living, he can pursue his dream and this urges his desire to have creative writing. We can felt deeply from his book about his pure soul of pursuing his dream by traveling and sincere attitude in writing.
IV. Conclusion
This thesis is based on the theory of Jung, the greatest psychologist. According to Jung, man has desire to experience vagrancy, which is important way to release the pressure of life and have the real and deep experience of life. This desire to experience the vagrancy can be dated to the family background and childhood experience. The man who suffers loneliness is easy to have such desire, because when they travel, they would experience the childhood experience, and greatly enjoy this feeling of loneliness and solemnity.
Bunyan is really a good illustration of this tendency, combined with childhood experience and religious belief. In the above part, this thesis have a thorough illustration of it. Without the love of his father at the childhood, Bunyan is very lonely as a child. He is a sensitive person with vivid imagination. He treats God as his spiritual father and has fervent religious belief. All his life, he is tortured by the sense of the sin. Having experienced much hardship in his life, such as the death of his first wife and lovely daughter, he even could not bear the pressure any more.
At this moment, he has great desire to experience vagrancy. Working as an itinerant preacher, he has chance to wander around, thus gets a way to release his pressure. He is very fond of this job, willing not to give up it even at the price of being sent at the jail. Furthermore, he realizes his desire of vagrancy by writing the book Pilgrim's Progress, which is the spiritual journey of him. In the book, Christian wanders around many places and meets all kinds of people. Bible is the guide of his spiritual journey. By working as an itinerant preacher and illustrating the vagrant travel of Christian, Bunyan gets his pressure released and gets the real charisma as a writer.
Bibliography：
[1]Brady, Frank. "The Symbolism in Pilgrim's Progress". Literature Studies 4(1990), 51-56.
[2]Freedman, William. “ New Study on John Bunyan” Modern Language Quarterly 32( 1996)，270-290.
[3]Hofme, Isabel. The Portable Bunyan: A transnational history of The Pilgrim's Progress, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004.
[4]Sanders, Andrew. The short History of English Literature Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
[5]荣格. 《荣格性格哲学》.李德荣编译. 北京：商务出版社，2003年8月.