The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come

The narrator dreams of a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. Reading the book, the man learns that his city will be destroyed and breaks out crying what he must do to be saved. His family thinks him mad. A figure named Evangelist points him toward a distant wicket-gate and a shining light, and so Christian, stopping his ears against his neighbours, runs from the City of Destruction to begin the journey.

The road tests him at once. He sinks in the Slough of Despond, a bog formed by the fears and doubts of the convicted. He is talked off the path by Mr. Worldly Wiseman and has to be set right again. Passing through the wicket-gate, he reaches a place where a cross stands above a sepulchre, and there the burden loosens from his shoulders, rolls into the tomb, and is seen no more. Shining Ones clothe him afresh and give him a sealed roll to deliver at the Celestial Gate.

Now lightened, Christian is armed and instructed at a house called Beautiful and descends into the Valley of Humiliation, where he fights the fiend Apollyon, and then crosses the Valley of the Shadow of Death, a dark and narrow way hemmed by a ditch and a quag, with the mouth of hell beside the path. Beyond it he gains a companion, Faithful, and the two come to the town of Vanity, where a year-round fair sells every worldly thing. Because the pilgrims will buy nothing but truth, they are mocked, tried, and Faithful is put to death, while Christian escapes with a new friend, Hopeful.

Tempted off the path onto easier ground, the two are seized by Giant Despair, owner of Doubting Castle, who beats them, starves them, and presses them to take their own lives. They lie in his dungeon from Wednesday to Saturday until Christian remembers that he carries a key called Promise, which opens every lock in the castle, and they escape. Past this they reach the Delectable Mountains, where shepherds show them the way ahead and warn of by-paths and of a man like Ignorance who trusts his own heart.

The closer they come to the end, the more the country brightens, until they reach a river with no bridge that must be crossed to gain the gate, for its depth answers to one's faith. Christian begins to sink and is gripped by horror, certain his sins have undone him, but Hopeful holds up his head and reminds him of the promises, and they pass over. On the far bank a heavenly host receives them into the Celestial City with trumpets and joy. The dream ends with a sharp warning: Ignorance, ferried over by a different way, is bound and cast out, so that there is a road to destruction even from the gates of heaven.