# The Pilgrim’s Progress — Character guide

> Key figures in The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.

- [Christian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/christian.md): Christian is the ordinary townsman whose terror of coming judgment drives him out of his own house, away from a weeping wife and four sons who think him mad. His burden of sin will not lift by any effort of his own, and 
- [Christiana](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/christiana.md): For years Christiana stood on the safe side of the door, mocking the groans and entreaties of a husband she thought melancholy-mad. After he vanishes over the river, her unkindness returns to her like lightning, and a dr
- [Mercy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/mercy.md): Mercy is the tender-hearted companion who joins the second pilgrimage not from conviction so much as from love, and her longing to go is so strong that she weeps when she thinks she may be turned away. She has no husband
- [Hopeful](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/hopeful.md): Hopeful comes to the pilgrimage late and by the hardest route, converted by the spectacle of a man willing to die rather than recant. Where Christian is often anxious and quick to doubt, Hopeful is steady, and their long
- [Faithful](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/faithful.md): Faithful is the friend Christian meets again after both fled the same city, and their shared miles become the book's warmest stretch of talk and argument. He is blunt, unafraid of dispute, and unwilling to soften his tes
- [Evangelist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/evangelist.md): Evangelist arrives uninvited in the fields outside the City of Destruction and hands Christian the one direction that matters, then vanishes as abruptly as he came. He is not a companion but a summons, and his reappearan
- [Great-heart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/great-heart.md): Great-heart enters the Second Part as the protector Christiana's company desperately needs, a man whose courage is matched by his tenderness toward the weak. He carries a sword for giants and a patience for children, and
- [Old Honest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/old-honest.md): Old Honest arrives with the gravity of a man who has outlived his own follies and now speaks only what he has tested. He is not the fastest walker in the company, but his word is the one the others trust when the road fo
- [Giant Despair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/giant-despair.md): Giant Despair rules a crumbling castle on the By-Path Meadow, where any traveler who strays from the King's highway wakes in his dungeon. He is married to Diffidence, and together they have made a business of breaking sp
- [Apollyon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/apollyon.md): Apollyon is the prince of the city of Destruction, and he does not bother to disguise his hatred: he reminds Christian of every sin, every backslide, every reason the pilgrimage should end here. Their fight lasts half a 
- [Satan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/satan.md): Satan rarely appears in person in the allegory, but his fingerprints are on every temptation from the Slough of Despond to the Enchanted Ground. He is the prosecutor who whispers a pilgrim's sins louder than the promises
- [Matthew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/matthew.md): Matthew is the first of Christiana's four boys to speak, to question, and to stumble, which makes him both the leader of the brothers and the cautionary tale. His illness after eating the fruit is the Second Part's sharp
- [Mercy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/mercy-young.md): Mercy travels with Christiana's household as a young woman of soft spirit and deep affection, often weeping when she hears of Christian's journey and longing to see the place he sought. Her tenderness is both her gift an
- [Valiant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/valiant.md): Valiant-for-the-truth arrives among Christiana's companions as a youth whose courage is already legendary, a man no threat could make face about. He carries a sword and a readiness for conflict that sets him apart from t
- [Mr. Fearing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/mr-fearing.md): A timid pilgrim whose fearful nature is described by Great-heart.
- [Timorous](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/timorous.md): A fearful neighbor who tries to dissuade Christiana from her pilgrimage.
- [Mr. Worldly Wiseman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/mr-worldly-wiseman.md): A deceptive guide who tries to divert Christian from the narrow way.
- [Mr. Feeble-mind](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters/mr-feeble-mind.md): A weak but faithful pilgrim rescued by Great-heart from Giant Slay.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pilgrim_s_progress_se/characters