Comparison of John Bunyan and John Milton (Themes of the Progress of

Pilgrims and Paradise Lost)

The English poet John Milton introduced Paradise Lost in an epic way which
consisted with over ten thousand lines. After eleven years of Milton, John
Bunyan introduced a popular religious Christian allegory called “the pilgrims
progress. There is no greater difference in their themes. It was considered
to be the most important literature work of all time.
Writing differences;
 John Bunyan wrote the prose in a simple and concise language, used
strong, plain and purely English word in his writing, a person who has
read the Bible cannot easily understand. Therefore, it is the
important reason that people enjoyed the language of Bunyan over
Milton’s Language.
 Milton wrote in complicated and original poetic style. Milton’s aim
was writing to enlighten the tragic repercussions of the sin in one’s
life.
Themes difference (comparison)
 Bunyan’s Theme was very practical and easily understood, in
pilgrim’s progress he covered the knowledge by telling the story of
Christian, who have not read the Bible.
 Paradise Lost he analyzed a formal, tragic and Philosophical
judgment of the temptation of Adam and Eve Milton’s Theme was
complex and tragic, cannot easily understood, in, and Satan as an
anti-hero.
 In pilgrim’s progress Bunyan evaluated the relationship between men
to God. He told the men’s behavior with God, and criticized that how
can men forget God?
 On the other hand, In Paradise Lost, Milton described the
relationship God to Men that God is very generous to all men and
criticized the character of Satan how evil can be so easy to fall into
without knowing it?
Literary themes of Paradise lost and the Progress of Pilgrims
 The meaninglessness of possessions insignificance
of material things;
"human kind’s struggles";
“the danger of vanity;”
“The Temptation of the sin”

Satan vs. Man;

Human fall and salvation
God vs. Satan
In Paradise lost, Milton’s most important theme; the man’s first
Disobedience, covered extremely abstract and intellectual ideas such as
hierarchical nature of the universe that universe divided into hierarchical
structure with God literally sitting on a throne on top and hell on the
bottom as far away God as possible.
On the other hand, one of the most obvious theme in The Pilgrim’s
Progress is that of the Christian’s temporal journey, factor is knowledge.
Christians learned from his experiences. His pilgrim has spirituality.
The most obvious themes are;
 The role of fear in faith
 Liberation
Conclusion:
We see in the themes of Pilgrim’s Progress and Paradise Lost, Satan vs. Man
and God vs. Satan. We considered Paradise Lost a literary masterpiece in
comparison to the Pilgrim’s Progress. The allegory of John Bunyan was one of
the famous worked in history, in comparison to Milton’s epic poem. The most
popular difference in their language. Bunyan’s language people of 17 th century
can easily understood, than the language of Milton, his language was very
complex. Therefore, we can say that easily both have very complex themes
which common people cannot easily understand. The most important difference
in their themes that Milton said that God punished Man because of their
mistakes. Bunyan told the wrong behavior with God.