Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : The Quest
The Quest
The Call
All he knows is that something ain't right. Alone and sure of some impending doom, surrounded by people who think he's simply crazy, Christian's state of mind at the start of the story is a unique mixture of surety and confusion. Something awful is coming, but what? He needs to leave, but where to? And how?
It's this dynamic of urgency and bewilderment that makes him particularly susceptible to the advice of Evangelist. Directed toward the Celestial City, with a couple of clear road-marks to start him out, Christian begins his quest…
The Journey
While this may all be an allegory for the spiritual development and struggles of a Christian, the concrete, geographical way that Bunyan depicts this journey is uber-important. The aspect of a real, trekking sort of journey across unknown terrain with unknown help and dangers on the way reflects how we all can sometimes feel blind-sighted in life—when troubles come, it can feel like a monster suddenly sweeping in from out of the blue.
The journey of Christian tunes us into the vulnerability of the hero, as well as the importance of perseverance. These are pretty helpful things for Bunyan to dwell on in his lesson/story of faith—how to cling to it, why it matters, when it is most challenged.
Christian himself is always in the middle of his life as it's happening, but we, like the dreaming narrator, are given a more bird's eye-view of the road. Seeing approaching dangers that Christian may not, you might be forced to think of the blind spots in your own life.
The Final Ordeals
There's one source of trouble that rises above the rest in the final ordeal at the river: self-doubt, or despair. Yeah, this self-doubt makes even giants and being assaulted by lions seem like child's play.
Christian makes many mistakes along the way, of course (like falling asleep at the arbor, taking the shortcut through the meadow, stopping to talk with Flatterer). But the real problem is when he can't let himself off the hook for these errors. In front of the Celestial City, however, Bunyan shifts and renames this problem of self-doubt: when Christian begins to sink in the river, his self-doubt is shown to really be a more serious doubting of Christ. Luckily, Hopeful reminds him that, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole" (P897).