How we cite our quotes: Paragraph (P#) or Line (Line #)
Quote #1
Difficult is behind, Fear is before,
Though he's got on the Hill, the Lions roar;A Christian man is never long at ease,When one fright's gone, another doth him seize. (P218)
Great. You've had the longest, least lucky day in the world—you flunked an exam, fought with your friend, screwed your knee up at soccer, missed the bus, and, of course, the minute you got home, you heard a message from your mom reminding you of some big favor you'd promised. Or maybe there were just two big lions waiting at your doorstep. Christian's experience on the Hill of Difficulty, culminating with these lions outside the Palace Beautiful, really captures the inevitability of suffering that Christians, according to Bunyan, have to be willing to accept. Come to Bunyan at the end of a long, slogging, exhausting day and he'd probably tell you it's a good sign and you're right on track.
Quote #2
The hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend;For I perceive the way to life lies here:Come, pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear.Better, though difficult, the right way to go,Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. (P211)
Ah, precious self-motivation. Little interpolated songs, like this one, frequently have Christian speaking to himself, urging or counseling himself in a way that might seem familiar to anyone who's had to wake up at five a.m., or finish a long paper, or run one more lap. One particular strategy of self-persuasion you notice here is the way he sings of "coveting," or being eager for, the challenge. Because the difficulty of the hill is a part of reaching salvation, Christian turns the suffering into a kind of pleasure, sort of like one of those crazy athletes who loves "the burn."
Quote #3
Why, the Valley itself, which is as dark as pitch; we also saw there the Hobgoblins, Satyrs, and Dragons of the Pit; we heard also in that Valley a continual howling and yelling, as of a people under unutterable misery, who there sat bound in affliction and irons; and over that Valley hangs the discouraging clouds of Confusion; Death also doth always spread his wings over it. In a word, it is every whit dreadful, being utterly without Order. (P326)
Might be hard to make the point any clearer than this: the Valley of the Shadow of Death is pretty much the most excruciating place in the world (or, at least, in Bunyan's allegory-world). What makes it so terrible in this quote, however, is interesting: the fact that it is "utterly without order." How is chaos such a cause of this dreadfulness? Have you ever experienced any "discouraging clouds of Confusion" that were just as terrible as any physical pain or suffering?