关于《西游记》与《天路历程》之间不同人物形象的阐述

The first section of The Pilgrim’s Progress tells a story in form of dream where the

christian knows the ruin of hometown from a book. A man called “preacher” warns

him of leaving for heaven. Then he starts his journey. The second section of the book

tells a story about Christian’s wife, whose name is Woman Christian, taking a journey

to heaven with her children. She is guided by a man called Fearless. Based on The

Bible, the two sections of The Pilgrim’s Progress has many symbolic names. For

example, there are the Pond of Despair, Mountain of Difficulty, difficulties that the

christian must to overcome, Village of Doubt, Giant of Despair the Christian is held

back by Giant of Despair at Village of Doubt, and Vanity Fair, Preacher, who guides

the journey of Christian and Mr.Fearless, who guides the journey of Woman Christian.

Having suffered from countless difficulties, and dangers, the Christian arrives in

heaven, making his dream of salvation come true. He is modeled as an incarnation of

virtue and an example of puritans at revolution age. Mr Brave, modeled as a

representative for rightness as well. As for negative roles, there are Arrogant, Haughty

and so on. They are hated by God according to The Bible. Besides, conceptualized

roles are used to imply the figures in real society. For example, Devil Apollyon is a

tyrant. Mr “Bashfulness” is a saint when being at outside but a devil when being at

home. They are the symbols of evil and guilt. Many names and roles in the book

originate from the history of Christianity. For example, the Christian’s four kids, they

are Mathew, Samuel, Joseph and Jacob. According to The Bible, Mathew is one of the

12 apprentices of Jesus, Samuel is a famous prophet at judges age, Joseph is the

twelfth son of Jacob and Jacob is Jesus’ brother.

In The Journey to the West, Tang Monk’s three apprentices represent three kind

of bad habits, they are avarice, anger and simpleton. Pig represents people who have a

strong desire of avarice. He lust for wealth, beauty, fame, profit, food and sleep. Pig is

warned to observe the eight commandments so that he can quit the desire of avarice

and gain wisdom. As a result, he is named as “Eight Commandments”. Conversely, Pig fails to observe. Monkey King represents anger, he always wants to control when

an accidents happen unfairly. But he will be angry when he is misunderstood and

blamed by his master. Being endowed with magic power and having an ability of

seventy two metamorphoses, Monkey King is more powerful than Tang Monk,

nevertheless, Tang Monk is the master while Monkey King isn’t. When I was a little

boy, I couldn’t understand why Tang Monk is the master as he looks so weak, rather

than Monkey King is as he is so powerful. But finally I got it after I study Buddhism,

which tells me that the ultimate pursuit of Buddhism is not being powerful but to

eliminate human’s anger. Monk Sha is a man of simpleton and honesty, being lack of

common sense. He has no idea of what is right or wrong. Studying Buddhism can

help him avoid confusion.