How Little Women drew on The Pilgrim's Progress
A documented line of influence: Louisa May Alcott demonstrably engaged John Bunyan’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan · 1678
EnlightenmentThe influenced
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1868
The Age of the NovelRelevance
9/10
On Little Women’s page
- Little Women opens "Playing Pilgrims" for a reason — Alcott built the whole first volume as a domesticated retelling of Christian's journey
- In chapter two each sister is given her own copy of Bunyan's book; its language threads through the chapter titles and the girls' private struggles
- Read it first and the March sisters' "burdens" stop being a quaint metaphor and become exactly what Bunyan meant — the load of sin and self you carry toward the Celestial City
On The Pilgrim's Progress’s page
- Little Women is The Pilgrim's Progress in a New England parlor — Alcott domesticates Christian's road to the Celestial City into four sisters' march toward growing up good
- Bunyan's allegory is the explicit scaffolding: the March girls are each given a copy, the opening chapter is titled "Playing Pilgrims," and Alcott quotes him for chapter headings throughout
- The pilgrim's burdens, the Slough of Despond, the steady climb — Alcott hands them all to Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy as the moral architecture of childhood