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Character Role Analysis

Sidekick— Hopeful and Faithful

Faithful and Hopeful both make pretty strong nominees for best actor in a supporting role. Both also represent the importance of fellowship among pilgrims following Bunyan's allegorical quest.

Really, you have only to think of Christian's glee when he first spots Faithful on the road, or the tears both Hopeful and Christian shed thinking how the other might have been destroyed by the Giant Despair, to know how crucial this sharing is to reaching salvation at all.

As sidekicks, they serve both story and spiritual functions for Bunyan. On the one hand, someone like Faithful is a sympathetic good-guy character who can be sacrificed for the cause without also sacrificing the story—where it's very important not to kill off the protagonist. On the other hand, both Faithful and Hopeful fill the important spiritual function of teaching what it is to "love thy neighbor."

The love between Christian and his friends allegorizes the Gospel teachings in a pretty profound way. Also, the selflessness required in order to accept the side-kick role is really a perfect prototype for the Gospel teachings of love and humility. Now if only that "narrow" pilgrim road had been wide enough for a side-car…