- In the morning, however, the Giant Despair from nearby Doubting Castle finds the two men and captures them.
- The Giant accuses the pilgrims of trespassing and locks them up in the castle. There, Christian is deeply distraught at having landed them in this mess through his bad idea.
- The Giant's wife, Diffidence, tells her husband that he should have no mercy on the prisoners. The Giant follows orders and beats Christian and Hopeful until the two can hardly move.
- Diffidence then tells her husband to advise them to kill themselves since the torture will only continue.
- The next morning, he says this to the pilgrims who say they'd prefer to be let go. This angers the Giant so much that he falls into a seizure and has to take a break from the beating.
- In this interlude, Christian and Hopeful discuss whether or not to take the Giant's advice to kill themselves.
- Christian is for it, but Hopeful (true to name) says they can't since the Lord forbids murder. If you kill yourself, he reasons, you're thus not only destroying a body (as you would in any murder) but a soul, since your soul would be damned for the action.
- Hopeful convinces Christian to be patient and keep a look out for some means to escape.
- When the Giant finds that they haven't killed themselves he grows violently angry and promises the next beating will only be worse. Christian again wants to opt for suicide, but Hopeful prevents him, reminding him of all the fearful things he's faced thus far.
- The Giant's wife then tells him to take the prisoners into the yard to see the skeletons of those who had gone before.
- The Giant does this, warning that they too will look like that in a few days. Then, just for good measure, he beats them a little more.
- Diffidence is sure that they must have some trick up their sleeves for escape and tells her husband to search Christian and Hopeful in the morning.
- That night, the two pilgrims begin to pray and remain in prayer until morning.
- Just before light, Christian suddenly (and conveniently) realizes that he has a key in his shirt pocket called Promise that he thinks will unlock Doubting Castle.
- The key does indeed work and while the last door wakes the Giant with its creaking, he's prevented from catching them by another fit.
- Christian and Hopeful make their way back to the road and out of the Giant Despair's territory. At the stile, they leave a sign warning future pilgrims that the meadow leads to Doubting Castle and the Giant Despair.