John Bunyan

[Natalie Suárez]

John Bunyan is the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegorical novel that had a tremendous influence on Louisa May Alcott; and as such, Pilgrim’s Progress is alluded to often in Little Women. In fact, Alcott prefaces Little Women with an excerpt from it. By aligning her novel to Bunyan’s instructional novel, one can infer that Alcott’s Little Women will also be an instructional novel of sorts, specifically for girls. In fact, in the very first chapter entitled “Playing Pilgrims,” the girls are prompted by their mother to play Pilgrim’s Progress, a ‘game’ they played as children. Each girl is to take on a ‘burden’ and work to overcome it. Marmee states:

We are never too old for this, my dear, because it is a play we are playing
all the time in one way or another. Our burdens are here, our road is
before us, and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that
leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true
Celestial City. Now, my little pilgrims, suppose you begin again, not in play,
in earnest, and see how far on you can get before father comes home. (13)

This is the first of many lessons given by Marmee to her girls. Alcott’s novel can be seen as intended to instruct girls on how to become good little women, using Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as a guide or model to do so. Overall, just like Bunyan’s novel, Little Women is full of lessons that are intended to instruct.