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.
