The Comparative Thematic Study Of The Pilgrim's Progress And The Pilgrimage To The West

As one of the most significant works in the respective histories of English and Chinese literary, though produced in different times with different national identities and linguistic qualities, The Pilgrim s Progress and the Pilgrimage to the West each shows uncontroverted similarities in forms of themes, the structure of plots as well as the purpose of religious moralization.This thesis briefly summarizes the thematological epitomes and the present conditions of the studies of the two novels, analyses emphatically the similarities in such respects as the subject matter of redemption, the approaches of redemption, the experience of redemption, the result of redemption and distinguishes the doctrines of Christianism from Buddhism. And this thesis also endeavors to unveil the ultimate concern in Human Culture as well as human's perception of other worlds. The author also devotes to demonstrate the similarities of Human Culture reflected from the two novels which are regarded as religious works.The thesis adopts a new viewpoint of thematology attached to comparative literature, provides a fully comprehensive study of the above-mentioned two religious novels, and in a way, has expanded the space for thinking. so,in a sense, may serve as compliment to the present research which remains unbelievably inadequate.