'Tell All Men': Bunyan and the Gendering of Discourse

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 11; p. 8
• Main Author: Graham, Jean
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2003
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]Bunyan's men benefit from positive associations with feminine characteristics such as submission, but for them also transgressive speech is condemned as parallel to female promiscuity. [...]it is too simple to say, as does Tamsin Spargo, that 'the female characters of Bunyan's later works may be read as disrupting to varying degrees the discursive framework in which they are contained'.1 Bunyan rejects the characterization of male speech as acceptable and female speech as unacceptable, instead considering all human words suspect unless they accurately mirror the Word of God. [...]he thinks men more capable of interpreting and speaking Scripture, yet both in his polemical writing and in his allegories, women as well as men are permitted - and sometimes encouraged - to speak. According to Bunyan's account in A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan (frequently published with Grace Abounding), she insists that he 'preacheth nothing but the word of God'; argues that he 'cannot have justice' because he is poor; and repeatedly contradicts the justices, saying 'it is false' (pp. 129-33). [...]Faithful directly addresses Talkative: 'The proverb is true of you, which is said of a whore; to wit, that she is a shame to all women; so you are a shame to all professors' (p. 207). Since Bunyan and most of his contemporaries had forbidden women access to the pulpit, the hypocritical speakers are presumably male, but the comparisons are to women; 'slut' and 'naughty' are not necessarily sexual (since before the late nineteenth century a 'slut' could also be a dirty or untidy woman), but in this context can easily be read as such.34 After the male 'whore' has left, concluding that Faithful is 'not fit to be discoursed with', Christian commends his less-experienced companion's words, which contrast with Talkative's: 'Your words and his lusts could not agree ...