What are the morals in The Pilgrim's Progress?

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Allegory:
The term loosely describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning. This
narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events
represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something
else on the symbolic level. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual
concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a
narrative. [ href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_a.html">Literary Terms and
Definitions. Dr. Kip Wheeler, Department of English, Carson-Newman
College.]

Paul Bunyon's
Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian allegory, which means that, as an
extended metaphor, the characters and action of the narrative have a double meaning and
that the underlying metaphorical spiritual and moral meaning overrides the importance of
the literal narrative meaning: the moral and spiritual lessons of the story are more
important than the action the characters undertake. This is relevant because when asking
what the morals of the story are, the answer must come from the meaning of the whole
book in its entirety.

The many morals include being
faithful to Christian theology, belief and practice; being hopeful toward the coming
resurrection and union with the God of Christianity; aspire toward attaining a place in
the "Celestial City" of Heaven; don't be feeble minded and blown from your path by every
idea that comes along; be valiant in defending the truth of Christianity; don't yield to
despondency; be forever honest with persons; be steadfast in pursuing the righteous of
those who attain the Celestial City; bear no ill-will toward others; don't prejudge
persons, places or ideas; don't be ignorant, lacking in knowledge, training and
information; don't be obstinate about doing what is good or right; continue progressing
on the pilgrim's path to the Celestial City and righteousness. Two most important morals
can be extrapolated from the whole, however.

The first most
important moral is that while on the pilgrim believer's journey to the ultimate goal of
the Celestial City of Heaven, you must not allow yourself to be distracted by actions,
beliefs or attitudes that will deter you and waylay you in some slough or other trap of
unrighteousness and faithlessness: keep looking toward the goal and keep progressing in
the spirit and attitude of joy and steadfastness. The second most important moral,
pointed out as important by being the subject of the climax of the story, is that
ignorance must be corrected or it will surely lead to (1) a failure to attain the
Celestial City and also to (2) eternal suffering, separation from the righteous and
destruction.

Though some critics question Bunyon's choice
to have the punishment of Ignorance as the climax of the story, when seen in this light,
as the second most important moral, and when seen as the antithesis (opposite) of the
progress toward the goal in the correct spirit and attitude, it is easier to see why
Bunyon chose this climax since it accentuates what he saw as the greatest obstacle to
successful progress for the pilgrim.