In The Voyage of Life, how is the Works discussed?
The four-part series is an allegory that traces a man's voyage along the "River of Life," portraying the innocence of childhood, the confidence and ambition of youth, the trials of manhood, and the approach of death in old age.  Each painting places the voyager and his guardian angel in a different part of the river and surrounding wilderness.
Art critics have ascribed a variety of potential inspirations to the work, the most obvious being the Bible's "river of life" imagery and John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, along with a variety of 19th-century poems, essays, and sermons.  Cole called the series an "Allegory of Human Life" and wrote detailed descriptions of the paintings, conveying how each depicts a different stage of the man's life and spiritual development.  The voyager has also been seen as a personification of America, and the series as a warning against westward expansion and industrialization.The versions of 1842 are not exact replicas of the 1840 originals, but the alterations are generally minor.  The most obvious difference is the brighter colors of the replicas, perhaps due simply to differences in available pigments.
The Pilgrim's Progress Allegory guardian angel death allegory John Bunyan