Meaning of Lazarillo de Tormes

The life of Lazarillo de Tormes Y of their fortunes and adversities, also known as Lazarillo of Tormes, is a work of anonymous authorship written in the year 1554. It is also the first manifestation of the picaresque novel.

With an epistolary style, autobiographical and in the first person, this work describes the miserable life of a young man named Lázaro, who goes through different difficulties from when he was a child until he reached his age adult. At the same time, the book is a portrait and a critique of 16th century Spanish society.

Five centuries after its publication, the novel is still surrounded by enigmas. What is the Lazarillo de Tormes? Who is the author? What are the characteristics of it? What are the topics it deals with?

Argument from Lazarillo de Tormes

The novel Lazarillo de Tormes revolves around Lázaro, a naive boy who, due to the adversities and complexities he goes through, turns into a young rogue who struggles to survive.

It is a first-person story in which Lázaro tells the story of his life from his childhood. When his father passes away, his mother places him in the service of a blind master.

Later, Lazaro passes through a total of nine masters, among them: a squire, a friar and a clergyman. Each one represents a critique of society and, especially, of the clergy.

The book Lazarillo de Tormes portrays the evolution of his protagonist, from when he is an ignorant young man until he becomes a cunning rogue who tricks his owners into eating and drinking.

Summary of Lazarillo de Tormes by treaties

Foreword

The prologue reveals that the Lazarillo de Tormes It is an extensive epistle that the protagonist sends to an anonymous recipient whom Lázaro refers to as Your Mercy.

Treatise 1: the blind man

In the first treatise he narrates his origins and how he begins his duties as a servant. Lázaro was born into a very poor family and near the Tormes river, hence his surname. His father is accused of being a thief and later dies. Later, his widowed mother marries a black man with whom she has a son.

Due to the poverty of his family, his mother placed him in the service of a blind man. This man is cruel to Lazarus and barely offers him food. Therefore, Lázaro learns to be cunning, a cheater and the necessary words to deceive people for his own benefit.

Finally, the young man ends up abandoning his blind master due to his greed and the mistreatment he receives.

Treatise 2: the cleric

In this treatise the protagonist narrates his adventures with his second master, a clergyman.

After his experience with the blind man, Lazaro is left without a master for a while and becomes a beggar. However, he soon begins working for a clergyman and they become an altar boy during Masses.

Lázaro thinks that he is going to improve his situation because, when trying to move up the social ladder, he believes that he will not go through hardships. But, the reality is that he is hungrier than with his former master.

With the second master, Lazarus learns about the hypocrisy and corruption of the clergy. Well, while the clergyman preaches kindness and austerity at Masses, he treats Lazarus badly. Finally, the protagonist finds a way to leave him and head to Toledo.

Treaty 3: the squire

In the third treatise, Lazarus reveals his adventure with his third master, a squire.

When he arrives in Toledo, Lázaro is badly wounded due to the blows of his previous master. There he tries to survive thanks to the alms he gets.

He then meets a squire who offers him a job. Lázaro believes this will improve his quality of life due to his social position. However, his misery continues and he only learns that appearances can be deceiving, because the squire is opulently dressed and does not even have enough to eat.

In the end, Lázaro flees from the squire's house when he tries to escape from the collectors who come for the rent money.

Treaty 4: the Friar of Mercy

In the fourth treatise, Lázaro tells of his experience with the Friar de la Merced, his fourth master.

This man is very religious and his greatest hobby is walking continuously and taking long walks. With him Lázaro learns about promiscuity. He does not empathize with her attitude towards women and towards the clergy. However, the friar gives Lazaro his first pair of shoes. One day Lázaro, tired of walking, ends up abandoning the Friar.

Treaty 5: the buldero

This treatise revolves around the protagonist's experiences with his fifth master, a buldero. A position of the Catholic church in the Middle Ages that was in charge of delivering bulls in exchange for the money of the believers.

With this experience, Lazarus meets again the corruption of the clergy, who deceives people with their false faith. With this, the protagonist learns about greed.

After four months with this master, Lázaro decides to abandon him and continue on his way in search of a more honest man.

Treatise 6: the painter and the chaplain

In this treatise, Lazarus speaks of those who were his sixth and seventh masters.

First, the protagonist meets a painter whom he serves for a short time. The lack of connection between two opposite worlds makes Lázaro leave him.

Later, Lazaro meets his seventh master, an exploitative and opportunistic chaplain. With it, the young man learns to work and earn his own money. Lázaro works for four years in miserable conditions, but manages to buy his own clothes and change his appearance. When he manages to save enough, he leaves the chaplain and escapes from that place.

Treaty 7: the bailiff and the archpriest of San Salvador

In the seventh treatise, the last in the book, Lazarus recounts his exploits with his eighth and ninth master.

After his long stay with the chaplain, Lazarus meets a bailiff who becomes his eighth master. With him it lasts a short time, since he considers that the work and the thoughts of the bailiff are too dangerous and close to death.

Finally, Lazaro's ninth and last master is the archpriest of San Salvador, who introduces him to one of his maids to be his wife. Lázaro marries her and manages to find the happiness and stability that he had never had before.

Analysis of the Lazarillo de Tormes

Social context and time

Lazarillo de Tormes was published in the middle of the 16th century, during the reign of Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany. In a political context in which the Spanish empire equated a good part of Europe and also some lands of America.

While Carlos I strove to monopolize more territories and unite them under his rule, the society he ruled was increasingly impoverished and struggled against hunger and misery. Also begging and crime stood out at a time when honor was valued for money or appearances.

With these events as a backdrop, Lazarillo de Tormes, as well as other novels of the picaresque genre, aims to show the true face of the society of the moment.

Characteristics of the work: Lazarillo and the picaresque

The Lazarillo de Tormes is a picaresque novel, a literary subgenre that emerged in Spain during the second half of the 16th century and that lasted until the 17th century. The birth of this new literary phenomenon arises on the one hand, due to the economic decline that plagued the country that leads to the growth of misery and a general malaise of society.

On the other hand, it appears as a response to the literary tradition of the time and as an alternative to chivalric, sentimental and pastoral novels.

• Lazarillo de Tormes is a novel of the picaresque genre, therefore, it has the following characteristics:
• The work is in the first person.
• The protagonist and the narrator are the same person.
• The protagonist and the situations are mischievous and burlesque tones against society.
• There is no hero, only the rogue who resembles an antihero. The rogue is the naughty and ignorant person of values.
• The short stories only have in common the presence of the protagonist.
• Love is not the main theme.
• The style is popular, therefore, it has a simple and concise language inclined to humor. In Lazarillo de Tormes, the presence of popular sayings and sayings is significant.

Topics contained in the Lazarillo de Tormes

Throughout the novel different themes about the reality of the time are revealed. Through the eyes of Lázaro and his mischief in the face of adversity, the reader can learn about the cruellest side of society. These are the most important issues that are criticized in the book:

• Honor and honor: At the time in which the work is contextualized, honor was related to lineage, that is, dignity and honesty depended on the family to which you belonged. It was almost impossible to advance in social position. Also the cleansing of blood was one of the great obsessions in that Spanish society that excluded the converts, the successors of Moors and Jews.
• The greed and corruption of the clergy: Lazarillo de Tormes also prosecutes the clergy. The protagonist has different experiences with members of the church. These characters, far from being grateful and charitable, are greedy, hypocritical, selfish and corrupt.
• Hunger and the fight for survival: It is one of the deepest problems that plagues society. This is another of the most important themes contained in the novel. Hunger makes Lazaro go from being an innocent child to a young rogue. The fight for survival and for food transform him into someone cunning.
• Begging: In direct relation to hunger, the increase in begging was also part of the Spanish social reality of the time. Lazaro in the novel also has to earn his living as a beggar when he serves the blind, and at other times when he is left without a master.
• Abandonment and loneliness: Lázaro is abandoned given as a gift to a master. He is a child who lives permanently in a state of loneliness. Although sometimes he is accompanied by his different masters, the reality is that Lázaro is a lonely orphan child who has no one to trust.
• Looks are deceiving: this is continually shown in Lazarillo de Tormes. The blind man takes advantage of his condition to deceive people. The clergyman preaches kindness and then mistreats Lazarus. The squire is sunk in misery but pretends otherwise. They all show that reality is not what it seems.
• Selfishness: Another aspect that is clear in this novel is that each one thinks for himself and for himself without considering the others.

Lazarillo de Tormes characters

Lázaro is the fundamental piece of the novel, however, on his learning path the young man meets different characters. On the one hand, it should be noted, syour parents and your stepfather, for them the protagonist is mired in disgrace.

On the other hand are Masters, which directly condition his evolution and learning about Lazaro's life. Finally, his wife that brings stability to his life.

Thus, these are the main characters that appear in Lazarillo de Tormes and the main features of it:

Lazaro de Tormes

He is the protagonist of the novel and, in turn, is the common thread that unites the different stories. He was born in the river Tormes in the city of Salamanca into a very humble family that he barely had to eat. He is soon orphaned of a father and his mother hands him over as a servant to a blind man.

Lazaro's main objective is to achieve stability, however, his bad experiences with his different masters return him, time and again, to misery and difficulties. This character is an example of transformation and maturity that reaches its peak at the end of the play, when he is an adult and marries. Then, Lazaro manages to have the stability that he had wanted so much.

Lázaro's parents: Tomé Gonzalez, Antona Pérez and Zaide

Tomé Gonzalez He is the father of Lázaro, a miller of poor origin. To get food he steals but is discovered and banished. He finally dies in the war when his son is very young.

Antona perez She is the mother of Lazarus. When she is widowed she has to work hard to support her child. She later marries another man named Zaide that she becomes Lazaro's stepfather. Soon Zaide is accused of robbery, arrested and flogged.

In the end, Antona's critical financial situation and the difficulty she has in supporting her son causes her to hand him over to a blind man as a servant.

The masters of Lazarillo de Tormes

Lázaro goes through a total of nine masters, each of them brings him a new teaching:

1. The blind: he is the first master of Lazarus. He is one of the most influential characters in the boy's personality. He is a greedy and selfish man who does not stop mistreating Lázaro. He does not offer him food either, so the child learns to trick him to satisfy his desire to eat. Finally, Lázaro ends up abandoning him.
2. The cleric: he is the second master of Lazarus. He is a hypocritical and corrupt man, despite the fact that he has plenty of food, he does not want to share it with the protagonist. In order to eat, Lázaro decides to steal bread from him while he sleeps. Finally, the clergyman discovers him and throws him out.
3. The squire: he is a character who lives very aware of appearances. He pretends to have wealth but the reality is quite different, he doesn't even have enough to eat. In the end, the protagonist discovers the truth and decides to go back to the streets to beg.
4. The friar of Mercy: he is the fourth master of Lazarus. He likes to do long journeys, he is a man as religious as a womanizer and corrupt. He is the first to give Lazaro some shoes, who decides to abandon him tired of walking so much.
5. The buldero: he is the fifth master of Lazarus. He is a liar man who lives by deceiving people in order to earn money.
6. The painter: sixth master of Lázaro and is dedicated to painting tambourines. The young man's stay with him is very short since he feels the same as with his other masters.
7. The chaplain: Lazaro's seventh master and with whom he spends the most time. He is the first to offer you a job and provide you with some stability.
8. Sheriff: he is the eighth master of Lazarus. He is a man who belongs to justice and for this reason the protagonist considers it dangerous to always be with him and ends up abandoning him.
9. The Archpriest of San Salvador: ninth and last master of the protagonist. He is part of the clergy and is a corrupt man. Thanks to him, Lazaro meets his wife.

Lazaro's wife

She is one of the servants of the archpriest of San Salvador, a woman with whom Lázaro decides to marry in order to achieve stability and not starve again.

Authorship of Lazarillo de Tormes

The riddle of who is he Author from Lazarillo de Tormes remains an unsolved mystery. However, throughout history the need to put a name behind the novel has persisted. Thus different theories have been generated for several centuries. These are the authors to whom the work has been attributed at some point:

• Jerome Friar Juan de Ortega: in the seventeenth century it was thought that the author of the Lazarillo it could be him because they found a draft of the work in his cell.
• Alfonso de Valdés: this writer and humanist was also assigned the work for a time. This theory was defended by Joseph V. Ricapito in 1976 and reaffirmed by the philologist and university professor Rosa Navarro Durán, who attributes the work to this author in one of her publications.
• Diego Hurtado de Mendoza: some authors assigned him the book of Lazarillo de Tormes to this diplomat. A theory that spread with greater force during the 19th century. In 2010 the Spanish historian Mercedes Agulló y Cobo published an investigation entitled Around the corner with the author of Lazarillo de Tormes in which he firmly attributes the work to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, thanks to the discovery of some papers by this in which you can read the phrase "a file of corrections made for the printing of Lazarillo and Propaladia ”.