Rinconete and Cortadillo: short summary

Within the Exemplary novels by Miguel de Cervantes, one of them stands out among the most famous. That is why in today's lesson from a TEACHER we will give you a short summary of Rinconete and Cortadillo and, in addition, we will offer you a brief introduction to this work of our most universal writer. In this way, you will get to know the characteristics of this work and, thus, you will understand why it is a piece that has been an important part of our literary history. We started!

It is complex to analyze Exemplary novels by Miguel de Cervantes without first making a small introduction to the works that compose them and in what circumstances they were written.

In total, there were 12 novels that saw the light from the pen of Cervantes. In them, the author tries to offer, through various stories and passages, the discovery of almost model characters, of high morals, and even great physical beauty. That is why we can find respect for women, for example, something not always common at the time. In fact, it is one of the great criticisms made of these works, which are excessively moralistic and unrealistic, but for that reason they are exemplary.

However, more than stories, Exemplary novels they narrate to a great extent passages without a clear common thread, almost as if they were descriptions of events and facts that lead the reader to a scheme of moralizing reading, that is, carrying out an educational task in his time. This phenomenon also occurs in today's novel.

In total, Cervantes published 12 novels, but in this lesson we will focus on Rinconete and Cortadillo. This work was included in a manuscript that he received on behalf of Cheer of the Chamber and, in it, we find two stories, our own, that concerns us here, and The jealous Extremadura.

It is believed that, whether they were in print or prior to this, and even that it could be Miguel de Cervantes himself, both were very retouched before seeing the light definitive. And the writer was beginning to enjoy a certain fame and protection and might wish to avoid cuts in censorship bad publicity, so they adapted to a more understandable version that did not affect the reputation of their Author.

We start this short summary of Rinconete and Cortadillon talking about the story of two boys, Diego Cortado and Pedro del Rincón. Both have run away from home and are marching down the road from Toledo to Andalusia, which is where they meet, they will become friends and their misadventures will begin.

Pedro and Diego are two 15-year-old boys who they escape from a home where they are mistreated by their own families. However, this fact has allowed them to sharpen their wits, so they have a remarkable ability to survive and escape from all kinds of situations.

Even so, on the way to Seville they lose all their money, stolen by a rather tricky muleteer at card games. For this reason, they arrive in the Andalusian city with nothing, although there they find work as porters to carry goods.

However, they are not guys with a lot of love for work, so they decide to rob a sacristan who carries a bag of money, a fact that does not go unnoticed by Ganchuelo, a boy who approaches them to tell them about the bad job of stealing. However, if they persist in choosing that profession, it is preferable to join a group of thieves commanded by Monipodio, a professional criminal and teacher among the ghouls, rascals, etc. He is the one who controls the commerce in the city, so he protects the members of his brotherhood in exchange for them to fulfill the functions of him.

As a result of meeting Monipodio, Pedro and Diego become Rinconete and Cortadillo, nicknames that for the master thief are ideal for their ages.

As we have said before, the Exemplary novels of Cervantes do not have a clear history in the classical and strict sense, but rather temporary passages that narrate with moralizing realism various everyday situations.

In this case, we know that with the money that the boys steal, Monipodio makes them pay candles for saints and novenas for virgins, thus believing themselves to be good Christians. They have to fulfill their obligations as believers, just like the prostitutes and scoundrels that make up the gang, such as Maniferro or Chiquiznaque.

In addition, they are spectators of another passage in which a prostitute, Cariharta, who receives a beating from Repolido, is consoled by another prostitute, Grananciosa. That is, one more passage in the lives of these boys than does not follow classical linearity of the stories with exposition, development and denouement itself in its usual sense, something that we do see in other works by the author, such as his own Quixote.

Thus, the end of the work is not clear, or is rather open. Perhaps there were more novels to write, or else he was simply trying to narrate a passage from the lives of the protagonists, as happens in most of the Exemplary novels by Cervantes.