Discuss the picaresque elements in Lazarillo de Tormes.

Emily Wheating

‘La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de Sus Fortunas y Adversidades,’ is the archetypal picaresque novel, being the first and most famous novel in the 16th century genre. The reader follows Lázaro the ‘anti-hero’ of the novel, through his adventures as he relates to his rising from poverty as he moves from master to master in the seven ‘tradados’ of the novel. He is the typical ‘pícaro’ (meaning rogue or rascal) as he delineates various professions and levels of society through his mischievous antics.

Published anonymously in 1554 in Spain the novel was controversial in content as normally respected members of society were shown to be selfish and cruel depriving Lazarillo from food. Four of his seven masters serve the church, which Lazarillo de Tormes criticizes to great extent in the novel, as he describes how people bought themselves out of hell, and the mistreatment of refugees and beggars. His prologue attacks the hypocrisy of the church itself, however never the beliefs themselves.

Lázaro’s path in life and his role as a pícaro starts off from his birth, as his family are less than noble. His father dies when he is a young boy and his mother becomes the mistress of a dark skinned man, with whom she bears an illegitimate son. In Spanish society this sort of situation would be deemed unacceptable due its strong catholic values. The step father of Lázaro was a thief, and Lázaro initially fearing his step father changes his attitude ‘que vi con su venida mejoraba el comer, le fui quieriendo bien’ this attitude becomes an ingrained characteristic of Lázaro, his obsession for food that follows him throughout his life. Coming from a less than ideal background Lázaro is given away by his mother to a blind man to act as his provider and teacher in exchange for Lázaro becoming his guide.

Under the guidance of the blind man Lázaro learns the art of survival. His true obsession with food starts here as he is virtually starved by his greedy and selfish master who gives him less than half of what he needs. It is at this point that Lázaro becomes a pícaro which continues as a reoccurring element throughout the book as Lázaro has to perform all sorts of trickery to fool his master in order to feed himself.

On the first day of meeting his new master Lázaro is taught a cruel lesson as he is fooled into believing that a noise comes from within a stone bull. As the blind man cruelly bashes his head against the rock he is told that he must know ‘mas que el diablo’ in order to serve his master, at this point Lázaro understands that he is alone in the world and in his rude awakening quickly leaves his childhood behind. ‘Que me cumple avivar el ojo y avisar, pues solo soy, y pensar como me sepa valer.’ Despite the less than agreeable way of learning his lesson Lázaro learns not to take things at face value which acts as a useful lesson with his future masters.

The cruelty of his master leads to often slap-stick moments, a comedic element though which the picaresque is often portrayed in the novel, where Lázaro is often trying to deceive his master with often disastrous results. There is the incident where Lázaro drills a hole into the wine jar of his master in order to create for himself a small fountain of wine where he could drink at his will, unbeknown to his master. Unfortunately for the young pícaro his deviousness if fooled by his equally crafty master, who waits for the next occasion where Lázaro drinks from his fountain to smash the jar upon his head, telling him as he cleans his wounds ‘Lo que te enfermó te sana y te da salud.’ This harsh lesson shows Lazarillo that he cannot escape the hand that feeds him however little or however cruel.

It is with the blind man that Lázaro becomes the rogue, as he draws out the pícaro in him through his cruelty and deceitful influence as he cheats people into paying him for prayers. When Lázaro has finally had enough of the miserly blind man he deliberately plays tricks on him as he ceases to care about pleasing his master, and leaves the blind man unconscious in the road after he tricks him into jumping into a stone pillar.

Lázaro comes across his second master in Maqueda where ‘El Clérigo’ asks if he is able to assist him ...