Article #437-1 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes: His Fortunes and Misfortunes as Told by Himself, by Anonymous

So that matters wouldn't get any worse, the poor woman went ahead
and carried out the sentence. And to avoid any danger and get
away from wagging tongues, she went to work as a servant for the
people who were living at the Solano Inn then. And there, while
putting up with all kinds of indignities, she managed to raise my
little brother until he knew how to walk. And she even raised me
to be a good little boy who would take wine and candles to the
guests and do whatever else they told me.

About this time a blind man came by and stayed at the inn. He
thought I would be a good guide for him, so he asked my mother if
I could serve him, and she said I could. She told him what a
good man my father had been and how he'd died in the battle of
Gelves for the holy faith. She said she trusted God that I
wouldn't turn out any worse a man than my father, and she begged
him to be good to me and look after me, since I would be an
orphan now. He told her he would and said that I wouldn't be a
servant to him, but a son. And so I began to serve and guide my
new old master.

After he had been in Salamanca a few days, my master wasn't happy
with the amount of money he was taking in, and he decided to go
somewhere else. So when we were ready to leave, I went to see my
mother. And with both of us crying she gave me her blessing and
said, "Son, I know that I'll never see you again. Try to be
good, and may God be your guide. I've raised you and given you
to a good master; take good care of yourself."

Explanation

This excerpt from The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes (1554), an anonymous picaresque novel, offers a pivotal moment in the protagonist’s early life, marking his transition from childhood dependence to the harsh realities of survival in 16th-century Spain. The passage is rich in social commentary, irony, and pathos, while also establishing key themes of the novel: poverty, deception, maternal sacrifice, and the hypocrisy of institutional power. Below is a detailed breakdown of the text, focusing on its narrative techniques, thematic depth, and stylistic choices.

Context of the Excerpt

The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes is the foundational work of the picaresque genre, a first-person narrative following the misadventures of a pícaro (rogue) from a low social class. The novel is framed as an autobiographical letter, with Lazarillo recounting his life to an unnamed recipient (likely a high-ranking official) to explain his current circumstances. The excerpt occurs early in the story, after Lazarillo’s father (a miller) dies in battle and his mother, Tome González, is left destitute. She turns to domestic work at the Solano Inn in Salamanca, where she raises Lazarillo and his younger brother in poverty.

The blind man’s arrival signals Lazarillo’s first master-servant relationship, a recurring structure in the novel where each master embodies a different flaw of Spanish society (hypocrisy, greed, corruption). The blind man, though initially kind, will later prove to be cruel and stingy, teaching Lazarillo the necessity of cunning to survive.

Themes in the Excerpt

Poverty and Social Marginalization
- The passage opens with Lazarillo’s mother “carrying out the sentence”, a vague but ominous phrase suggesting she has been punished (likely for an unspecified moral or legal transgression, possibly prostitution or theft). Her move to the Solano Inn—a place of transient guests and low status—highlights her desperation.
- The phrase “putting up with all kinds of indignities” underscores the degradation of labor for the poor, especially women. Her work is invisible and exploitative, yet she persists to keep her children alive.
- Lazarillo’s early role as a servant to guests (fetching wine, running errands) introduces his subservient position, which will define his life.
Maternal Sacrifice and Abandonment
- The mother’s tearful blessing is one of the most emotionally charged moments in the novel. Her words—“I know that I’ll never see you again”—are prophetic and tragic, foreshadowing Lazarillo’s permanent separation from family.
- Her plea for him to “be good” is ironic, as the novel will show that moral goodness is a luxury the poor cannot afford. Survival requires deception.
- The transfer of Lazarillo to the blind man is framed as an act of trust in divine providence (“God be your guide”), but the blind man’s later cruelty exposes the hollowness of such faith in a corrupt world.
Deception and False Promises
- The blind man’s assurance that Lazarillo will be “not a servant, but a son” is dramatic irony. The audience knows (or will soon learn) that the blind man is manipulative and abusive, using Lazarillo for his own gain.
- The mother’s idealized memory of Lazarillo’s father (a man who died “for the holy faith”) contrasts with the harsh reality of her son’s future. The father’s noble death in battle (likely the Battle of Gelves, 1521, a Spanish defeat against the Moors) is romanticized, while Lazarillo’s life will be anything but heroic.
The Hypocrisy of Institutional Power
- The Church and nobility are implicit targets. The mother’s reference to the father’s death “for the holy faith” critiques the empty glorification of war and the abandonment of soldiers’ families.
- The blind man, a religious figure (blindness was often associated with begging under the guise of piety), represents the corruption of those who exploit charity.

Literary Devices and Style

First-Person Narration and Irony
- Lazarillo’s retrospective, adult voice colors the telling. His understated, matter-of-fact tone (“she went to work as a servant”) belies the tragedy of his situation, creating dramatic irony.
- The blind man’s hypocritical kindness (“a son, not a servant”) is foreshadowing—the audience suspects (or remembers) his later cruelty.
Symbolism
- The Solano Inn: A place of transience and moral ambiguity, reflecting the instability of Lazarillo’s life.
- The Blind Man: Represents false guidance (both literally and spiritually). His blindness is metaphorical—he cannot see Lazarillo’s suffering, nor does he care.
- The Mother’s Blessing: A ritual of abandonment, marking Lazarillo’s loss of innocence.
Realism and Social Critique
- The passage is grounded in gritty realism, depicting poverty without sentimentality. The mother’s tears are the only emotional indulgence; otherwise, the prose is spare and direct.
- The contrast between idealism and reality (e.g., the father’s “noble death” vs. the son’s servitude) underscores the novel’s satirical edge.
Foreshadowing
- The mother’s final words (“take good care of yourself”) hint at Lazarillo’s future self-reliance—he will learn to outwit his masters rather than depend on their mercy.
- The blind man’s dissatisfaction with his earnings in Salamanca foreshadows his greed and exploitation of Lazarillo.

Significance of the Passage

Transition from Childhood to the Picaresque Life
- This moment severs Lazarillo from his family, forcing him into a world where he must fend for himself. It is the first step in his education as a pícaro.
Critique of 16th-Century Spanish Society
- The novel exposes the failures of the Church, nobility, and social systems that claim to protect the poor but instead exploit them.
- The blind man, as a false father figure, represents the broken promises of authority.
The Illusion of Moral Order
- The mother’s faith in God and goodness is undermined by the narrative. Lazarillo’s survival will depend on cunning, not virtue, challenging religious and social moralism.
The Picaresque Structure
- The master-servant dynamic introduced here becomes a recurring pattern, with each master embodying a different social vice (hypocrisy, avarice, vanity).

Conclusion: The Passage’s Role in the Novel

This excerpt is foundational to Lazarillo de Tormes, establishing:

The protagonist’s marginalized status (orphan, poor, powerless).
The themes of deception and survival that define the picaresque genre.
The satirical lens through which the novel critiques Spanish society, religion, and class structures.

The mother’s farewell is both tender and tragic, but the narrative does not dwell on sentiment. Instead, it propels Lazarillo into a world where sentimentality is a liability. His journey will be one of learning to navigate a corrupt system, making this passage a microcosm of the novel’s broader concerns.

Would you like a deeper analysis of any specific aspect, such as the historical context of the Battle of Gelves or the picaresque genre’s influence on later literature?

Questions

Question 1

The mother’s description of Lazarillo’s father as a man who “died in the battle of Gelves for the holy faith” serves primarily to:

A. establish a hereditary link to nobility that Lazarillo will later exploit for social advancement.
B. contrast the idealized narrative of martyrdom with the grim reality of abandonment and survival.
C. foreshadow Lazarillo’s eventual enlistment in military service as a means of escaping poverty.
D. provide a historical anchor that grounds the novel’s events in a verifiable Spanish conflict.
E. underscore the mother’s delusional optimism as a coping mechanism for her socioeconomic despair.

Question 2

The blind man’s assertion that Lazarillo will be “not a servant, but a son” is most effectively read as:

A. a sincere but ultimately failed attempt to mitigate the boy’s trauma through paternal affection.
B. a performative gesture that masks the transactional and exploitative nature of their relationship.
C. an ironic inversion of Christian charity, where the blind man embodies the virtues he pretends to lack.
D. a narrative device to highlight Lazarillo’s initial naivety before his eventual moral corruption.
E. a critique of feudal adoption practices, where legal guardianship was often a pretext for indentured servitude.

Question 3

The mother’s tearful blessing—“Son, I know that I’ll never see you again”—is structurally significant because it:

A. marks the novel’s shift from third-person omniscient narration to Lazarillo’s first-person retrospective voice.
B. serves as a sentimental counterpoint to the novel’s otherwise unsentimental portrayal of poverty.
C. introduces the motif of prophetic speech, a common trope in picaresque novels to signal inevitable tragedy.
D. functions as a rhetorical appeal to the unnamed recipient of Lazarillo’s letter, justifying his later actions.
E. encapsulates the irreversible rupture of familial bonds, a prerequisite for the pícaro’s autonomous existence.

Question 4

The passage’s depiction of the Solano Inn as a setting where the mother endures “all kinds of indignities” primarily reinforces which thematic concern?

A. The commodification of female labor in early modern Spain, where women’s bodies were exchanged for economic survival.
B. The inefficacy of institutional charity, as inns were often run by religious orders that failed to alleviate poverty.
C. The transient nature of urban life, where spaces like inns symbolize the erosion of communal ties.
D. The cyclical nature of exploitation, where marginalized individuals perpetuate oppression within their own class.
E. The irony of hospitality, as inns—supposed havens—become sites of degradation for the socially vulnerable.

Question 5

The narrative’s understated tone when describing the mother’s hardships (“she went to work as a servant for the people… putting up with all kinds of indignities”) is most likely intended to:

A. mimic the emotional detachment of official records, aligning the novel with bureaucratic styles of the period.
B. emphasize the normalcy of suffering in Lazarillo’s world, where oppression is so routine it warrants no dramatic emphasis.
C. create a deliberate gap between the protagonist’s childlike perception and the adult narrator’s retrospective awareness.
D. subvert reader expectations by withholding pathos, a technique that forces active moral engagement with the text.
E. reflect the mother’s own stoicism, which Lazarillo later rejects as he adopts a more confrontational approach to survival.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: B

Why B is most correct: The father’s death is framed as a noble sacrifice (“for the holy faith”), yet the passage immediately undercuts this idealism with the mother’s practical abandonment of Lazarillo to a stranger. The contrast between the glorified past (father’s martyrdom) and the grim present (son’s servitude) critiques how institutional narratives (religion, war) obscure the material suffering of the poor. This tension is central to the novel’s satire.