Satire In The Life And Adventures Of Lazarillo De Tormes
The Life and Adventures of Lazarillo de Tormes is a picaresque and a satire that introduces us to a life of an impoverished protagonist from unheroic upbringings, perpetually moving from one outlandish circumstance to the next. Lazarillo transitions from master to master, and each one undermines our expectations of the good people that they should embody. Readers learn quickly that their appearances are deceiving. Each master instead exemplifies one of the seven deadly sins. The interactions that Lazarillo has with each master and the vices he carries with him in order to climb a weighted social hierarchy emphasize the hypocrisy of people and the corrupt religious institutions that they claim to serve. These experiences leave Lazarillo jaded and present his relationship with
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Firstly, the book is divided into episodic adventures in order to draw this parallel (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes). Lazarillo occupies various jobs with each master, including an apprenticeship to a blind man, making his own money as a seller of water and wine, and as a town crier (13-80). With each subsequent service, Lazarillo manages to ascend up the social ladder. To him, each master it treated as a step upwards on this ladder that leads to higher societal importance. In order to scale this, however, Lazarillo must reproduce the tricks that he has learned from his masters. For instance, Lazarillo learned from the prideful squire, who “was of a good appearance, well dressed, and walked with an air of ease and consequence”, that he could use his physical appearance to portray an outward expression of being well-off (41). He used this skill, or rather vice, in order to find himself a better job later. Lazarillo employed this trick when he quit serving the chaplain because he was able to save money to look “like a man of some note” (73). He “was enabled to buy a doublet of old fustian, a large coat with trimmed sleeves, and a cloak lined with silk” (73). Lazarillo
Firstly, the book is divided into episodic adventures in order to draw this parallel (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes). Lazarillo occupies various jobs with each master, including an apprenticeship to a blind man, making his own money as a seller of water and wine, and as a town crier (13-80). With each subsequent service, Lazarillo manages to ascend up the social ladder. To him, each master it treated as a step upwards on this ladder that leads to higher societal importance. In order to scale this, however, Lazarillo must reproduce the tricks that he has learned from his masters. For instance, Lazarillo learned from the prideful squire, who “was of a good appearance, well dressed, and walked with an air of ease and consequence”, that he could use his physical appearance to portray an outward expression of being well-off (41). He used this skill, or rather vice, in order to find himself a better job later. Lazarillo employed this trick when he quit serving the chaplain because he was able to save money to look “like a man of some note” (73). He “was enabled to buy a doublet of old fustian, a large coat with trimmed sleeves, and a cloak lined with silk” (73). Lazarillo