Claire Luo - 2021 Mitra Scholar

2020-21 Mitra FAMILY GRANT Recipient “The Summit of All Good Fortune”: A Naturalistic View of Individual Development in La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades Claire Luo

“The Summit of All Good Fortune”: A Naturalistic View of Individual Development in La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades

Claire Luo 2021 Mitra Scholar Mentors: Sra. Isabel García, Mrs. Lauri Vaughan February 18, 2021

Luo 2 Abstract La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities) has generated a large body of scholarship for its anonymous author’s innovative literary techniques and social commentary. However, little analysis of Lazarillo has been done from the perspective of literary naturalism. Though written during the sixteenth century, Lazarillo deploys ideas that anticipate those of nineteenth-century naturalist authors in order to develop its argument regarding individual potential. While the possibility of free will emerges at certain points in Lazarillo, ultimately the novella’s protagonist cannot escape the oppressive socioeconomic structures and expectations under which he lives.

Applying a naturalistic lens, this paper will examine the tensions among environmental determinism, free will, and morality, which form the crux of Lazarillo’s pioneering message about the relationship between individuals and their society.

Luo 3 In 1554, the Spanish novella La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities) was published in four European cities: Burgos, Alcalá, Medina del Campo, and Antwerp. 1 Within the next few years, Lazarillo circulated in several languages and gained rapid popularity throughout Europe. 2 The novella’s acclaim was well-deserved—Lazarillo’s anonymous author elegantly combines existing literary traditions with forward-thinking themes and techniques into an incisive, original story that has provided a rich source of analysis for generations of scholars. 3 Some of Lazarillo’s plot points, language, characters, and religious imagery reflect Europe’s repertoire of proto-realist novels, folklore, and didactic works—in Spain, notable antecedents include La Celestina, El caballero Cifar, El corbacho, and El libro de buen amor. 4 While influenced by such previous works, Lazarillo is most renowned for its innovative literary techniques and complex themes. Because of its novelty, Lazarillo is known as not only the founder of the picaresque genre but also one of the most impactful works ever written in Spanish history.

Scholars have performed extensive research regarding Lazarillo’s social commentary, realism, religious elements, and character development, with many highlighting Lazarillo’s influences on later literary works and movements. Yet there has been little examination of these composite ideas through a naturalistic lens. 5 On the surface, linking naturalism and Lazarillo

1

“Lazarillo de Tormes,” in Spanish and Portuguese Literatures and Their Times: The Iberian Peninsula, ed. Joyce Moss (Detroit: Gale Group, 2002), 254; This paper’s references are to the edition of Lazarillo de Tormes edited by Francisco Rico (Madrid: Cátedra, 2019). All translations are by the author unless otherwise noted.

2 “Lazarillo de Tormes,” 254.

3 Because the vast majority (if not all) of the candidates proposed by scholars for Lazarillo’s author are male, this paper will be referring to the anonymous author using the pronouns, he/him/his.

4 Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, “The Golden Age,” in A New History of Spanish Literature, 2nd ed.

(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991), 119, accessed February 7, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=h79ViVeChFIC. 5 Andy Micah Milstead’s unpublished dissertation, “Naturalistic Philosophy and the Picaresque Novel,” fills in part of the gap by examining philosophical naturalistic elements in Lazarillo. However, this paper presents new

Luo 4 may seem infeasible given the substantial difference in chronology. However, Lazarillo’s narrative contains remarkably strong parallels with naturalistic ideas that prove highly useful for analyzing the novella’s message. More than anything, social and economic pressures dictate the development of Lazarillo’s protagonist, Lázaro. True to naturalism’s understanding of human behavior, Lázaro’s moral qualities are secondary to his survival instincts. Even while moments of Lázaro’s life suggest that free will is possible, ultimately the novella posits a highly deterministic message about society’s control over human growth. Anticipating characteristics of nineteenth-century literary naturalism, the author of La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (1554) argues that there is limited potential for individual advancement in the oppressive socioeconomic structures of sixteenth-century Spain.

The Context of Naturalism and Lazarillo Before examining the specific parallels between Lazarillo and nineteenth-century literary naturalism, the question arises: what historical factors may have led Lazarillo’s author to paint a naturalistic world during sixteenth-century Spain? Given the centuries-long gap between the publication of Lazarillo and the emergence of literary naturalism, addressing the aforementioned contextual question is important to establish the basic logic behind the connection.

Lazarillo was published during Siglo de Oro, or the Golden Age, a period of flourishing literature and art in Spain. Around the time of Lazarillo’s creation, pastoral and chivalric romances were particularly popular in Spain, and the authors of those works tended to highlight the nobility and grandeur of the human spirit. 6 In stark contrast to such romances, Lazarillo

interpretations analyzing the social and moral tensions fundamental to literary naturalism as well as free will in the novella.

6 Edward H. Friedman, “From the Inside Out: The Poetics of Lazarillo de Tormes,” Philological Quarterly 89, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 16-17, https://link-galecom.puffin.harker.org/apps/doc/A252446762/ITOF?u=harker&sid=ITOF&xid=f824be3e.

Luo 5 focuses on the extreme depths of poverty through the perspective of a young pícaro, or rogue. 7 As some scholars have noted, Lazarillo can be seen as a reaction to popular Spanish literature during its time, for it supplants the traditional heroic journey with an anti-heroic struggle to combat the everyday challenges faced by the lower classes. 8 Meanwhile, naturalism can be split into two different but related branches: naturalistic philosophy and literary naturalism, which originated in distinct periods. Although naturalistic philosophy is more chronologically aligned with the novella, Lazarillo’s examination of the relationship between the social environment and the individual is more consistent with the nineteenth-century naturalist movement in literature. Thus, naturalism in this paper will refer to the literary naturalism dating back to the late nineteenth century.

Naturalism is considered by many scholars to be an outgrowth of the realist movement, and it primarily stemmed from the ideas of French novelist Émile Zola. 9 Based on Zola’s The Experimental Novel, literary naturalism can be distilled to the following: the writer attempts to scientifically portray and determine characters’ actions from hereditary and environmental forces without moral judgment. 10 Advocated by Zola and others, nineteenth-century naturalism arose partially in response to a contrasting literary movement popular during its time: romanticism. 11 Whereas romanticist novelists emphasize the individual, imagination, and the transcendental, naturalist authors portray the sordid reality, often of the lower-class environment. 12 From this

7

John Armstrong Crow, Spain: The Root and the Flower: An Interpretation of Spain and the Spanish People, 3rd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 188.

8 Friedman, “From the Inside,” 17.

9 Gary Scharnhorst, “Naturalism and Realism,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, last modified July 26, 2017, accessed February 8, 2021, https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-509.

10 Émile Zola, The Experimental Novel, and Other Essays, trans. Belle M. Sherman (New York: Cassell Publishing, 1894), accessed February 7, 2021, https://archive.org/details/cu31924027248867.

11 “Romanticism,” in Britannica School, last modified December 27, 2020, https://school-ebcom.puffin.harker.org/levels/middle/article/Romanticism/83836.

12 “Romanticism.”

Luo 6 perspective, both Lazarillo’s author and naturalist novelists opposed contemporary mainstream literary movements, and they did so by focusing on exposing the seamier sides of society.

In previous studies, critics have already acknowledged that the picaresque genre, founded

by Lazarillo, possesses clear parallels with nineteenth-century naturalist novels. 13 For instance, scholar J.A. Garrido Ardila claims, “The aims and biases of the naturalist novelist coincided lato sensu with that of the Golden Age authors of picaresque novels—to satirize society by exposing the miseries of low life.” 14 However, Lazarillo goes much further in its naturalistic message than simply satirizing society: it presents a compelling narrative illuminating how an individual’s development is shaped. Upon examining Lazarillo’s portrayal of its protagonist’s behavior in the context of sixteenth-century Spain, it becomes evident that the novella integrates some of the major ideas of literary naturalism, such as environmental determinism and pessimism regarding individuals and society. 15 Moreover, Lazarillo tackles the fundamental tensions surrounding naturalism, specifically those regarding free choice and morality.

Before the specific parallels between Lazarillo and the naturalistic worldview are established, it must first be clarified that this paper’s objective is not to place Lazarillo into the naturalist genre. After all, doing so would ignore the discrepancies between Lazarillo’s literary techniques and those of naturalist novelists as well as the fact that Lazarillo emerged centuries before movements like Darwinism and Marxism existed to inspire the naturalist genre. As such, this paper will not focus on comparing the author’s techniques with those of nineteenth-century writers, but rather illuminate how Lazarillo can be interpreted from a naturalistic perspective.

13

J. A. Garrido Ardila, “A Concise Introduction to the History of the Spanish Novel,” in A History of the Spanish Novel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 21.

14 Garrido Ardila, 21.

15 Scharnhorst, “Naturalism and Realism.”

Luo 7 Specifically, it will do so by first, examining the impact of environmental factors on Lázaro’s development, and second, analyzing Lazarillo’s portrayal of free will and morality.

“Nacido en el río”: Poverty and Birth in Lazarillo To examine Lázaro’s environment, one must first look at the novella’s setting, which is sixteenth-century Castile during Spain’s Golden Age. 16 From a political perspective, the Golden Age was a period of growth in Spain’s imperialism and unity that started in 1516 with the accession of Charles V. 17 However, the glory suggested by the Golden Age’s moniker disguises the daily experiences of the common people, who largely did not enjoy the wealth of imperial Spain. 18 In fact, historians generally agree that the rush of American treasure exacerbated economic disparities between the poor and the rich, especially as prices soared and real wages fell in the early 1500s. 19 In a setting of extraordinary inequality, Lazarillo’s author, consistent with naturalists’ tendency to describe the sordid reality, centers the novella around poverty in Spain. As some scholars have noted about the novella’s verisimilitude, the author writes Lazarillo with such precision that it resembles the true lower-class experience—indeed, Francisco Rico notes that the places, the customs, and the characters described in Lazarillo would have been familiar to all Spaniards in the 1550s. 20 By establishing a realistic background for the story in sixteenth-century Spain, Lazarillo’s author sets the stage to communicate his naturalistic message about environmental determinism based on socioeconomic factors.

16

The author provides specific city names along Lázaro’s journey: Salamanca, Almorox, Escalona, Torrijos, Maqueda, and Toledo. See pages 16-22 of Alberto Blecua’s Introduction to Lazarillo for more on the novella’s verisimilitude (Barcelona: Castalia Ediciones, 2012).

17 “Lazarillo de Tormes,” 245; The exact chronological frame of the Golden Age is debated, but this paper considers the often-cited 1516 as the starting year and the early 1600s as the ending; Charles V was also known as Charles I in Spain, but this paper will be using the former name.

18 “Lazarillo de Tormes,” 245.

19 “Lazarillo de Tormes,” 250.

20 Francisco Rico, Introduction to Lazarillo de Tormes, 31st ed. (Madrid: Cátedra, 2019), 46*.

Luo 8 Within this context, Lazarillo introduces its protagonist and pseudo-author, Lázaro, who narrates his life in the form of a letter to Vuestra Merced (Your Excellency), an unnamed individual of higher social rank. 21 Lázaro immediately establishes himself as a member of the lower class, prefacing his story with the following in the prologue: Y pues Vuestra Merced escribe se le escriba y relate el caso muy por extenso, paresció me no tomalle por el medio, sino del principio, porque se tenga entera noticia de mi persona; y también porque consideren los que heredaron nobles estados cuán poco se les debe, pues Fortuna fue con ellos parcial, y cuánto más hicieron los que, siéndoles contraria, con fuerza y maña remando salieron a buen puerto. 22 (And as Your Excellency writes that I relate the case very extensively, it seemed to me not to start in the middle but at the beginning so that you have a full idea about me, and also so that you consider how little is owed to those who inherited noble estates, for Fortune was partial to them, and how accomplished are those who were not favored by Fortune, rowing with strength and skill to reach safe harbor.)

In this segment, Lázaro refers to el caso, which is an unspecified issue that Vuestra Merced asks him to address. Responding to the request, Lázaro presents his overarching argument here: those born of lower status, like him, must work much harder to achieve success than those born to nobility. At the same time, Lázaro mentions Fortuna, which will continue to emerge prominently during the novella as misfortune, bad fortune, or a personified female Fortune. By using fortune to describe his disadvantaged socioeconomic status, Lázaro highlights the arbitrary nature of class divisions and the lack of control that each person holds over their birth circumstances.

21

There has been speculation about the identity of Vuestra Merced, who is likely a friend of the archpriest of San Salvador and a religious authority.

22 Lazarillo de Tormes, 31st ed., ed. Francisco Rico (Madrid: Cátedra, 2019), 10-11.

Luo 9 Because Fortune does not favor him, Lázaro relies on his own efforts to get to the buen puerto (safe harbor), a metaphor for a state of social and economic stability.

Following the prologue, Lázaro introduces his humble origins as one of the first items in the novella. Unlike traditional protagonists of romances, Lázaro is not given a grand heroic nomenclature. The “Lázaro” of his name has been scrutinized by many scholars, with some of the most convincing arguments associating it with the biblical beggar Lazarus, again as an emphasis on the protagonist’s low social status. 23 Meanwhile, “de Tormes” (of the River Tormes) curiously suggests that Lázaro’s birth in a river is an integral part of his identity. The literal circumstances of Lázaro’s birth suggest a comparison to Moses or Amadís de Gaula; however, Lázaro’s own life story departs markedly from the career of either “a leader of people [or] a valiant knight.” 24 A more compelling stance is that like a natural river, Lázaro is given shape by his surroundings and constantly adapts along the way, a dynamic that reverberates throughout his life and abides naturalistic thought.

Equally important to Lázaro’s name is his genealogy, which forms the earliest context upon which the protagonist’s behavior develops. Accordingly, Lázaro devotes some space in his letter to describing his mother, Antona Pérez, who is an impoverished widow seeking a better life for herself and her son. According to Lázaro, Antona is “sin marido y sin abrigo” after her husband dies, which means that she was left without a provider or a protector. 25 Her despondent situation at this point strongly echoes Lázaro’s later experiences. Once his mother gives him

23

Stephen Gilman, “The Death of Lazarillo de Tormes,” PMLA 81, no. 3 (June 1966): 161, http://www.jstor.com/stable/460799.

24 Giancarlo Mairino, At the Margins of the Renaissance: Lazarillo de Tormes and the Picaresque Art of Survival (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 55, accessed January 1, 2021, https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/romance/id/9; See Chad M. Gasta’s footnote in his edition of Lazarillo, page 45 about the parody in Lázaro’s birth.

25 Lazarillo de Tormes, 15.

Luo 10 away, Lázaro becomes an “huérfano” (orphan) left to fend for himself, and only in the seventh tratado does he find a stable, though unethical, provider—the archpriest. 26 The most important underpinning of the mother-son relationship in the novella is the phrase, “arrimarse a los buenos” (to get closer to the good), which is used in both the first tratado concerning Antona and the final tratado as Lázaro’s own words. 27 Based on this phrase, the crucial question for both the mother and the son is, who are los buenos? Different English translations of Lazarillo present varying possibilities: for instance, los buenos has been translated to “the good things,” which implies a moral component, or “some wealthy patrons,” which focuses on economic status. 28 Lazarillo’s author keeps the phrase deliberately open-ended so that its meaning morphs from the beginning of the novella to the end.

When the phrase is first used for Antona, the good may refer to those who, unlike her late, thieving husband, Tomé González, are not criminals. However, this idea quickly dissipates, as she forms a relationship with Zaide, who, like Tomé, is punished for theft. Given the lack of notable improvement from a legal standpoint between Tomé and Zaide, the more likely meaning of los buenos for Antona are those who help her survive. In that case, Zaide fulfills the idea of los buenos by supplying Antona and Lázaro with food. 29 In the seventh tratado, the reappearance of the phrase indicates that Antona’s preoccupation with los buenos and survival passes onto her son. As a child, Lázaro witnesses the

26

Lazarillo de Tormes, 22.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 133.

28 “The Text of The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, His Fortunes and Adversities,” trans. Ilan Stavans, in The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, His Fortunes and Adversities: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism, ed. Ilan Stavans (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016), 6, Kindle; The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, His Fortunes and Adversities, trans. Clements R. Markham (London: A. and C. Black, 1908), 6, accessed February 14, 2021, https://archive.org/details/lifeoflazarillod00markiala.

29 While some scholars, such as Fernando Lázaro Carreter, go further to claim that Antona Pérez’s relationship with Zaide was solely for economic advantage (like Lázaro’s with his wife), there is insufficient evidence in the text to draw this conclusion.

27

Luo 11 advantage that his mother’s relationship with Zaide brings, which allows him to overcome his initial, socially ingrained “miedo” (fear) of Zaide’s brown skin. 30 Thus, there is little surprise that Lázaro, knowing the economic benefits that the archpriest brings, overlooks the latter’s ethical weaknesses. In the end, both mother and son find los buenos who can provide materially for them—Zaide by bringing bread, meat, and firewood, and the archpriest by providing wheat, meat, loaves, shoes, and housing. Based on the similarity between the mother’s and the son’s situations at the start and end of the novella, respectively, the maternal influence is apparent in Lázaro’s life.

As scholars like Jane W. Albrecht point out, the mother-son relationship in Lazarillo revolves around a question of “economic incentives and disincentives,” which become indelibly imprinted in Lázaro’s mind. 31 In particular, the mother’s final farewell before giving Lázaro to the blind man, “Válete por ti” (fend for yourself), is significant—indeed, Albrecht claims that it “announces Lazarillo’s release to the marketplace,” essentially ushering Lázaro into the challenging journey that he will face to survive the world. 32 Following Antona’s use of her relationships to maximize her personal advantage, Lázaro eventually develops an aptitude for making practical choices for his own material gain.

Beyond his relationship with his mother, Lázaro also gleans certain traits from his biological father, Tomé González, a thieving miller who dies in war. The description of Tomé, though brief, is armed with a significant implication: like Tomé, who steals from sacks of grain, Lázaro steals from the blind man’s bag and the priest’s chest, and attempts the squire’s purse. 33

30

Lazarillo De Tormes, 16.

Jane W. Albrecht, “Family Economics/Family Dynamics: Mother and Son in the Lazarillo de Tormes,” in The Life of Lazarillo De Tormes, His Fortunes and Adversities: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism, ed. Ilan Stavans (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016), 166, Kindle.

32 Lazarillo De Tormes, 22; Albrecht, “Family Economics,” 174.

33 Alberto Blecua, Introduction to La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (Barcelona: Castalia Ediciones, 2012), 28.

31

Luo 12 Indeed, if viewed as a product of the mother, the father, and the river together, Lázaro’s behavior is inevitable, for it is inextricably linked with the protagonist’s surroundings from a young age.

By describing his parentage and class “ante todas cosas” (before anything else), Lázaro demonstrates how the rest of his life circumstances stem from his birth circumstances. 34 Because of the clear similarities between Lázaro and his parents, Américo Castro claims that there is “hereditario determinismo” (hereditary determinism) affecting Lázaro. 35 Castro’s observation clearly reflects the naturalistic belief in the importance of lineage in shaping behavior. 36 Yet it must be acknowledged that many scholars oppose Castro’s argument that Lázaro inherits his traits, and for valid reasons. For instance, Javier Herrero claims that Lázaro only mimics his father’s thievery in order to stay alive under his selfish masters, not because of heredity, so the genetic explanation that Castro proposes is unnecessary. 37 Likewise, Lázaro may very well have gleaned his mindset from observing his mother’s actions, not through his biological relationship with her. The inherent ambiguity of Lazarillo provides fodder for both arguments; however, there is not compelling evidence to establish that the link is genetic. Rather, it is more likely that the author draws the parallels between Lázaro and his parents in order to suggest that the former learns from his childhood influences, not necessarily by inheritance.

By not strictly relying on hereditary determinism for explanation, this viewpoint also considers the fact that Lázaro does not solely derive traits from his biological parents. Indeed, he adopts many of his most crucial characteristics from the blind man, who resembles a pseudo-

34

Lazarillo de Tormes, 27.

Américo Castro, “Perspectiva de la novela picaresca,” in Hacia Cervantes (Madrid: Taurus, 1967), 2:125, accessed January 26, 2021, https://archive.org/details/haciacervantes0000cast/page/124/mode/2up?q=hereditario.

36 “Naturalism,” in Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified November 8, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/naturalism-art.

37 Javier Herrero, “Renaissance Poverty and Lazarillo’s Family: The Birth of the Picaresque Genre,” PMLA 94, no.

5 (October 1979): 883, https://www.jstor.org/stable/461970.

35

Luo 13 father and calls Lázaro “hijo” (son) when taking him in as a servant. 38 Like Lázaro and his parents, the blind man belongs to the lowest rungs of society. His physical blindness further disadvantages him, and to survive, he relies on his cunning to exploit the social blindness of others. Although Lázaro lambastes the blind man’s wickedness, he praises his master’s abilities, particularly the latter’s skill in trade—getting money from prayers—and eagle eye. At first glance, Lázaro’s comparison of a blind man to a sharp-eyed “águila” (eagle) seems strange; however, it accurately identifies the master’s ability to see through tricks and fool others. 39 Among the examples that Lázaro supplies, the blind man’s “discreta consideración” (reasonable thinking) comes through most keenly when he discovers that Lázaro eats three grapes at a time. 40 Thus, in the absence of physical sight and support from society, the blind man has grown another sense of sight—one based on mental acuity. Indeed, Lázaro comments that though blind, his first master “me dio la vida, me alumbró y adestró en la carrera de vivir” (gave me life, gave me light, and prepared me for the course of living). 41 This quote highlights a father-son connection, as Lázaro claims that the blind man gives him life. Throughout the text, the blind man’s light and guidance emerge repeatedly as Lázaro recalls and applies his first master’s life lessons. For instance, within the first tratado, Lázaro already begins to adopt a similar behavior to the blind man. At the start, Lázaro naively puts his head against the stone bull and gets hit by the blind man, who laughs at his hoax. 42 At the end of the tratado, Lázaro becomes the trickster, forcing the blind man’s head into a stone pillar and mocking his master.

38

Lazarillo de Tormes, 22.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 25.

40 Lazarillo de Tormes, 37.

41 Lazarillo de Tormes, 27.

42 For a discussion on the symbolism of the stone bull, see pages 5-8 of Javier Herrero’s “The Great Icons of the Lazarillo,” published in Ideologies and Literature.

39

Luo 14 Moreover, the blind man’s impact on Lázaro extends far beyond the first tratado. The most obvious connection comes at the end of the second tratado, when the priest tells Lázaro, “No es posible sino que hayas sido mozo de ciego” (This would not have been possible unless you were a blind man’s servant). 43 The priest is referring to Lázaro’s tricks to steal from the chest, and the quote emphasizes how much the blind man has made Lázaro into who he is.

Meanwhile, the rest of the novella is littered with hints of the blind man’s enduring impact. For instance, in the third tratado Lázaro attributes his begging skills to the blind man: “yo este oficio le hobiese mamado en la leche, quiero decir que con el gran maestro el ciego lo aprendí” (I had sucked this trade in with my mother’s milk—what I wish to say is that I learned it from a great teacher, the blind man). 44 Here, the blind man is implicitly compared to a parental figure by Lázaro, who compares drinking a mother’s milk to learning how to beg effectively, as both are necessary to feed himself.

Thus, Lázaro clearly draws from his experiences with the parental figures in his environment, notably his mother, his father, and the blind man. However, aside from the people from whom Lázaro learns, other environmental factors also shape the protagonist’s development—most significantly, the struggles plaguing the lower class. True to the naturalistic tendency of portraying society’s sordid socioeconomic conditions, Lazarillo’s author subjects Lázaro to the wretched conditions of poverty that are largely faithful to reality. 45 To corroborate the novella’s depiction of poverty in sixteenth-century Castile, one can look at the words of Spanish historian Pedro de Alcocer, who documents that “las tres lobas

43

Lazarillo de Tormes, 71.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 87.

45 It should be acknowledged that as realistic as it is, Lazarillo does exaggerate some of the circumstances of its time, as indicated on page 188 of John A. Crow’s Spain: The Root and the Flower. However, the events of Lazarillo are founded on the true conditions of sixteenth-century Spain.

44

Luo 15 rabiosas andavan sueltas, que eran hambre, guerra y pestilencia” (three rabid wolves were on the loose, which were hunger, war, and pestilence) in 1507 Toledo. 46 Pedro de Alcocer’s first two wolves of social troubles appear in Lazarillo, with war being briefly mentioned as the place where Lázaro’s father dies. Most prominent of the wolves in Lazarillo is hunger, a motif that, according to F. Courtney Tarr, unifies the first three tratados of the novella. 47 Lazarillo vividly depicts the wolfish characteristics of hunger by portraying it as Lázaro’s most threatening predator.

Lázaro’s hunger begins under the blind man, as the protagonist notes, “si con me sotileza y buenas mañas no me supiera remediar, muchas veces me finara de hambre” (if I did not know how to remedy the situation with my subtlety and good tricks, many times I would have starved to death). 48 Accordingly, most of Lázaro’s actions in the first tratado center around feeding himself, such as his famous tricks with the wine jar, grapes, and sausage.

In the second tratado, the theme of hunger expands to the extent that Lázaro writes, “Finalmente, yo me finaba de hambre” (In the end, I was starving). 49 As Edward Friedman notes, the second tratado describes Lázaro regressing to an “animal-like” state due to his desire for food. 50 In fact, Lázaro’s desperate attempts to outsmart the priest and obtain bread from the locked chest are literally associated with the behavior of a rat and a snake, highlighting the

46

Pedro de Alcocer, Relación de algunas cosas que pasaron en estos reinos desde que murió la reina católica doña Isabel, hasta que se acabaron las comunidades en la ciudad de Toledo, Sociedad de Bibliófilos Andaluces 1 (Sevilla: Imprenta y Librería Española y Extranjera de Rafael Tarascó, sucesor de José Maria Geofrín, 1872), 22, accessed January 3, 2021, http://www.bibliotecavirtualdeandalucia.es/catalogo/es/consulta/registro.cmd?id=1015872; Pedro de Alcocer was a sixteenth-century Spanish historian.

47 F. Courtney Tarr, “Literary and Artistic Unity in the Lazarillo de Tormes,” PMLA 42, no. 2 (1927): 412, http://www.jstor.org/stable/457514.

48 Lazarillo de Tormes, 27; For more on Lazarillo’s literary unity, see F. Courtney Tarr’s article “Literary and Artistic Unity in the Lazarillo de Tormes,” published in MLA, and Andree Collard’s article “The Unity of Lazarillo de Tormes,” published in MLN. 49 Lazarillo de Tormes, 49.

50 Friedman, “From the Inside,” 23.

Luo 16 protagonist’s primal instinct for food. The use of animal imagery here is striking, for it parallels the naturalistic belief in the inherent bestiality of humans.

By the third tratado, Lázaro turns from physical attempts and tricks to combat hunger to a more psychological preoccupation with food. While Lázaro no longer resorts to thievery, hunger still captures his thoughts to the point of obsession. At one point, Lázaro is so agitated by his lack of food that he claims, “pedí a Dios muchas veces la muerte” (I begged God many times for death). 51 In the second tratado, Lázaro prayed for other people’s death so that he could get food; now, his situation has deteriorated to a point that he wants to die himself. Death imagery resonates throughout the tratado, highlighting how Lázaro is closer to perishing from starvation than he has ever been in his life.

Although hunger is not explicitly addressed after the third tratado, having enough food and material comfort continues to rank among Lázaro’s most important concerns, as illustrated by his references to the pardoner and archpriest feeding him. From a naturalistic perspective, Lazarillo’s emphasis on hunger, a primitive physiological and animal need, reflects how human instincts fundamentally govern behavior and evokes the “human beast” image that Zola proposed with respect to naturalistic literature. 52 Aside from hunger, Pedro de Alcocer’s records mention an important historical figure to whom Lazarillo tangentially alludes: Cardinal Juan Pardo de Tavera. 53 Tavera, the archbishop of Toledo, issued la ley Tavera, o ley de pobres (the Poor Law of 1540), which expelled the poor from cities by only allowing those with permits to beg. 54 This sanction may be the law to which

51

Lazarillo de Tormes, 81.

Zola, The Experimental, 127.

53 Alcocer, Relación de algunas, 120; Tavera lived from 1472 to 1545.

54 For a more detailed discussion about the law to which Lazarillo could be referring, see pages 24-25 of Marcel Bataillon’s Novedad y fecundidad del Lazarillo de Tormes and pages 120-27 of Francisco Márquez Villanueva’s “La actitud espiritual del Lazarillo.”

52

Luo 17 Lázaro refers in the third tratado: Y fue, como el año en esta tierra fuese estéril de pan, acordaron el Ayuntamiento que todos los pobres estranjeros se fuesen de la ciudad, con pregón que el que de allí adelante topasen fuese punido con azotes. 55 (And it was, as the year this land was barren of bread, that the Magistrates decided that all foreign beggars must leave the city, proclaiming that anyone they came across would be whipped.) Since Lázaro relies on begging to get food for himself and the squire, this new law presents another obstacle that threatens to exacerbate his hunger. 56 Here, Lázaro’s “mala fortuna” is attributed to the actions of el Ayuntamiento (the Magistrates), which reinforces the upper-class oppression of the lower classes. 57 The danger that the law poses to Lázaro’s survival was likely recognized by sixteenthcentury readers—as Herrero notes, the Poor Law would have been notorious for its brutal massacre of people from starvation. 58 In light of the immense number of lives lost from the decree, Lázaro’s survival is rather fortuitous: unlike before, when he uses his own wits to avoid hunger, Lázaro now benefits from the help of “unas mujercillas hilanderas de algodón” (some cotton spinning women) to sustain himself. 59 However, within days Lázaro’s material situation declines, and the harrowing experience culminates in the squire’s abandonment. This episode marks a critical phase in Lázaro’s development, as he reaches the lowest point in his material well-being and lacks his previous ability to steal and trick. Instead, he relies on others, specifically some women, in a scene that hints at his marital arrangement later in the novella.

55

Lazarillo de Tormes, 92-93.

See page 12 of Alberto Blecua’s Introduction to Lazarillo for more information on the año estéril, which may refer to the drought in 1543.

57 Lazarillo de Tormes, 92.

58 Herrero, “Renaissance Poverty,” 878-79.

59 Lazarillo de Tormes, 93.

56

Luo 18 In all, Lázaro’s birth environment and socioeconomic status define his development more than anything else. Lazarillo presents this naturalistic message in a compelling, realistic way, as readers living at the same time as Pedro de Alcocer and reading the novella would have surely recognized the parallels between their environment and Lázaro’s. By depicting the depths of poverty and hunger, the author uses Lázaro’s experiences to enact harsh commentary on Spain’s sixteenth-century society. Sharply constricted by his mala fortuna of being born into the lower class, Lázaro develops in the way that best improves his chances at survival.

“La negra que llaman honra”: Attitudes about Class and Clergy in Lazarillo Aside from the material hardships associated with being born in the lower class, a critical part of Lazarillo’s environmental determinism is the debilitating attitudes among the nobility and clergy. Lázaro’s interactions with the escudero, or the squire, and religious figures expose the unproductivity and hypocrisy plaguing sixteenth-century Spanish society, which become crucial factors affecting the protagonist’s character development.

The squire, introduced in the third tratado, embodies the crippling attitudes of nobles in early modern Spain. In Tarr’s words, Lazarillo’s squire is distinguished as “the first adequate representation in letters of the unyielding pride of the Spanish squire.” 60 Despite his utter lack of money, the squire prides himself in his aristocratic roots, devoting speeches to the skeptical Lázaro about his land in Old Castile and the origins of his sword. Reminiscing over his abandoned property, the squire proudly declares that he left everything “por lo que tocaba a mi honra” (for the sake of my honor).” 61 The honra mentioned here is all-important to the squire— in fact, he claims that honor “está todo el caudal de los hombres de bien” (is all of what makes

60 61

Tarr, “Literary and Artistic,” 412.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 103.

Luo 19 up decent men). 62 With this commitment to honor, the squire maintains his illusion of superiority, even if he is hungrier than Lázaro, a shoeless beggar. Accordingly, the squire fancies himself as one of “lo más altos” (the elevated), in contrast to those whom he considers lower than him, “los hombres de poca arte” (the men of little art). 63 In response to the squire’s behavior in the name of honor, Lázaro criticizes “la negra que llaman honra” (the black thing they call honor). 64 Lázaro’s words draw from a true proverbial phrase, negra honra (black honor), which describes noblemen’s obsession over their appearance that paralyzed the individual and collective will of Spaniards during the sixteenth century. 65 Notably, the association of black with honor poses a stark contrast with the idea of cleanliness, which is also featured in the tratado. The squire’s fixation on cleanliness emerges twice—once, when he asks about Lázaro’s hands folding a cape, and another time, when he inquires whether clean hands kneaded the dough of the bread. The squire asks the questions merely to fake a sense of honor—after all, when Lázaro responds with “No sé” (I don’t know) about the cleanliness of the hands that kneaded the dough, the squire succumbs to his hunger and devours the bread anyway. 66 The use of “manos limpias” (clean hands) represents the upper-class obsession with limpieza de sangre (clean blood), which refers to those without Muslim or Jewish ancestors, also known as Old Christians in Spain. 67 This idea of clean blood highlights the unbridgeable gap between those born in different strata, for one’s physical heredity determines one’s standing in society.

62

Lazarillo de Tormes, 99.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 100.

64 Lazarillo de Tormes, 84.

65 Carmen Elena Armijo, “Lazarillo de Tormes y la crítica a la utopía imperial,” in Studia Aurea. Actas del III Congreso de la AISO, by Ignacio Arellano and Asociación Internacional “Siglo de Oro” (Pamplona: Grupo de Investigación Siglo de Oro, Universidad de Navarra, 1996), 35, accessed January 4, 2021, https://en.calameo.com/read/0049207164806ba73bc9a.

66 Lazarillo de Tormes, 77.

67 Lazarillo de Tormes, 74, 77.

63

Luo 20 Flaunting a noble appearance, the squire carefully dons and wears “sus calzas y jubón y sayo y capa” (his breeches, doublet, tunic, and coat) with a genteel manner when roaming the streets. 68 Perhaps the most evocative description of the squire’s appearance is when he is compared to a “galgo de buena casta” (greyhound of good breed) by Lázaro. 69 The image of a well-bred greyhound refers to the squire’s bloodline and erect body when walking. However, greyhound is also associated with the squire in a mocking way when Lázaro gives his master a cow’s hoof and compares the latter’s hands to “uñas” (claws) in a pun. 70 Here, the comparison to a greyhound relegates the squire to the status of an animal with good breeding but poor feeding.

Similar animal imagery occurs at the start of the third tratado—when eating the bread, the squire races with Lázaro to finish, much like a creature wolfing down food. Thus, the squire, despite his self-proclaimed superior rank, is subject to the same bestial instincts that naturalism notes among all humans.

Beyond believing in a useless idea of honor, the squire embodies the poor nobles who practiced “spoil over toil,” a concept that, according to some scholars, contributed to Spain’s economic and imperial decline at the end of the Golden Age. 71 Instead of working, the squire wanders on the streets “a papar aire,” a phrase that Rico notes as metaphorically equivalent to doing nothing. 72 An aimless wanderer, the squire embodies the paradigm of a social parasite who leeches off others’ work. The squire’s attitude adheres to a phrase that John Lynch notes among sixteenth-century nobles: el deshonor de trabajo (dishonor of work), which attached odium to

68

Lazarillo de Tormes, 81.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 94.

70 Lazarillo de Tormes, 90.

71 See “Lazarillo de Tormes,” page 253 for more information on the phrase, “spoil over toil,” which embodies noblemen’s disdain toward work; Mairino, At the Margins, 110-11.

72 Lazarillo de Tormes, 91.

69

Luo 21 manual labor. 73 Manuel Colmeiro claims that many nobles would surrender themselves to utter destitution than suffer the humiliation of performing physical work. 74 The squire reflects this disdainful attitude toward employment in a speech to Lázaro, during which he reveals that although he has been offered jobs, he turned them down largely because he did not want “convertir en malilla” (to convert into a joker) or get a “sudado jubón, o raída capa o sayo” (sweaty doublet, or frayed cape or tunic). 75 Clearly, the squire’s opposition to working is all about his pride: he despises the idea of serving others and is unwilling to sweat, for it will ruin his appearance as a gentleman. In essence, noblemen like the squire do not deign to taint their cleanliness with dirty work.

Thus, compared to Lázaro, the squire’s “adversa fortuna” (adverse fortune) is ironic, as he possesses the land and other opportunities beneficial for economic prosperity—he simply refuses to use them due to his twisted idea of honor. 76 Instead, the squire relies on his servant to beg and get food, parading Lázaro as “una cabeza de lobo” (wolf’s head). 77 Here, una cabeza de lobo indicates that the squire takes advantage of Lázaro’s efforts, thereby distancing himself from any unpleasant work. 78 In fact, the squire claims that it would besmirch his honor if the public knew that Lázaro was begging for him.

While the squire’s embodiment of the nobility’s attitudes affects Lázaro’s perception of appearances and honor, another significant influence on Lázaro’s behavior is his interaction with religious figures. Whereas the squire epitomizes an insidious if not outright immoral side of

73

John Lynch, Empire and Absolutism, vol. 1, Spain under the Habsburgs (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964), 107, accessed February 8, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=ugu9FW9S8xUC. 74 Manuel Colmeiro, “De la ociosidad y mendiguez,” in Historia de la economia politica en España (Madrid: C. Lopez, 1863), 2:25-26, accessed January 3, 2021, https://books.google.com.cu/books?id=_gksAAAAYAAJ. 75 Lazarillo de Tormes, 103, 104; Rico notes the meaning and background of malilla.

76 Lazarillo de Tormes, 106.

77 Lazarillo de Tormes, 91.

78 See Rico’s footnote in Lazarillo de Tormes, 91 for more information on the phrase cabeza de lobo.

Luo 22 society, the clergy, who are featured in four of seven tratados, exhibits blatant corruption and hypocrisy that impact Lázaro’s development. The novella introduces its critique of the clergy early on, when Lázaro discusses Zaide’s thievery and remarks, “No nos maravillemos de un clérigo ni fraile porque el uno hurta de los pobres y el otro de casa para sus devotas y para ayuda de otro tanto” (Let us not marvel that a priest steals from the poor and the friar from the monastery for their devotees and to help others). 79 As Rico explains, this sentence accuses priests and friars of stealing for illicit purposes: devotas refers to the clergymen’s women, and ayuda de otro tanto implies that they have to maintain the children produced from the affairs. 80 Thus, early in the novella, Lazarillo’s author prepares the reader for the scathing critique of the clergy unleashed in the following tratados.

The first clerical figure that Lazarillo features in detail is the clérigo, or priest, whose avarice is criticized by Lázaro. The priest is extremely cruel, essentially starving Lázaro by feeding him one onion every four days. What makes the priest even more evil is his attempt to cover up his meanness by claiming, “Mira, mozo, los sacerdotes han de ser muy templados en su comer y beber, y por esto yo no me desmando como otros” (Look, boy, priests have to be very temperate in eating and drinking, and for this I do not indulge like others). 81 In response, Lázaro reveals that the priest actually “a costa ajena comía como lobo, y bebía más que un saludador” (ate like a wolf and drank more than a quack doctor, at the expense of others). 82 As illustrated, the priest not only indulges excessively but also manipulates his position to get food from others, representing a dramatic reversal of the archetypical frugal, charitable priest. The priest’s insincerity becomes even more pronounced when he tells Lázaro, “Toma, come, triunfa, que para

79

Lazarillo de Tormes, 19.

Rico, Footnote in Lazarillo de Tormes, 19.

81 Lazarillo de Tormes, 52.

82 Lazarillo de Tormes, 52; See Rico’s note about saludadores.

80

Luo 23 ti es el mundo. Mejor vida tienes que el Papa” (Take, eat, triumph, that for you is the world. You have a better life than the Pope). 83 Here, the priest is clearly being sarcastic, as he is merely giving Lázaro some “huesos roídos” (gnawed bones) that are hardly fit for human consumption, much less the Pope. 84 Although the priest’s rhetoric is obviously disingenuous in Lazarillo’s narrative, it has a similar tone to sixteenth-century religious sermonizing in Europe. According to Christian dogma, the poor’s acceptance of their earthly misery is a blessing and will bring about redemption in the afterlife. 85 Supporting this idea is Pedro de Ribadeneira, an early Jesuit who writes in his 1589 Tratado de la tribulación (Treatise on Tribulation) that misery is a rich treasure of inestimable value, thereby placing tribulations into a positive light. 86 Later, Giancarlo Mairino posits that Ribadeneira’s message is “blatantly manipulative” and used to subdue the lower classes. 87 Likewise, greed—a trait that the priest exhibits—was rejected in principle by religious figures but accepted in practice, a message that becomes evident through the priest’s extraordinary avarice in the novella. 88 Thus, the second tratado serves as the author’s attempt to lambaste the religious and economic masters in society who force the poor “to obey the ‘given’ order of things,” where immorality is buried under layers of religious rhetoric and the poor accept their lot in life. 89 As such, Lazarillo’s author includes the priest’s insincere words in order to mock the hypocrisy of religious figures who privately seek material comfort while publicly painting

83

Lazarillo de Tormes, 50.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 50.

85 Mairino, At the Margins, 111.

86 Pedro de Ribadeneira, “Al cristiano letor,” in Tratado de la tribulación (Madrid: Imprenta y Fundición de M. Tello, 1877), 5, accessed January 19, 2021, http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/tratado-de-la-tribulacion-0.

87 Mairino, At the Margins, 110-11.

88 Mairino, 110-11.

89 Mairino, 110-11.

84

Luo 24 frugality and hardship as blessings. False preaching is no substitute for economic equality and reform, yet it is the reality for individuals such as Lázaro.

While the priest is the religious figure described with the most detail in Lazarillo, several other members of the clergy have lasting effects on Lázaro’s development. In particular, the fourth tratado, notable for its extraordinary brevity, features a friar who is fonder of lay business than working in the monastery. The only specific information that Lázaro supplies regarding his time with the friar is wearing out his “primeros zapatos” (first shoes). 90 As Mairino notes El libro de buen amor and folkloric antecedents of Lazarillo, typically utilize shoes to suggest “moral debauchery and sexual appropriation.” 91 Such sexual imagery serves as a harsh critique of the friar and the Mercedarian Order in general, which, during Lázaro’s time, had gained notoriety for its members’ material indulgences and impious behavior. For instance, in a 1545 letter to Charles V, Don Francisco Marroquin, First Bishop of Guatemala, argued that Mercedarian friars should be expelled from America for their improper behavior that lacked evangelical spirit. 92 Beyond criticizing the Mercedarian Order, the friar episode ushers Lázaro into a new stage of his life. For one, Lázaro’s donning of shoes marks his ability to easily move away from his masters. However, shoes also foreshadow Lázaro’s final situation, in which he is forced into an ignominious marital arrangement that undermines the free movement gained in the fourth tratado.

90

Lazarillo de Tormes, 111.

Mairino, At the Margins, 70.

92 Don Francisco Marroquin, “An Unpublished Letter of Don Francisco Marroquin, First Bishop of Guatemala, to the Emperor Charles V (Written from Guatemala, August 17, 1545),” The Americas 5, no. 3 (January 1949): 344-45, https://www.jstor.org/stable/977663.

91

Luo 25 Following the friar, the buldero (pardoner) thoroughly disabuses Lázaro of any positive notions about the clergy. Though the previous masters hammer home the fact that the clergy is corrupt, the pardoner breaks Lázaro’s faith completely. In particular, the pardoner’s trick with the alguacil (bailiff) fools not only the onlookers but also Lázaro at first, who admits: Cuando él hizo el ensayo, confieso mi pecado, que también fui dello espantado y creí que ansí era, como otros muchos; mas con ver después la risa y burla que mi amo y el alguacil llevaban y hacían del negocio, conoscí cómo había sido industriado por el industrioso e inventivo de mi amo. 93 (When the show was over, I confessed my sin in that I was also scared and that I believed what happened, just like many others. But after seeing the laughter and mockery with which my master and the bailiff did the business, I knew how it had been done by the ingenuity and inventiveness of my master.)

Having witnessed firsthand how clergymen take advantage of the credulity of others, Lázaro sheds his final layer of innocence. Thus, like the priest and blind man, the pardoner shapes Lázaro’s cynical view on life: others cannot be trusted, and trickery brings in the most profits.

Lázaro’s experiences with the clergy communicate a similar message to the episode with the squire: even though idle nobles are parasites and religious figures behave materialistically, the poor are scapegoated as being unproductive. This hypocritical tendency becomes particularly prominent when Lázaro is begging on the streets after being expelled from the priest’s house.

Once his injury heals, Lázaro is called a “bellaco y gallofero” (scoundrel and tramp) by all, who assume that he is a lazy parasite. 94 By contrast, the squire is presumed by typical onlookers, including Lázaro, to be a well-off gentleman simply due to his “hábito y continente” (dress and

93 94

Lazarillo de Tormes, 123.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 71.

Luo 26 countenance). 95 In fact, Lázaro, when aware of the squire’s true economic state, inserts a rhetorical question as he watches his master leave the house: “¿A quién no engañará aquella buena disposición y razonable capa y sayo?” (Who would not be tricked by such a good disposition and reasonable cape and doublet?). 96 The question, sandwiched in a paragraph where Lázaro contemplates the squire’s masquerade, accentuates the notion that appearances wield an inordinate amount of power. By asking the question, Lázaro also demonstrates his decreasing innocence and increasing social awareness, as he realizes the importance of appearances in society.

In fact, the sixth tratado features a notable indication that Lázaro has internalized the squire’s preoccupation with his appearance: Me fue tan bien en el oficio, que al cabo de cuatro años que lo usé, con poner en la ganancia buen recaudo, ahorré para vestirme muy honradamente de la ropa vieja. De la cual compré un jubón de fustán viejo y un sayo raído, de manga tranzada y puerta, y una capa que había sido frisada, y una espada de las viejas primeras de Cuéllar. Desde me vi en hábito de hombre de bien, dije a mi amo se tomase su asno, que no quería más seguir aquel oficio. 97 (The job went so well for me that after the four years that I had worked, with putting my profits in a good collection, I saved enough to dress very honorably in used clothing. I bought a fustian doublet, a ragged tunic with braided sleeves, a cape that had been frilled, and a sword of the old original types made by Cuéllar. Since I saw myself in the clothing

95

Lazarillo de Tormes, 73.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 83-84.

97 Lazarillo de Tormes, 126-27.

96

Luo 27 of a gentleman, I said to my master to take his donkey, as I no longer wanted to continue with that trade.)

Taking up nearly half of the short sixth tratado, this passage deserves emphasis, as its words echo the squire’s behavior so strongly that the parallel between Lázaro and his former master is undeniable. Both characters obsess over the same articles of clothing, brag about the origins of their swords, and most insidiously, refuse manual labor. Moreover, as Friedman points out, the used clothes are a “metonymy…[that] signal a new self-image and a new social category.” 98 For Lázaro, this new self-image marks the point where his fight to survive becomes his fight to be accepted as a gentleman.

Like the squire, Lázaro represents a general trend of the common people, who, as Bernard Moses notes, found it “fashionable” to follow the example set by nobles of rejecting useful trades, which were supposedly reserved for the “unworthy.” 99 By the sixth tratado, Lázaro has accumulated enough money to escape his designation as unworthy and strives to be perceived as a gentleman. Whereas his previous efforts focused on feeding himself, Lázaro now wishes to achieve the next step of his advancement, which requires him to adopt the behavior of the upper classes in his environment.

Many Spaniards recognized the significant problems ingrained in the culture of the nobility and clergy—indeed, Lazarillo communicates the discontent felt by many others. In fact, in sixteenth-century Spain and Europe in general, figures such as Juan Luis Vives and Thomas More vigorously challenged existing religious and social orders. 100 In De Subventione Pauperum

98

Friedman, “From the Inside,” 26.

Bernard Moses, “The Economic Condition of Spain in the Sixteenth Century,” Journal of Political Economy 1, no. 4 (September 1893): 516, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1819513.

100 Vives has also been proposed as a candidate for the author of Lazarillo; See Francisco Calero’s article, “Luis Vives fue el autor del Lazarillo de Tormes,” published in Revista de estudios literarios.

99

Luo 28 (On the Relief of the Poor), Vives writes about some of the problems that he notes in Spanish society, and the following passage from his commentary is particularly relevant to Lazarillo: “Everyone is guilty of theft and diversion, I repeat, if they waste money by gambling, if they hoard it in chests at home, spend it in feasts and banquets, spends it on precious clothing or on furniture full of diverse gold and silver vessels…” 101 Using remarkably similar language, Lazarillo depicts a priest hoarding bread in chests at home and a squire obsessing over clothing, both of whom, based on Vives’s perspective, are guilty of “theft and diversion.” In Utopia, More supplements Vives’s argument by criticizing the noblemen who are “as idle as drones” and leech off others’ work. 102 While those who waste their resources by not contributing to society are the true thieves, the poor, who have no choice but to steal and beg, are considered criminals. As such, those who are punished for thievery in the novella are all poor—Tomé and Zaide by the judicial system, and Lázaro by the blind man and the priest. The clergymen, who essentially use their status to steal from devoted followers, are exempt from the punishment that lower-class individuals suffer.

The hypocrisy of this situation is highlighted when the squire calls Lázaro “pecador” (sinner) after the latter brings home food, and shortly thereafter, Lázaro calls his master “pecador.” 103 Through the reversal, Lázaro suggests that the true sinner is not him, but rather the squire for being such an unproductive individual. The novella’s critique here echoes More’s lamentation, “When that little money is at an end…what is left for [the miserable people] to do, but either to steal and so to be hanged (God knows how justly), or to go about and beg? And if

101

Juan Luis Vives, “De Subventione Pauperum (1526),” trans. Paul Spicker, in The Origins of Modern Welfare, ed.

Paul Spicker (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010), 48, accessed January 26, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=68p9ZktuS_QC. 102 Thomas More, Utopia (Courier, 2012), 7, accessed January 26, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=EZajAQAAQBAJ. 103 Lazarillo de Tormes, 88, 89.

Luo 29 they do this, they are put in prison as idle vagabonds…” 104 Notably, More uses the word idle to describe both the nobility and the poor. However, the first refers to the true idleness of the upper class whereas the second refers to society’s judgment about those who are forced into begging.

The poor generally do not choose to be idle—instead, unemployment and their socioeconomic circumstances force them into mendicancy. 105 In short, the system of oppressing the underprivileged while condoning the nobility’s unproductivity shapes every individual, including Lázaro.

Consistent with the naturalistic belief in environmental determinism, Lázaro’s aversion to his masters cannot prevent him from conforming to some of the same patterns. For one, when Lázaro gets a job with an alguacil, he neglects his duty and runs away in the face of danger, which is highly reminiscent of the squire’s escape from paying rent to the creditors. Moreover, Lázaro echoes the squire’s behavior in the seventh tratado when he maintains the untenable illusion that his wife is honorable. In fact, he even swears “sobre la hostia consagrada” (on the consecrated host) that his wife is as good as any woman that lives within the doors of Toledo. 106 Lázaro’s oath is notable in its strength—in fact, it was considered so blasphemous to swear a lie on the consecrated host that the phrase was removed from the 1573 expurgated edition of Lazarillo. 107 Similarly, the squire operates under “fantasía” (vain presumption), attempting futilely to convince Lázaro of his prosperity and making constant excuses. 108 For instance, the squire claims that he has eaten when he has not, and he pretends that it is his “desdicha”

104

More, Utopia, 7.

See Chad M. Gasta’s Introduction to Lazarillo, page 28-30, where the author discusses the increase in unemployment for the masses in sixteenth-century Spain.

106 Lazarillo de Tormes, 134-35; However, this phrase may just be a jab at Toledan women, some of whom, as Alberto Blecua notes in his edition of Lazarillo, were famously prostitutes.

107 Lazarillo de Tormes, 134.

108 Lazarillo de Tormes, 92; See Rico’s footnote for more information on the meaning of fantasía here.

105

Luo 30 (wretched) house that is causing his problems. 109 In this sense, Lázaro’s insistence on his wife’s fidelity mirrors the squire’s sense of honor: both attempt to create a delusion to conform to their environment’s ideas.

Likewise, the attitudes of the upper classes and the clergy permeate Lázaro’s later life.

Once he leaves the alguacil, Lázaro gets a job as a pregonero (town crier), which involves hanging petty criminals. Here, Lázaro becomes a tool for the upper classes to oppress and punish people, many of whom likely resemble Lázaro’s father and stepfather. Moreover, in a scene foreshadowed by the friar episode, Lázaro develops a connection with the Archpriest of San Salvador—the highest-ranking clergyman featured in Lazarillo—who, like the friar, engages in disgraceful sexual relations. Though aware of the affair between his wife and the archpriest, Lázaro keeps quiet, thereby condoning and enabling the clergyman’s behavior.

Given the fact that Lázaro is surrounded by socially superior masters who exhibit pernicious behaviors, is it surprising that he joins this culture of corruption and hypocrisy?

Living in an environment that perpetuates the upper classes’ ideas about material status and advantage, Lázaro naturally becomes conditioned to turn a blind eye to the evil around him.

Even more disturbingly, despite Lázaro’s criticism of his masters and awareness of their unproductive roles in society, the protagonist inevitably succumbs to the prevailing forces around him. By detailing Lázaro’s interactions with masters who represent various social classes, Lazarillo affirms the cynical, naturalistic message that individuals cannot escape society’s influences.

109

Lazarillo de Tormes, 89.

Luo 31 “Con fuerza y maña remando”: Tension over Free Will in Lazarillo Having examined the role of environmental determinism in Lázaro’s development, this paper will now turn to the second prong of Lazarillo’s naturalistic framework: the novella’s treatment of the tensions around free will and morality. So far, most emphasis has been placed on analyzing how social and economic factors force Lázaro to adapt his behavior to survive.

However, as Stephen Gilman notes, Lázaro is portrayed “as a whole person rather than merely a hungry animal” purely dictated by physical needs and surroundings. 110 Indeed, a crucial part of making Lázaro a multidimensional human is his eventual escape from hunger and ability to make independent choices, primarily starting in the fourth tratado. Thus, Lázaro’s free will is undeniably critical to understanding the novella, as it adds a layer of nuance to the author’s message and reflects a tension fundamental to naturalism.

To understand the concept of free will in Lazarillo, it is instructive to look at the novella’s religious elements in conjunction with its historical context. As evident from his condemnation of clerical corruption, Lazarillo’s author espouses viewpoints opposing the Catholic Church. However, the novella does not reject faith altogether—indeed, it makes abundant use of religious imagery, and most scholars agree that the anonymous author was a religiously-minded thinker and reformer. Moreover, Lazarillo’s criticisms against the Catholic Church largely coincide with the beliefs of contemporary religious movements that permeated sixteenth-century Spain. When Lazarillo’s author aired the abuses of the clergy to the public readership, the Catholic Church was battling others who denounced its behaviors. In fact, one only needs to look at the list of 701 titles in Inquisitor Fernando de Valdés’s 1559 Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books) to see the scope of religious writings that

110

Gilman, “The Death,” 159-60.

Luo 32 critiqued the Catholic Church in the 1500s. 111 Aside from Lazarillo, the 1559 Index banned numerous other anticlerical books, notably fourteen works by Desiderius Erasmus and Alfonso de Valdés’s Diálogo de Mercurio y Carón. 112 Because Lazarillo reflects some of the religious movements and ideas of its time, scholars have conducted extensive debates regarding the myriad of possible influences in Lazarillo, which have produced humanists, Reformationists, and conversos as candidates for the novella’s author—for instance, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Alfonso de Valdés. 113 However, among the many religious commentators of the time, the individual that is most important for scrutinizing Lazarillo’s connection with free will is the humanist Erasmus. 114 Erasmian satire has long been acknowledged as having clear parallels with Lazarillo, especially by scholars who support humanist Juan de Valdés as the anonymous author. 115 Similar to Erasmus’s writings, Lazarillo condemns superstitious excesses, materialistic tendencies of the clergy, and other abuses of the Catholic Church. For instance, Erasmus’s The Praise of Folly denounces the use of “counterfeit pardons” and “magical charms and short prayers invented by some pious imposter.” 116 Likewise, Lazarillo exposes the blind man and pardoner as imposters who exploit the credulity of the public—the former by living off insincere prayers and the latter by selling bulls deceitfully. However, beyond having similar critiques of the Catholic Church, the part of Erasmus’s argument that is particularly relevant to Lazarillo concerns free will. Thus, 111

Joseph Pérez, The Spanish Inquisition: A History, trans. Janet Lloyd (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 182; Lazarillo was banned in the 1559 Index and was released in 1573 as an expurgated version. An unabridged version did not formally reappear in Spain until the nineteenth century.

112 Pérez, 182.

113 Rico, Introduction, 37*, 39*.

114 For a deeper examination of the religious content in Lazarillo, see Thomas Hanrahan’s “Lazarillo de Tormes: Erasmian Satire or Protestant Reform?” For more analysis specifically regarding Erasmian thought in Lazarillo, see Francisco Márquez Villanueva’s “La actitud espiritual del Lazarillo de Tormes.”

115 For more on Lazarillo de Tormes and Juan de Valdés, see Manuel J. Asensio’s “La intención religiosa del Lazarillo de Tormes y Juan de Valdés,” published in the Hispanic Review.

116 Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, trans. John Wilson, accessed January 26, 2021, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9371/9371-h/9371-h.htm.

Luo 33 before evaluating the novella’s naturalistic portrayal of free will, one must first look at the Erasmian viewpoint on the topic.

Erasmus advocated in favor of the power of free will, which contradicts naturalists’ deterministic outlook about individuals. In “On the Freedom of the Will,” Erasmus refutes Martin Luther’s belief in predestination by asserting, “I admit that many different views about free choice have been handed down from the ancients about which I have, as yet, no fixed conviction, except that I think there to be a certain power of free choice.” 117 Here, Erasmus’s statement does not take an extreme position, for he concedes that history does not provide a clear-cut stance about free will. As a result, while Erasmus builds a strong argument and cites scripture supporting free choice, he does so without renouncing the power of God. Instead, Erasmus takes a moderate stance that is best reflected in his claim: “And so these passages, which seem to be in conflict with one another, are easily brought into harmony if we join the striving of our will with the assistance of divine grace.” 118 In other words, Erasmus attempts to reconcile the disagreement over free will in religious texts by affirming the value of harmonious cooperation between individual freedom and divine grace.

By comparison, Lazarillo diverges from the part of Erasmus’s argument about divine grace. Lazarillo supplants divine forces with social and economic pressures dominating Lázaro’s existence. To do so, Lazarillo often couples religious imagery with socioeconomic commentary, bringing a distinctly materialistic tone to the spiritual focus of religion. To take one of the multiple examples in the text, here is a passage from the second tratado, where Lázaro writes:

117

Desiderius Erasmus, “On the Freedom of the Will,” in Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation, by Martin Luther, et al. (London: SCM, 1969), 37, accessed February 7, 2021, https://archive.org/details/luthererasmusfre0000unse.

118 Erasmus, 74.

Luo 34 Dios me perdone que jamás fui enemigo de la naturaleza humana sino entonces. Y esto era porque comíamos bien y me hartaban. Deseaba y aun rogaba a Dios que cada día matase el suyo, y cuando dábamos sacramento a los enfermos, especialmente la Extremaunción, como manda el clérigo rezar a los que están allí, yo cierto no era el postrero de la oración, y con todo mi corazón y buena voluntad rogaba al Señor, no que le echase a la parte que más servido fuese, como se suele decir, mas que le llevase de aqueste mundo. 119 (God forgive me, for I was never an enemy to the human race except on those occasions.

And it was because we could eat well and I was satiated. I wished and even prayed to God that He would kill someone every day. When we gave Sacraments to the sick, especially the Anointing of the Sick, the priest was called upon to say prayers for those who were present. I was certainly not the last in prayer, for with all my heart and goodwill I prayed to the Lord that He would take the person away.)

In this plea to God, Lázaro’s faith becomes entangled in his physical needs, or, as Gilman puts it, “Soul and body…coincide ironically.” 120 Lázaro’s hunger supersedes his ability to care about others and prompts him to turn to God, not for benevolent guidance, but for food. Though the message is undeniably dark—Lázaro prays that people die so that he can eat—the remarks are humorously written. The morbidity of the situation marks a distinct departure from traditional religious commentary by turning the focus onto the inevitable reliance on material goods for survival.

119 120

Lazarillo De Tormes, 52-53.

Gilman, “The Death,” 160.

Luo 35 A similar scenario emerges in the third tratado, where religion becomes buried by material issues. Afflicted by hunger, the squire finds a real one day. 121 The joy that the chance discovery inspires is described hyperbolically, as Lázaro comments that the squire holds the real with such delight as if it were “el tesoro de Venecia” (the treasure of Venice), a proverb meaning immense treasure. 122 The extraordinary good fortune portrayed here, which the squire attributes to God “abriendo su mano” (opening His hand), is quickly stifled by grim reality. 123 When Lázaro happily goes onto the street with the real, he is met with a funeral scene that leaves him fearing that a corpse will be carried into the squire’s house. While the scene is comical because of Lázaro’s naive mistake, it highlights the pessimistic reality: any fortuitous occurrence that may seem like God’s assistance will promptly be replaced by the cold reality of survival, and in Lazarillo’s case, death. Ultimately, this episode emphasizes that there is no special status granted to human beings, and, taking the words from a dictionary entry about naturalism, “human behavior is thus entirely determined by the laws of cause and effect in the material world.” 124 The squire’s belief in God’s goodwill cannot redeem him—in the end, his lack of work dictates what happens.

Although divine grace is not a significant determinant in Lázaro’s life, Lazarillo’s portrayal of the protagonist’s struggles adheres to the other part of Erasmus’s argument regarding free will: the value of individual striving. By not resigning himself to his status at birth, Lázaro exerts a level of free will that changes in magnitude during his life. Initially, under the blind man and priest, young Lázaro survives through his wits and tricks. At this point, his

121

A real was a unit of currency in Spain; See Rico’s footnote 66 on page 29 in his edition of Lazarillo for more information about Spanish currency.

122 Lazarillo De Tormes, 95; See Rico’s footnote for more information about this proverb.

123 Lazarillo De Tormes, 95.

124 Jonathan P. Hunt, “Naturalism,” in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz (Detroit, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005), 4, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2101400104/SUIC?u=harker&sid=SUIC&xid=5d73acff.

Luo 36 actions tend to be reactions to his immediate external forces and physical needs, not out of a desire to improve his destiny. However, from the fourth tratado to the beginning of seventh, Lázaro’s free will increases, as he chooses to leave masters that he dislikes. For instance, Lázaro leaves the friar, presumably for the latter’s indecent lifestyle. Though never enumerated, sexual activities between the friar and Lázaro may have caused the latter’s departure, as has been suggested by some scholars. 125 After the episode with the friar, the next time that he leaves his master is when Lázaro departs from the chaplain, having accumulated sufficient money. Finally, at the start of the seventh tratado, Lázaro leaves the alguacil and remarks, “renegué del trato” (I renounced the deal) of being an officer of the law for fear of the danger that the occupation involves. 126 Through his various jobs and efforts, Lázaro manages to escape hunger and achieve some level of material comfort. In particular, he notes that the first step in his ascent to “alcanzar buena vida” (attain a good life) occurs when he becomes a water-seller under the chaplain “porque mi boca era medida” (because my stomach was filled). 127 At this point, Lázaro is a relatively independent individual—though he has to give the chaplain thirty maravedís six days a week, he manages to save some of his earnings and gain status. By the start of the seventh tratado, Lázaro envisions his future instead of only worrying about surviving in the present, and he formulates his goal: “tener descanso y ganar algo para la vejez” (to find some rest and earn something for old age). 128 Ostensibly, Lázaro seems to fulfill this wish of economic stability as a steadily employed pregonero who is supported economically by the archpriest. Based on this

125

Marcel Bataillon, Novedad y fecundidad del Lazarillo de Tormes, 2nd ed. (Salamanca: Anaya, 1973), 72, accessed November 22, 2020, https://archive.org/details/novedadyfecundid0000bata.

126 Lazarillo de Tormes, 128.

127 Lazarillo de Tormes, 126; As Alberto Blecua notes on page 171 of his edition of Lazarillo, the phrase mi boca era medida is an anticipation of Lázaro’s job as a pregonero.

128 Lazarillo de Tormes, 128.

Luo 37 situation, Lázaro has freed himself from the restrictions of his physical birth: rather than being pushed downstream, Lázaro keeps “con fuerza y maña remando” (rowing with strength and skill) and achieves material success. 129 In particular, Lázaro differentiates himself from his former master, the squire, for he endures the hardship of work to climb up the social ladder rather than relying on an inherited name. Thus, Lázaro’s material advancement makes it unsurprising that some scholars consider Lazarillo an optimistic, Erasmian message about the potential for individual striving and free will.

On the surface, then, Lázaro’s advancement departs from naturalists’ deterministic outlook and abides by Erasmian thought. However, by the end of the novella, the notion of free will is overturned. In theory, economic stability should grant Lázaro greater free choice, for he is no longer controlled by the physiological pangs of hunger. Yet the opposite occurs for Lázaro.

Though he has found stable employment as a pregonero, Lázaro is dependent on the archpriest.

As an adolescent, Lázaro walks away from the friar, presumably for the latter’s immorality; as an adult, he cannot leave the unethical archpriest without losing a substantial part of his economic benefits. In addition, Lázaro’s loss of independence is reflected in the contrast between the narrative style of the seventh and previous tratados. Whereas Lázaro exposes his masters’ wrongdoings and tricks before, he is much less forthright in the seventh tratado, enduring “malas lenguas” (gossips) without uncovering the truth about his wife and the archpriest for himself. 130 After all, Lázaro has little choice—he relies on the archpriest, who is his benefactor.

Considering the incomplete levels of free will at the heart of both Erasmus’s and Lazarillo’s arguments, the question emerges: to what extent can free will trump external forces, whether Erasmus’s belief in divine assistance or Lazarillo’s socioeconomic factors? While

129 130

Lazarillo de Tormes, 11.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 132.

Luo 38 neither provides a straightforward answer, Erasmus imparts a much more optimistic message about the potential of free will. Meanwhile, Lazarillo presents a grim view of a striving yet hopeless human, embodying the conflict between the elusive promise of free will and the constant threat of environmental determinism. Lazarillo depicts a crucial tension at the heart of naturalism, explored centuries later by scholars. The tension can be condensed into the following: though naturalism is fundamentally anti-humanistic in its message by implying the overpowering environment, naturalist authors often also suggest a humanistic value in their characters. 131 As such, naturalist writers grapple with imbuing the human experience with individual significance while focusing on the dominating forces at play in society.

This paradox of naturalism resonates in Lazarillo, and it also resembles Erasmus’s dilemma when seeking to affirm both free will and divine power. As a result, Lazarillo contradicts neither Erasmism nor naturalism completely; indeed, it synthesizes seemingly divergent ideas into Lázaro’s complex character development. On the one hand, Lazarillo incorporates Erasmus’s humanistic message by featuring Lázaro’s journey up the rungs of society. On the other hand, the novella ultimately resigns itself to the pessimistic materialistic determinism that naturalism embodies, rejecting divine assistance and limiting the potential for true individual reform. In the end, Lazarillo’s deterministic tendency overcomes the humanistic optimism that the novella suggests. By presenting an indifferent world that corrupts its inhabitants, Lazarillo communicates a message that is more consistent with naturalism than Erasmian beliefs.

131 Donald Pizer, “An Essay in Definition,” in The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism (Carbondale: South Illinois University Press, 1993), 87, accessed February 16, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=hP0VD599YGYC; While Pizer’s book specifically focuses on nineteenthcentury American naturalism, the tension and idea that he describes here is relevant to understanding naturalism as a whole and useful for evaluating humanism and naturalism in Lazarillo.

Luo 39 “Arrimarme a los buenos”: Tension over Morality in Lazarillo Aside from the question of free will, Lazarillo tackles the fundamental tension over morality that is relevant among naturalist works. Scholars have held longstanding debates over the morality of Lázaro—some, like Marcel Bataillon, read Lazarillo in a relatively positive light as a work that embodies the optimistic spirit of the Renaissance and humanity. 132 Others, such as Francisco Márquez Villanueva and L.J. Woodward, espouse much more pessimistic views about Lázaro’s development. Woodward posits perhaps the harshest interpretation of Lázaro, calling him a “scoundrel” whose entire letter is an attempt to make excuses for his immorality. 133 Unsurprisingly, some of these scholarly interpretations regarding morality in Lazarillo are irreconcilable—indeed, Howard Mancing notes this dilemma at the start of his study regarding Lazarillo’s deceptiveness. Mancing argues that the narrative structure of Lazarillo intentionally misleads the reader into an optimistic view of the novella. In the end, Mancing pessimistically concludes that Lázaro becomes a “base and repulsive creature.” 134 Similar to Mancing’s study, this paper’s naturalistic argument concerning morality seeks to reconcile the divergent critical interpretations of Lazarillo, albeit from a different angle.

Before tracing the protagonist’s moral development, it is useful to refer briefly to A.D. Deyermond’s study, which essentially argues that the reader should interpret the actions that Lázaro describes as actually occurring. 135 Following Deyermond’s argument, this paper’s

132

Howard Mancing, "The Deceptiveness of Lazarillo De Tormes," PMLA 90, no. 3 (1975): 426, http://www.jstor.org/stable/461629.; See Bataillon’s Novedad y fecundidad del Lazarillo de Tormes for more of his analysis.

133 L. J. Woodward, “Author-Reader Relationship in the Lazarillo de Tormes,” Forum for Modern Language Studies 1, no. 1 (January 1, 1965): 44, accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-universitypress/author-reader-relationship-in-the-lazarillo-del-tormes-ucNdY5vQ0y?.

134 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 431.

135 A. D. Deyermond, “The Corrupted Vision: Further Thoughts on Lazarillo de Tormes,” Forum for Modern Language Studies 1, no. 3 (July 1, 1965): 249, accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxforduniversity-press/the-corrupted-vision-further-thoughts-on-lazarillo-de-tormes-w0MPd2sbIA?key=OUP.

Luo 40 interpretation will assume that Lázaro’s basic factual narrative is true in order to draw meaningful conclusions about what happens in the novella. 136 One of the most critical structures of Lazarillo is el caso, which is introduced in the prologue. 137 As mentioned, Lazarillo is written as a pseudo-autobiographical work in the form of Lázaro’s letter to Vuestra Merced that addresses an unspecified case raised by the latter. This reference to a case shapes the reader’s entire interpretation of Lazarillo, as has been dissected by scholars such as Francisco Rico, Claudio Guillén, and Lázaro Carreter—Rico, in particular, refers to the case as the heart of the novella. 138 From a naturalistic viewpoint, the case is crucial because it holds no absolute definition—instead, its meaning shifts over time based on the protagonist’s environment.

At the start of the novella, the case seems to be what Lázaro humbly states to Vuestra Merced: how he progresses from utter poverty to economic security. This interpretation of the protagonist’s path to success grows stronger during the first six tratados, in which Lázaro employs a clever and ingratiating tone to persuade Vuestra Merced—and, in turn, the reader—of his advancement. As Mancing points out, the novella includes multiple literary devices that make the reader sympathize with Lázaro, including the protagonist’s witty use of euphemisms, hyperbole, and puns, his moral-philosophical asides, and his humor when describing his own misfortunes. 139 In addition, the adjectives that Lázaro pins to his masters are invariably negative, carefully curated to garner the reader’s pity for the protagonist. By emphasizing his masters’ iniquity, Lázaro buttresses his case: he is the victim, and it is only through his intelligence and

136 Deyermond’s argument contradicts Woodward’s interpretation. As noted, this paper will use Deyermond’s interpretive stance to analyze Lazarillo instead of debating the factual reliability of the narrator.

137 Lazarillo de Tormes, 45.

138 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 430.

139 Mancing, 427.

Luo 41 efforts that he succeeds, fulfilling the paradigm of the self-made man during the sixteenth century. 140 Lázaro also portrays himself as reacting to his masters’ cruelty, not acting out of his own malice. Thus, there is little surprise in the reader’s support for Lázaro despite his moral transgressions. 141 The most obvious example of Lázaro’s wrongdoing occurs at the end of the first tratado, when Lázaro fools the blind man into hitting a stone pillar. On an ethical level, such a violent, potentially murderous act is despicable. However, having read about how “cruel” (cruel), “avariento” (avaricious), and “mezquino” (mean) the blind man is, the reader becomes predisposed to forgive Lázaro for this act of revenge. 142 As Mancing notes, this episode serves as an exemplar of situational ethics in the novella, as absolute moral standards break down in the face of contextual factors. 143 Most importantly, this idea of situational ethics is consistent with the naturalistic tendency of rejecting higher moral law and focusing on environmental conditions instead.

The second tratado elevates Lázaro’s criticism of his master, now the priest, whose extraordinary miserliness and hypocrisy repulse the reader. Coupled with humorous descriptions, Lázaro and his tricks against the priest easily win over the reader’s support. By the end, Lázaro emerges morally unscathed in the reader’s eyes, as his actions are all to prevent himself from starving to death.

140

John Beverley, "Lazarillo and Primitive Accumulation: Spain, Capitalism and the Modern Novel," The Bulletin of the Midwest Modern Language Association 15, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 32, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1314751.; A “self-made man” is also a phrase used by Francisco Márquez Villanueva in his analysis of Lazarillo’s conclusion (see page 96 of “La actitud espiritual del Lazarillo” in Espiritualidad y Literatura en el Siglo XVI).

141 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 427.

142 Lazarillo de Tormes, 33, 27.

143 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 428.

Luo 42 In the third tratado, Lázaro’s portrayal of his master, now the squire, shifts. The protagonist’s epithets for the squire, while negative, reveal pity instead of hatred. 144 After all, though still experiencing mala fortuna and intense hunger, Lázaro no longer suffers the abuse inflicted by his previous masters. Compared to the first two episodes, the third tratado also devotes more description to the master—indeed, the squire is the most thoroughly developed character in Lazarillo after Lázaro. Though a parasitic member of society, the squire evokes sympathy from Lázaro, who comments that his master “es pobre, y nadie da lo que no tiene” (is poor, and nobody gives what they don’t have) and therefore cannot be blamed for not providing food. 145 Lázaro’s sympathy becomes apparent when he shares food with the squire, specifically a cow’s hoof. Especially in light of his own hunger, Lázaro’s willingness to sacrifice some of his food for his master truly marks his “finest hour,” as Mancing points out. 146 As such, Lázaro reaches his highest moral point in the novella when serving the squire. 147 Beyond sharing food, Lázaro and the squire develop a master-servant comradery and conversational style markedly different from the first two tratados. Indeed, their relationship is so respectfully intimate that Tarr deems it suggestive of the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza relationship fifty years later. 148 However, this positive comradeship is also what makes Lázaro feel so betrayed at the end of the tratado. When abandoned by the squire, Lázaro reaches his most helpless point in the novella, and he bitterly remarks, “acabé de conocer mi ruin dicha” (I

144

Mancing, 426.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 91; As Rico notes, nadie da lo que no tiene is a refrain used in La Celestina and other works.

146 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 426.

147 Some scholars disagree—for instance, Woodward argues that the description of the eating scenes implies that Lázaro subjects the squire to “pitiless torture” (page 48 of “Author-Reader Relationship in the Lazarillo de Tormes”). However, it is important to note that the language describing the scene is the adult Lázaro’s voice and should not be construed as young Lázaro’s mockery of the squire. As such, the argument that young Lázaro is exhibiting true kindness toward the squire here is more compelling.

148 Tarr, “Literary and Artistic,” 410.

145

Luo 43 was just getting to know my miserable luck). 149 The abandonment by his master resonates deeply with Lázaro and marks a pivotal moment in his life: he is truly alone in the world. Yet it is important to acknowledge that this event is not the first time that Lázaro becomes aware of his solitude; instead, it builds on his previous experience with the blind man: Parescióme que en aquel instante desperté de la simpleza en que, como niño, dormido estaba. Dije entre mí: “Verdad dice éste, que me cumple avivar el ojo y avisar, pues solo soy, y pensar cómo me sepa valer.” 150 (It seemed to me that in that instant I woke up from the simplicity that, as a child, was dormant in me. I said to myself: “What he says is true, that I keep an eye out and am forewarned, for I am alone, and think about how to fend for myself.”) While this episode with the blind man’s stone bull marks the beginning of Lázaro’s loss of innocence, the squire’s abandonment denotes the next crucial stage in Lázaro’s life. What little faith Lázaro has in human benevolence dissolves at the end of the third tratado, replaced by a disillusionment matched by the detached narrative style of the later tratados. The relationship between Lázaro and the squire forms the climax of the novella—the rest features Lázaro maturing into a cynical adult with most details hidden from the reader.

Following this turning point, Lázaro proceeds to narrate the fourth through sixth tratados, which serve as a transition from childhood to adulthood. Unlike the previous three, these sections remove Lázaro from the action. While still revealing his masters’ corruption, Lázaro provides less of the biting sarcasm and lively humor that fills the first half of the novella. Far from being an artistic defect, as some scholars have proposed, the tratados elegantly encapsulate the protagonist’s transformation into an adult. 151 By substituting previously elaborate details and

149

Lazarillo de Tormes, 110.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 23.

151 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 429; See Tarr’s “Literary and Artistic Unity in the Lazarillo de Tormes” to read more of her argument refuting the idea that Lazarillo is an incomplete work.

150

Luo 44 frequent side commentary with ellipses, Lázaro deliberately distances himself from the reader.

Though the first, second and third tratados include ellipses like “dejo de contar muchas cosas” (I forego recounting many things), they also feature detailed examples of Lázaro’s interactions with his masters. 152 By contrast, the fourth and subsequent tratados, Lázaro’s omissions come to dominate the narrative structure. The friar is given an abbreviated sketch with most of “cosillas que no digo” (little things that I do not say) left to the reader’s interpretation, and the painter is reduced to one line mentioning that Lázaro suffers “mil males” (a thousand wrongs). 153 As the reader is no longer privy to the narrator’s innermost thoughts, Lázaro is removed from the center of the action. Even though the fifth tratado features a detailed description of the pardoner’s trick, Lázaro is not the victim of the trick like before. Instead, he is a passive bystander, which enables him to fully open his eyes to the gullibility of the populace in the face of manipulative figures like the pardoner. After Lázaro witnesses the benefits that the pardoner’s trick brings, the connection in his mind between immorality and economic advantage strengthens, foreshadowing his later actions to obtain profit.

Given Lázaro’s mostly innocuous behavior through the sixth tratado, Mancing remarks that the seventh tratado creates a “moral earthquake” that subverts the reader’s sympathetic view of Lázaro. 154 Though seemingly abrupt, this earthquake is forewarned by the first six tratados.

The first three tratados focus on Lázaro’s animal behavior to fight hunger, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth tratados depict him growing resigned to the corruption around him. Most importantly, Lázaro has learned that he must adapt to social pressures to survive and that morality is irrelevant—both to those around him and to himself. As such, Lázaro eschews ethical

152

Lazarillo de Tormes, 37.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 111, 125.

154 Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 427.

153

Luo 45 considerations in favor of economic advantage, as illustrated in the seventh tratado. To Lázaro, morality becomes an abstract concept much like honor—materially useless. Therefore, from a naturalistic perspective, the entire novella leads up to the inescapable, discouraging result revealed in the concluding tratado.

To fully understand the naturalistic message and moral ambiguity of the novella, the extent of Lázaro’s final success must be examined. One of Lázaro’s most significant lines in the seventh tratado is the following: “Pues en este tiempo estaba en mi prosperidad y en la cumbre de toda buena fortuna” (In this time I was in my prosperity and at the pinnacle of all good fortune). 155 The statement’s rosy picture seems to contradict Lázaro’s situation in the seventh tratado: after all, Lázaro is forced into a ménage à trois, and his food and livelihood depend on his submission to the archpriest. 156 Worst of all, Lázaro is a cuckolded husband, which was looked upon with substantial shame in early modern Europe. In fact, sixteenth-century musician Thomas Whythorne claimed that public knowledge of a man’s cuckolded status detracted substantially and irrevocably from his social standing: for he that is known to be a notorious cuckold cannot be taken upon quests, and is barred of diverse functions and callings of estimation in the commonwealth as a man defamed, so that you may see what a goodly thing it is when a man’s honesty and credit doth depend and lie in his wife’s tail. 157 In the face of such stigma surrounding cuckoldry, it is not simply the idea of manhood that crumbles: it is also the supposed social status that Lázaro has been attempting to claim. Yes, he

155

Lazarillo de Tormes, 135.

Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 430.

157 Thomas Whythorne quoted in Una McIlvenna, “From the 16th-century to Men’s Rights Activists, Why ‘Cuckold’ Is the Worst Thing You Can Call a Man,” The Conversation, last modified December 19, 2017, accessed January 5, 2021, https://theconversation.com/from-the-16th-century-to-mens-rights-activists-why-cuckold-is-theworst-thing-you-can-call-a-man-89239.

156

Luo 46 is no longer a mendicant on the streets, but he is now a different type of outcast—one based on the shame associated with cuckoldry. What is even more disturbing about Lázaro’s situation, which Mancing points out, is that Lázaro does more than avert his eyes from his wife’s infidelity. By profiting from it and, at least inferentially, encouraging it, he becomes much more than a mere consenting cuckold. To exploit another person sexually for the sake of material affluence is the definition of a pimp. This, rather than a potentially comic deceived husband, is what Lázaro has become. 158 Thus, the seventh tratado prompts the reader to confront Lázaro’s moral degeneration and marks a sharp contrast from the previous tratados, like the twist found in many naturalistic novels.

While he is a relatively innocent victim or bystander for most of the novella, here Lázaro becomes a pimp.

In his analysis, Villanueva calls Lázaro’s acceptance of the marital arrangement an “acto libérrimo,” or an act of intense free will. 159 As Villanueva explains, Lázaro’s decision is not due to hunger and should be seen as a sin. 160 However, while hunger no longer provides motivation, there is still another external, immutable force at the heart of Lázaro’s decision—an animalistic need to materially advance. Accepting the arrangement with the archpriest is the path of least resistance for Lázaro to achieve economic stability, so he takes it. To support the idea that Lázaro’s cuckolded status is essential to his success, one can look at the blind man’s remark after his prophecy: “Yo te digo verdad; si no, verlo has, si vives” (I tell you the truth; if not, you must

158

Mancing, “The Deceptiveness,” 430.

Francisco Márquez Villanueva, “La actitud espiritual de Lazarillo,” in Espiritualidad y Literatura en el Siglo XVI, Hombres, Hechos e Ideas 16 (Madrid: Alfaguara, 1968), 95.

160 Villanueva, “La actitud,” 95.

159

Luo 47 see it for yourself, if you live). 161 As predicted by the prophecy and determined by the environment, Lázaro’s situation in the final tratado happens inevitably—though sinful from a religious standpoint, the protagonist has little choice if he wants to live and prosper.

In the same vein, the archpriest reminds Lázaro of the benefit of his situation: “Por tanto, no mires a lo que pueden decir, sino a lo que te toca, digo, a tu provecho” (Therefore, do not look at what they say, but what you have, I say, to your advantage). 162 This comment effectively encapsulates Lázaro’s behavior in life: to do things to his economic advantage, even if it means fraternizing with people such as the archpriest. This quote is one of many times where the word provecho (advantage) is used—for instance, in the first tratado Lázaro remarks that he must leave the blind man “a mi salvo y provecho” (to my salvation and advantage). 163 Moreover, Albrecht notes that in the space of a few paragraphs in the seventh tratado alone, “The words ‘provecho’ and ‘provechoso’ appear four times…underscoring the pecuniary nature of Lazarillo’s marital relationship.” 164 As illustrated by its numerous appearances in the text, provecho is of paramount importance to Lázaro, who focuses his efforts on extracting the most benefit from his situations. Thus, when the archpriest reinforces the provecho that the marital arrangement brings, Lázaro accepts the transaction. By ignoring those who gossip about the affair, Lázaro follows the archpriest’s words and maintains a grasp of his provecho.

To return to an earlier influence on Lázaro, the phrase arrimarse a los buenos, taken from the mother, now has a clear and pessimistic meaning. 165 Lázaro’s marital arrangement upends the possibility for the phrase to mean the moral good; therefore, good must refer to the high

161

Lazarillo de Tormes, 37; As Rico notes, this section about the horns is added in the Alcalá edition.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 33.

163 Lazarillo de Tormes, 34.

164 Albrecht, “Family Economics/Family,” 167.

165 Lazarillo de Tormes, 133.

162

Luo 48 social status of the archpriest. From a naturalistic perspective, los buenos are those who are good at surviving—or, drawing from Darwinist ideas, the fittest. 166 Some, like the nobility and clergy, simply inherit goodness by virtue of their class; others, like Lázaro, successfully adapt to society’s rules. Regardless, neither group has a choice about what good looks like, for both simply subscribe to environmental influences. In such a sense, Lázaro succeeds and gets closer to the good.

Aside from the marital arrangement, the extent of Lázaro’s improvement in social status has been questioned by many scholars. For instance, Rico comments, “Of course no one in Spain at the time of Charles V could admit seriously that to rise from being the son of a thieving miller and laundry woman…to being a town crier and husband of a sacrilegious adulteress constituted any real advance.” 167 Woodward goes further, calling the job of the pregonero “so loathsome and treated with such contempt by the public that only the most seedy and squalid character could be asked to accept it.” 168 The job involves working with the public hangman, which is a significant part in Lázaro’s narrative. For one, it fulfills the blind man’s reference to “sogas” (ropes) in his prophecy. 169 More importantly, the fact that Lázaro is hanging criminals reflects an inversion of his life. Before, Lázaro was an “apañador” (petty thief); now, his job involves punishing those who commit similar crimes. 170 Given how much Lázaro has relied on stealing to survive, he likely finds this part of the job particularly distasteful, even if he does not explicitly address it. Moreover, the irony of Lázaro’s success is highlighted by the proximity between

166

Scharnhorst, “Naturalism and Realism.”

Francisco Rico, “Lazarillo de Tormes, or polysemy,” in The Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Point of View, ed.

E. Pupo-Walker and P.E. Russell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 24-25, accessed January 26, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=nno6AAAAIAAJ. 168 Woodward, “Author-Reader Relationship,” 50.

169 Lazarillo de Tormes, 36, 129; Rico notes that both sections featuring the sogas are added in the Alcalá edition.

170 Lazarillo de Tormes, 129; Rico notes that this section about hanging the thief is added in the Alcalá edition.

167

Luo 49 Lázaro’s summit statement and the convening of the Cortes of Charles V in Toledo in 1525. 171 This allusion to a historic event—Charles V’s victory—purposefully parodies Lázaro’s humble personal victory in Toledo, highlighting the extraordinary gap between imperial and everyday Spain.

Yet it is more probable that Lázaro is writing honestly when he claims that he has reached the summit of good fortune. After all, his job as a pregonero—despite its poor reputation and unsavory aspects—undeniably constitutes a significant improvement from Lázaro’s impoverished status at the beginning of the story. Based on Sevilla’s 1527 municipal regulations, some pregoneros would have been paid by a commission of more than three percent on all sales, which was deemed a “muy exceffíuo” (very excessive) salary. 172 If Lázaro is speaking the truth when he brags, “el que ha de echar vino a vender, o algo, si Lázaro de Tormes no entiende en ello, hacen cuenta de no sacar provecho” (if Lázaro de Tormes does not know all about someone who has put out wine or other goods to sell, it is supposed that there would be no benefit from them), then his profits would have been significant. 173 Furthermore, sections of the regulations suggest that some pregoneros received additional benefits, such as “muchos bienes muebles” (many movable assets) and “algunas ropas o joyas o armas o otras cofas” (some clothes or jewelry or other things) through their transactions. 174 Although it is unclear whether Lázaro also uses his position to get material goods, historical records indicate that pregoneros enjoyed

171

There is debate about whether Lazarillo is referring to Charles V’s 1525 or 1538-39 Cortes in Toledo. Lázaro is likely referring to 1525 after the festivities Charles V defeated the French at the Battle of Pavia, based on the second tratado’s allusion to “ciudados de el rey de Francia” (63); See pages 9-15 of Blecua’s Introduction and pages 17*30* of Rico’s Introduction to Lazarillo for more information regarding the dates.

172 Sevilla, Ordenanças de Seuilla: recopilacion de las ordenanças de la muy noble [et] muy leal cibdad de Seuilla de todas las leyes [et] ordenamientos antiguos [et] modernos cartas [et] p[ro]uisiones reales (Sevilla: Juan Varela de Salamanca, 1527), FO CXIV, accessed February 6, 2021, https://archive.org/details/QARM77; Spelling is based on the original text.

173 Lazarillo de Tormes, 130.

174 Sevilla, Ordenanças de Seuilla, FO CXIII, FO CXIV.

Luo 50 economic stability above what someone of Lázaro’s birth could expect. Yes, perhaps the job was given to the “most seedy and squalid character,” as Woodward notes; even so, to Lázaro the purpose of being a pregonero is not to be morally desirable—it is to make a living, which he accomplishes. 175 Although Lázaro glorifies his position in the seventh tratado, such pride is justifiable, given the struggles that he endures before procuring a stable job. To build the case that Lázaro does not descend into utter squalidness, one can refer to M.J. Woods’s study, which argues that compared to his masters, Lázaro avoids behaviors such as arrogance, avarice, and cruelty. 176 In his argument, Woods refutes other scholars’ interpretations by pointing out the lack of substantive evidence that the protagonist becomes a completely unconscionable individual. 177 Though irreconcilable, the diverging arguments strengthen the novella’s naturalistic message. The author deliberately makes Lázaro’s situation inscrutable in order to highlight the irrelevance of individual morality in the face of environmental factors. In fact, Lazarillo’s ambiguous fictional context is part of the author’s strategy to mislead the reader, and it remains highly debated. Among many interpretations, the most airtight understanding of Lazarillo’s fictional context is the one posited by Robert Archer. 178 In order to justify the fact that Lázaro seems to incriminate himself in the seventh tratado, Archer suggests the following context: Vuestra Merced is not the actual addressee of Lázaro’s letter, but rather a device that Lázaro uses to threaten the archpriest in a blackmail letter. 179 Unlike other scholars’ proposed fictional contexts, Archer’s interpretation does not include the notion that Lazarillo’s author injects his

175

Woodward, “Author-Reader Relationship,” 50.

For more on Woods’s argument, see his article “Pitfalls for the Moralizer in Lazarillo de Tormes,” in The Modern Language Review.

177 M. J. Woods, “Pitfalls for the Moralizer in Lazarillo de Tormes,” The Modern Language Review 74, no. 3 (July 1979): 580, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3726705.

178 Robert Archer, “The Fictional Context of Lazarillo de Tormes,” The Modern Language Review 80, no. 2 (April 1985): 340-50, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3728666; Although this paper agrees with Archer’s proposed fictional context for Lazarillo, some of the interpretations regarding specific incidents diverge widely.

179 Archer, 345-46.

176

Luo 51 own irony into the novella. As a result, Archer’s explanation not only fits smoothly with how Lázaro writes his story, but also allows the anonymous author to completely disappear into the background of the novella.

The author’s technique of creating an independent fictional context is crucial, as it fulfills the naturalistic principle of avoiding moral assessments within works. As Zola notes, naturalist novelists should not mete out ethical judgment but instead maintain the all-important “moral impersonality” in order to raise the question of morality to the reader. 180 As such, Lazarillo’s author maintains his impersonality by constructing a fiction whose protagonist writes a firstperson letter, which is a distinct contrast to—but achieves essentially the same purpose as— many nineteenth-century naturalists’ detached, third-person narrative. By erecting a selfsufficient fictional context completely controlled by the protagonist, the author keeps his own opinion about Lázaro’s morality hidden. Evidenced by the abundance of varying scholarly interpretations regarding morality in Lazarillo, the author’s technique succeeds.

As a result, the “fructo” (fruit), or lesson is not the author’s moral evaluation of Lázaro. 181 Rather, it is that one’s circumstances and opportunities determine morality. As such, Lázaro cannot be denounced from an absolute moral standpoint without acknowledging that he becomes who he is because of his surroundings. In other words, the author forces the reader to judge society, not Lázaro. From such a perspective, the truest and most thoroughly pessimistic phrase in the entire novella is “yo no ser más santo que mis vecinos” (I am no more saintly than my neighbors), declared by Lázaro in the prologue. 182 The statement implies that everyone is the

180

Zola, The Experimental, 125-26.

Lazarillo de Tormes, 5; For the reader, the fruit is a lesson from the novella, but for Lázaro, the fruit is likely some benefit that he is seeking from Vuestra Merced, as Rico notes.

182 Lazarillo de Tormes, 8.

181

Luo 52 same—if Lázaro deserves to be condemned as a scoundrel, so do his masters and his entire environment.

As naturalist writers argue, individuals are unable to create their own destinies—they are like pawns on a chessboard, controlled by outside forces. 183 The fact that Lázaro truly believes that he has reached the pinnacle of his life only augments the pessimistic message of the novella.

As Gilman notes, Lázaro’s conviction that his unsavory circumstances are a buen puerto (safe harbor) indicates that the protagonist has degraded so far that “he is no longer wholly a man.” 184 While Gilman’s perspective is particularly harsh on Lázaro, it reinforces the naturalistic message of the novella: in the end, humans are no more than beings corrupted by society. Thus, Lázaro’s case is typical of characters portrayed in naturalistic works, which create the impression that “the prognosis for [the characters’] ‘cases’ was pessimistic at the outset,” a message that Lazarillo elegantly maps out. 185 Like his namesake river, Lázaro bends to the shape of his environment, and he cannot control the direction that he is forced to take. At small junctions, Lázaro can make his own choices, but in the end, he is swept toward an inevitable conclusion. Thus, regardless of what the protagonist and the author believe is moral, the novella urges the reader to judge Lázaro’s environment more than Lázaro himself.

Conclusion At its core, the novella is a naturalistic rumination on free will and morality battling the omnipotence of the environment. On one hand, Lázaro’s story embodies the idea of individualism that Erasmus advocated in his sixteenth-century writings as well as the archetype of a self-made man. On the other, Lázaro’s case condemns his environment for forcing its

183

Scharnhorst, “Naturalism and Realism.”

Gilman, “The Death,” 153.

185 “Naturalism.”

184

Luo 53 negative aspects onto individuals. Lazarillo elegantly depicts this paradox in a way that resonates far beyond sixteenth-century Spain, for it is fundamental to understanding everyone’s development and relationship with society.

By portraying the socioeconomic conditions, class structures, religious context, and moral gray area of the novella’s setting in remarkably vivid and realistic detail, Lazarillo’s author communicates a strong message that favors indicting society’s oppression of the lower classes. At the same time, as he weaves naturalistic elements into a timeless literary masterpiece, Lazarillo’s author provides a glimmer of optimism, insofar as he implicitly trusts readers to scrutinize Lázaro’s case with a socially and morally informed critical lens. Ultimately, what makes the novella so poignant for generations of readers is that the author leaves the final verdict regarding Lázaro’s case open to interpretation. The verdict goes beyond assessing Lázaro’s personal morality, as it prompts the reader to evaluate whether the individual, society, or both are guilty in this story.

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