Examine the portrayal of deception in Lazarillo de Tormes.
In telling the story of his life, Lazaro portrays the society he lives in as one in which every interaction is laced with deception. As the protagonist of a picaresque novel, the main character is a delinquent with a very low social status, an ideal counterpoint to the chivalrous knights of the Renaissance. He wants to gain a higher status but to do so he has to use illegitimate procedures like cons and lies. It is clear from the outset that young Lazaro belongs to the class of people who depend on lying and cheating to survive, as the son of a thief, whose father was caught “bleeding” sacks of corn, and a stepfather who also “lost” materials.
Though Lazaro states his purpose in this journey is to bring the truth about society to light, the process in itself and that of growing up makes him wilfully ignorant of or complicit to the various acts of deception. In the first chapter, Lazaro states, “It seemed to me that at that moment I awoke out of the simplicity in which I had remained like a sleeping child. And I said to myself, “He’s right. I’d better keep my eyes open and my wits about me, for I’m on my own, and I’ll have to figure out how to manage for myself.” Ironically, it is through this complicities or ignorance to deception and that of his own that mean he is able to “manage” for himself.
Lazaro goes on to serve many masters who exploit the ignorance of others to make their living. Lazaro quickly learns the art of deception himself through a series of insufferable jobs in which survival and loss of innocence are revealed to be two deeply entangled processes. Some of his own biggest acts of deception are towards those he works for throughout the novel. In the first chapter, he serves an apprenticeship to a blind man. During the months of suffering abuse as the blind man’s servant, Lazaro was taking revenge whenever the opportunity arose. In an interesting parallel with his father, he would “unpick the bag, bleed it and sew it up again…to make him pay” for the way he was being treated, justifying his actions by stating “ if I hadn’t used all my cunning and the tricks I knew, I would have died of hunger more than once” . Recurrently justifying his own deceptions by stating that it was a matter of his own survival. , Lazaro’s final betrayal of the blind man represents a moment of the student surpassing the master in the art of deception as he abandons him to find a new master in the next chapter.
The theme of deception presents itself again in chapter five when he begins working for under the hand of a Pardoner. This man is the ultimate master of deception, preying upon the spiritual and emotional weaknesses of the public. In the late medieval period, the Catholic Church sold ‘indulgences’ or pardons to members of the congregation as a supposed means to decrease the time they and their loved ones would spend in purgatory. Lazaro becomes part of this deceptive scheme, in which the Pardoner argues those who think these indulgences are worthless must be possessed by the devil. After being accused of lying about the power of these indulgences, the Pardoner “clasped his hands and turned his eyes up…and began a prayer as long as it was devout” in which he begged for the accuser to be forgiven since he “was inspired by the Devil and had surrendered to sin” .
In context of the Spanish Inquisition, accusing an individual of being an insincere Christian could have serious consequences. Many of the Jews and Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity or be exiled; an accusation such as this could be devastating if believed. As readers, we see the misuse and manipulation of religion is prevalent. In a time of war and uncertainty, many relied on their faith as a support and in using prayer, as a financial means not spiritual, the Pardoner monopolises on this. It was undoubtedly effective, as in this scenario “there was such a rush to buy the indulgences that not a living soul in the village was left without one” .
A further example of religious hypocrisy is found in the seventh chapter when Lazaro is helped and housed by an Archpriest. As a result, the Archpriest also offers his maid in marriage to Lazaro, with the intention of putting a halt to rumours around the village that he was having an illicit affair with this housemaid. Despite the rumours, Lazaro marries the archpriest’s maid and discovers, after some time, that she and the Archpriest have carried on a secret sexual relationship under his nose and he becomes a mockery in the village. The hypocrisy here is highlighted by the position and abuse of power that the Archpriest holds. As a high religious office, one is presumed and expected to and presumed to be celibate (in much the same way as Nuns are). However, Lazaro has entered into a tacit agreement with the archpriest to keep his maid and mistress as his wife for a small fee, implicating all parties not only in adultery but also in some form of prostitution. Both of which are condemned in the bible.
The priest is by far Lazaro’s cruellest master; as the figurehead of the church, he is supposed to be a pioneer of charity, selflessness, and love, but he starves Lazaro, demonstrating to us his selfishness, opportunism, and greed. The friar is presumed, as a monk, to have recused himself from worldly matters however he seemingly spends all of his time embarking on errands of a sexual nature about the village. The seller of papal indulgences—an already morally suspect position to hold in the clergy—lies, cheats, and burns the faces of several other clergymen in order to sell people articles that are meant to pardon them for their sins.
Each one of these examples depicts the Catholic clergy and openly immoral members of the general public not acting in accordance with their professed values—values that they were also hypocritically demanding of others. This aspect of the novel is one that remains particularly relevant today, as a high level of hypocrisy still remains within the Catholic Church.
The fact that Lazarillo de Tormes was published anonymously can be explained by these frank depictions of religious hypocrisy—the author’s perspective was regarded as heretical and it resulted in the book being banned throughout Spain.
Against the backdrop of the Inquisition, even the credibility of Lazaro’s account is, in the end, made somewhat uncertain and can be argued as another form of deception as it becomes clear that the motivation for telling the entire story had been to supply an explanation — and perhaps also a defence — of the arrangement he has made with the archpriest concerning his wife. Lazaro seems to suggest that the only truth that can be known with any certainty is that of the absolute rule of deception.
Readers cannot be certain, even in the end of the novel that they have received and become privy to the whole truth. On a number of occasions, Lazaro pointedly states that he will not disclose information to the readers or “Your Honour” whom the novel is addressed to. For example, in the smallest chapter of the novel, he briefly writes about his ordeal with a Friar, whom he left for the extensive physical labour demanded of him and “one or two other things that I shan’t bother to mention”.
The novel’s anonymous author however can be argued as a defiance of the level of deception not only featured in the novel but that of which surrounded and inspired the novel to be written. By contrast, the author is perhaps more optimistic than Lazaro about what can be achieved by exposing the truth and illuminate hypocrisy, since the book itself stands as a sharp piece of social criticism which the author risked their life to have published. Banned as soon as it was published, the novel was seen as dangerous because it was written in Spanish as opposed to Latin; making is more accessible to a wider audience, therefore carrying a higher level of exposure with it. This reinforces the whole essence of deception within society as it reveals the desires of the clergy and the government to cover their hypocrisy in their own actions.
As a text with subversive content matter, attacking society and seen as rebellious, even the manner in which the novel was distributed can be argued as deceptive. Although banned immediately, the novel’s nature required that it be hand copied by people to ensure its safety as a result of the censorship that came with manuscript publishing. It can be suggested that this led to a metamorphosis of the text, shrouding the identity of the author and the legitimacy of the tale itself in even more mystery, deceiving it’s readership with the historical context and authentic voice of the protagonist.
In conclusion, the portrayal of deception in Lazarillo de Tormes is presented in many ways and appears in many forms, a few of which this essay briefly explores. It is an accurate depiction of a deceptive society and its cunning individuals, which concludes that deception must be used as a means of self-preservation and is a survivalist tactic.