Lazarillo de Tormes: summary

Lazarillo de Tormes summary

The Lazarillo de Tormes is one of the books that most send as compulsory reading in schools and institutes. However, sometimes, when children need to be helped, we need a summary from Lazarillo de Tormes to help us explain to the little ones everything that this novel hides.

Do you want to have a summary of Lazarillo de Tormes? Do you want to know everything that this story hides? Well, then we will tell you.

Who wrote Lazarillo de Tormes?

Indeed, It is not known who wrote Lazarillo de Tormes. It is anonymous although there are many researchers and historians who have given the authorship to various writers.

One of the oldest was the friar Juan de Ortega, postulated by the friar José de Sigüenza. However, there are more names like Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Juan or Alfonso de Valdés, Sebastián de Horozco, Lope de Rueda, Pedro de Rúa, Hernán Núñez, the Greek Commander, Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, Juan Arce de Otálora, Juan Maldonado, Alejo Venegas, Bartolomé Torres Naharro, Francisco de Enzinas, Fernando de Rojas or Juan Luis Vives.

Despite all these names, it is not known for sure and the researchers themselves do not agree on who the real author was, so it remains anonymous.

About

Lazarillo de tormes

The Lazarillo de Tormes It tells the adventures, from his childhood, of Lázaro, a mischievous boy who tries to survive as best he can.

One of the synopses that we can find in the many books (since there are different adaptations), tells us:

«Lázaro, son of a thief and acemilero, is orphaned in Salamanca. He will be at the service of different masters (a blind man, a bankrupt hidalgo, a greedy cleric, a Merced friar, a phony buldero, etc.), and will exercise various trades, which allow the narrator to make a satire of the different estates of the society of the time and reflect with irony on the subject of honor".

A fragment of the book already makes us see that, although he uses a more cultured language, it is well understood and above all that picaresque that the boy has is understood:

«Well, let your VM (Your Mercy) know before all things that they call me Lázaro de Tormes, son of Tomé González and Antona Pérez, natives of Tejares, village of Salamanca. My birth was within the Tormes river, for which reason I took the nickname, and it was in this way.

My father, may God forgive me, was in charge of providing a mill for an aceña, which is on the banks of that river, in which he was a miller for more than fifteen years; and when my mother was one night in the water mill, pregnant with me, she gave birth to him and gave birth to me there: in such a way that I can truly say that I was born in the river. Well, when I was an eight-year-old boy, they blamed my father for certain badly made bleedings in the sacks of those who came to grind there, for which he was imprisoned, and he confessed and did not deny and suffered persecution for justice. I hope in God that he is in Glory, because the Gospel calls them blessed. At this time a certain army was made against the Moors, among whom was my father, who at the time was exiled due to the disaster already mentioned, with the position of acemilero of a gentleman who went there, and with his master, as a loyal servant, he died his life".

Who narrates the Lazarillo de Tormes

Narrator Lazarillo de Tormes

Source: TimeToast

Know that the story is told by the protagonist himself, that is, by Lázaro or Lazarillo, who is the one who describes his life and acts both as the narrator and as the main character.

This figure means that the narrator, although he wants to expose the facts in an objective way, does not succeed, because after all he has the voice of the protagonist.

Lazarillo de Tormes: complete summary

Lazarillo de Tormes: complete summary

Source: School

We are going to divide the story into nine parts, one for each master the young man has. In this way, it will be much easier for you to understand and as a summary of Lazarillo de Tormes it will be easier to see the evolution of the character.

First master: the blind

Of the Lazarillo de Tormes, possibly the most recognized master and that everyone identifies is the blind man. But he really was just the first.

In this first part, the story tells us about the childhood of Lázaro, who was born into a very poor family that lives next to the Tormes River, hence the surname he has. His father is a thief and one fine day he dies. His mother, a widow, marries a black man with whom she has a son.

But they are so poor the mother decides to give Lazarus to a blind man to be his master and take care of him.

The problem is that the blind man is very cruel and hardly gives him food. So, over the years, Lázaro learns to be mischievous, elusive, a liar, cunning and tricky in order to survive.

After the ill-treatment suffered by Lázaro and the untenable situation, he steels himself and leaves that place next to his blind master to seek his life.

Second Master: The Cleric

For a while, Lazarus will be without a master and turns into a beggar. But, little by little he becomes a "worker" of a clergyman becoming an altar boy at masses.

Lázaro is happy because he thinks his situation will improve, but he begins to realize that he is even hungrier than with his first master.

What do you learn in this case? The hypocrisy and corruption that hides behind the clergy. And it is that, from the outside, the clergyman behaves very kind, kind... But from the inside, Lázaro experiences all the negative aspects of that human being.

After finding a way to get out of there, badly wounded, he escapes to Toledo.

Third master: the squire

In Toledo he survives the first days with the alms that they give him. that's when he meets a squire who offers him a job.

Lázaro thinks it may be a stroke of luck because we are talking about a man with a good social position. But he quickly realizes that looks are deceiving and that the squire, although he appears to have prestige and honor, is actually as poor as Lazarillo.

So in the end she ends up running away from him.

Fourth master: the Fraile de la Merced

The Fraile de la Merced is recommended to Lázaro by several neighbors and decides to give him a chance as a master. He loves to take long walks and is very religious. From him you will learn about promiscuity since he is not very empathic with women.

In addition, he receives his first gift: a pair of shoes.

However, Lázaro gets tired of walking so much and decides that it is not for him. So he leaves it.

Fifth master: the bouldering

A buldero was, at that time, a position of the Catholic Church itself that was in charge of delivering bulls in exchange for money.

Thus, Lázaro meets again with the corruption of the clergy, the tricks, the traps… Since he doesn't like that, he only lasts four months with that master and goes in search of another who is more honest.

Sixth master: the painter

The painter is a master who goes unnoticed by many because he does not last long. And it is that the fact that the painter is between "two worlds" makes Lázaro not want to continue with him.

Seventh Master: The Chaplain

In the case of the chaplain, he does have good memories of him, and that is that he is the first one he starts working with learns how to do it, and also earns his own money.

But the conditions in which he works are miserable, even though he manages to change his appearance, his clothes, etc. For four years he is working and saving as much as possible, so as soon as he gets it, he leaves.

Eighth Master: The Sheriff

With the bailiff something similar happens to the painter. He does not agree with his thoughts, too negative and related to death for Lazarus himself. So in the end he ends up leaving him in no time.

Ninth master: the archpriest of San Salvador

The last of Lázaro's masters is the archpriest of San Salvador. With this the story of the Lazarillo ends since the archpriest himself introduces him to a maid with whom he falls in love and with whom he marries.

His life from that moment begins to be stable and full of happiness.

Is the summary of Lazarillo de Tormes clearer now?


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