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Theme of hypocrisy in "Lazarillo de Tormes" In The life of Lazarillo de Tormes, life is one absolute paradox. Lazaro has accomplished what we were told in the prologue: his good fortune. For some readers and critics, as we are citing in this study, and for most of the people of San Salvador from where Lazaro is writing, Lazaro lives and exists at the expense of his conscience, something we were not told in the prologue nor do we find direct literal textual support, as stated earlier. In fact, the unknown author in the prolog tells us that if a thing is not too loathsome, it ought to be imparted to everybody, especially since something fruitful may be gotten from it, and that without any harm (p. 3). Is the end result of Lazarillo's learning and the application of what he has learned harmful to his life and the life of others? The answer is given by the narrator-protagonist himself when he says: Since nothing but profit and advantage could come to me from such a person (his wife to be)... , I agreed to the proposal (p. 66), the caso or the marriage to the servant of the Archpriest, a good, hardworking, and accommodating girl (p. 66).
Lazarillo had to go through some horrible experiences during his younger years so that later in his life he could protect himself and others from rumors, gossip and hypocrisy of the evil tongues of the people, a torment, which could bring equal, if not worse, consequences than in Lazaro's younger years. He could and does also protect himself from institutionalized evil only after he reached a safe and good harbor or, according to Christian symbolism (and perhaps ironic from another angle) after he reached a haven or a happy life. The work ends in an atmosphere of joy and success, and the triumvirate - The Archpriest, Lazarillo, and his wife - have peace and rejoice their lives. If Lazarillo experiences with the blind man that life is a cutthroat business in which every man is for himself, with the clergyman he learns that he stands for shameless hypocrisy and presumption. Why, you live better than the Pope" (p. 22). In this TRATADO II, necessity becomes the exemplary teacher from which Lazarillo internalizes (more than from the blind man) greed and hypocrisy for self-preservation.
He also discovers that knowledge alone is useless and that God alone remains, not only in life but also in death. In fact, Lazarillo equates death with life. The latter depends for its existence on the former, as the boy recognizes when he says: I think He (God) was glad to kill them off to give me life... (and) on the days when we buried somebody I would live (p. 24). There is a difference between the two TRATADOS: Lazarillo left the cruelty of life of the blind man for something more sinister and more dangerous, the hypocritical and metamorphosed inhumanity of the clergyman whose profession in Lazarillo's mind, is identified with death and that is why he describes his master as goblin (trash) and wizard (bruno). With the squire, Lazarillo develops an unprecedented affective and communicative interaction, while the violence of the first two masters is absent. They even drink water from the same jar and share the same bed, although Lazarillo, with his new master, cannot sleep through the whole night due to his horrible hunger.
In the latter part of TRATADO III, however, they smile and laugh, there is some money and food to eat sumptuously (p. 47). In this TRATADO, Lazarillo learns not by blood and blows as experienced previously, but by intimate conversations, with the noble advice of a good teacher and by putting himself in place of the master. Lazarillo, then, becomes a true disciple for the first time and the squire is a model whom Lazarillo imitates. Lazarillo learns to be silent. He also learns the importance of appearances in dressing and in walking and how to be discreet and dignified, i. e.
in the social customs of his time. The pessimistic boy of the first two TRATADOS becomes more conscious of the importance of helping and pleasing others: the secret to prosperity. Avarice or selfishness is replaced by compassion or self-giving. With this human and Christian act, Lazarillo is on his way to Christian perfection. To love his neighbor and to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others become for him the essence of his life and Christianity.
Bibliography: Lazarillo de Tormes, Boston: Tune Publishers, 1984
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