Lazarillo De Tormes

As with each of the masters whom Lázaro serves, the blind man is depicted as cruel and scheming, tricky and greedy. He is a cheater who earns his food by amassing a repertoire of prayers that allow him to prey on vulnerable women. He may be blind, but he easily perceives weakness in others and knows how to manipulate that weakness to his benefit, and he will go to any length just short of criminality to get what he wants. Lázaro encounters the blind man at an impressionable age, and consequently learns some of his most formative lessons through this association. In particular, the blind man teaches Lázaro that surviving in a corrupt world requires deceiving others and, if necessary, even using violence.

The priest represents the Catholic Church. Like the church, he is greedy and stingy; he does not share his food but hoards it all for himself. His eyes are described as being very sharp and intelligent, always “dancing in their sockets as if they were mercury” (x), suggesting he is all seeing and all knowing. He represents a formidable foe for Lázaro. His obsession with the nonexistent mouse and later the snake indicates his willingness to do whatever it takes to guard his bread. The priest is also characterized as a liar, saying that one must be temperate in their eating, but then stuffing his face when others are feeding him. He nearly goes mad after thinking a snake is taking his food. His greed perpetuates this state of rage—indeed, even causes it. In these instances, the priest embodies and symbolizes the greed and corruption of the Catholic Church.

By turns referred to as a squire and a gentleman, this character personifies the inherent problems with the cultural idea of noble birth and its divine gifts. The squire is a man who has taken on all the values of high birth and learned that what matters most is appearances. His presence in the story illuminates the conundrum of being born into wealth. The squire is imprisoned by the standards of honor so that in reality he’s not any freer than Lázaro. He refuses to work not because he is lazy but because it is beneath his station by birth. However, he is not averse to eating the food that Lázaro begs for himself, so long as he can convince himself (and pretend to convince Lázaro) that he isn’t hungry. A man who prefers to starve rather than reveal his poverty, the squire demonstrates that societies built on caste systems perpetuate damaging standards that affect all ranks of class and status.

As with the other characters in the novel, the friar is also presented as a symbol, one that demonstrates the duplicitous nature of the church. While outwardly the friar is a servant of the church, he is actually a man seduced by the sensuous world outside the church. Some of his activities, which presumably take place as he travels about visiting unnamed people and places, are unmentionable. The implication is that the friar is pious in name only. His actions betray his sinful nature.

The seller has the perfect group of people to target with his sales tricks: individuals who are vulnerable, poor, and frightened of spending eternity in hell. This makes him yet another metaphorical character who stands in for the greed and avarice of the church. He is dishonest and crafty, capable of creating elaborate hoaxes to sell thousands of papal indulgences when, ironically, he is the one who would need a pardon the most. Lázaro notably finds him “funny” and “effective” (49), and he admits to being impressed by this master. Though the seller of indulgences is not greedy with food, he still represents the swindlers within the church who take advantage of the commoners’ fears of spending eternity in hell.

Though the artist is dismissed in one sentence, the priest is an important character to the arc of Lázaro’s transformation. The priest gives Lázaro his first paid job, and after Lázaro makes enough money to dress himself well, he quits his job. The priest’s role is to show the hypocrisy built into the transformation of Lázaro’s values. While in the Prologue Lázaro makes a big deal out of self-determination and rising through the ranks with honor and virtue, he immediately abandons both ideas and becomes like the squire, who believes he is above the concept of work.