Literature of the Spanish Golden Age: Prose, Cervantes, and Don Quixote
Literature in the Golden Age (II): Prose in the Sixteenth Century
The Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel is the most important contribution of sixteenth-century fiction. The first example is the picaresque novel Lazarillo de Tormes. Its main features are:
- It is an autobiographical novel: the protagonist (the rogue) recounts his life from childhood to the situation found at the time of narration.
- The protagonist is an antihero: his parents have no honor, are of humble origins, and are not motivated by any great spiritual ideals, fame, or honor. They only struggle for freedom from hunger.
- The protagonist is also a vagrant character, as he always goes to and fro serving different masters.
- Unlike the rest of the narrative of the sixteenth century, which is idealized and fantastic, it is a realistic novel that shows the state of society of the time.
Lazarillo de Tormes
Lazarillo de Tormes appeared in three editions in 1554 and is anonymous. The rogue, narrator, and protagonist recounts his life in the first person. It consists of a prologue and seven chapters.
Argument
Lazarus was born on the banks of the River Tormes in Salamanca. He is the son of a thief. Still very young, he entered the service of a blind man, who is cunning and cruel. After several episodes, he runs away from the blind man after playing a cruel joke on him. He then serves a greedy cleric, who barely feeds him. Fired for stealing food, he meets a new master, a squire who is very proud and worried about his honor and nobility, but who lives miserably. Lazarus has to beg for them to eat, until his master runs away and leaves Lazarus. His next master is a Friar of the Order of Mercy. This is a very corrupt friar who is more concerned with women than with his work. He then becomes a seller of Church documents, is employed as a water carrier (water seller), and finally becomes an assistant sheriff. Having reached the office of town crier, a priest takes him under his wing and he marries the priest’s maid. People gossip about the three of them, but Lazarus believes he is living prosperously and at the height of all good fortune. However, the protagonist is deaf to all these allegations.
Originality of Lazarillo
Lazarillo de Tormes is a realistic novel that accurately reflects sixteenth-century Spanish society, often with a clear intention of social criticism, particularly against the clergy. It is also the first story to stop dealing with heroes and knights and instead focuses on the adventures of a character from a humble background. Another novelty is that the protagonist, Lazarillo, changes and evolves because his personality is formed according to his experiences and life events.
Other Types of Novels
- Chivalric Novel: Starring a knight, it features fantastic characters and all sorts of adventures.
- Pastoral Novel: The characters are refined shepherds, and the action takes place in an idyllic natural setting. The theme is love.
- Byzantine Novel: It tells of the travels and adventures of lovers who, after dangers and separation, are reunited happily.
- Moorish Novel: It features a perfect Moor and his adventures.
The Literature of the Golden Age (III): Cervantes and Don Quixote
Intent and Structure
Don Quixote was written by Miguel de Cervantes. Its original title was The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha. It has two parts; the first was published in 1605 and the second in 1615. This book was written during the early Baroque period. Cervantes wrote the second part because Avellaneda wrote a false second part in 1614 called Second Volume of the Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha. Cervantes was insulted in this work, so when he wrote the second edition in 1615, he included in the preface a true reference to Avellaneda and his attempt to falsify his work, with the intent to ridicule the romances of chivalry.
Argument
Alonso Quijano, a gentleman from La Mancha, loses his mind from reading too many books of chivalry. Wanting to emulate the heroes of these novels, he changes his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha and goes out into the world in search of adventure. He is guided by ideals: to protect the weak and deserve the love of Dulcinea del Toboso, a name he has given to a peasant woman from a nearby village. Grotesquely armed and mounted on his old horse Rocinante, he comes to an inn, which he confuses with a castle, where he is dubbed a knight amid the tricks of everyone there. After being severely beaten by some merchants, a neighbor returns him to his home. While confined to his bed, the priest and the barber burn most of his books. He then sets out on a second adventure, accompanied by a peasant, Sancho Panza, whom he has persuaded to serve as his squire in exchange for wealth and power. After numerous adventures in which he always gets badly hurt (he fights against windmills that he mistakes for giants, frees criminals after they beat him, etc.), he retires to the Sierra Morena. His friends, the curate and the barber, who have come looking for him, lock him in a cage and bring him back to his village, deceiving the people. In the third adventure, again in the company of Sancho, they come to the kingdom of Aragon. There, amid jeers, Sancho is named governor of the island (isle) of Barataria. After many adventures, they head to Barcelona, a city in which Don Quixote is beaten by the Knight of the White Moon. This knight, who is actually his friend Samson Carrasco, imposes the condition that he return to his homeland. Don Quixote, sad and sorry, returns to his village, where he dies shortly after having recovered his sanity.
Characters
- Don Quixote: This is a very complex character capable of mixing the most disparate facts with intelligence and, sometimes, an unusual lucidity. You might even think that he pretends to be mad. He is good and is moved by high ideals and love, but he does not distinguish between reality and fiction. Moreover, he transforms reality to fit his fiction. This supposed madness is due to all the tales of chivalry he has read.
- Sancho Panza: He is physically short and paunchy (Cervantes does not give us more details). He represents realism, the practical sense of life, and the materialistic view. He is fair, but he is also skeptical and driven by the desire to succeed. He is particularly fond of his animals.
- In the end, through the contact between the two characters, Don Quixote becomes a little more realistic and Sancho becomes a little more idealistic. This is where the grace of the characters is concentrated: the characters are born, grow, and die in the novel. We see the changes and understand them, and we are able to judge them. This causes us to explore their feelings, their desires, and their ideas, which makes us really participate in the story. We can talk about a “quixotization” of Sancho and a “sanchification” of Don Quixote.
- Dulcinea: She is the eternal absence. She only appears in the constant allusions to her by Don Quixote. She is a literary creation that Cervantes made based on the ladies of chivalry.
Narrative Techniques
Cervantes uses the resource of the manuscript: he claims to have casually found some manuscripts of the Arab historian Cide Hamete Benengeli in which he related the story of Don Quixote, and that he has simply translated them into Castilian. This gives the impression that the facts he recounts were not invented by him, but actually occurred.