Introduction
Lazarillo de Tormes in the renaissance period made literature as a description of the life he had. Lazarillo is a biblical name and acts significantly to the ideas conveyed in literary works. Lazarillo is the same as Lazaro which is in the Bible and got two stories about it. The first story from the bible where Lazarus occurred is the scene where Jesus gave life to the body of a man is Lazarus. The other one is about a beggar who always pleads at the gate of a parsimonious man. On the other hand, Lazarillo’s surname came from a river that run’s through the place of birth Lazarillo. He chose to pattern the surname to the river because he, indeed, grew up on the river. The first adventures of Lazarillo gave the Spanish word Lazarillo a meaning of being a ‘guide’ for a blind person and thus, named to the dog who guides, the perro lazarillo (Cirlot, 1953).
The book of the life of Lazarillo de Tormes which described his life had three editions written anonymously. The books are published under the rule of Spain because Spain has become very much authoritative at that time about racial and religious prejudice. The picaresque novel which is also known as ‘picaro’ that means rogue or rascal was given recognition because of having a literary genre. The novel which exposed so much inequality while getting praises from the readers inspired more writers to line up o the same genre.
Michel de Montaigne
Another literary genre was created by a French author Michel de Montaigne in the 1950s. Montaigne was born on February 23, 1953, at the family estate called Montaigne in the Perigord near Bordeaux. Montaigne’s grandfather was the first nobleman in the family and his father was a Bordeaux merchant while his mother came from the clan of Spanish Jews which was converted into Catholicism. Montaigne is the third child in the family and was taught only Latin when he was at the age of 6. The childhood life of Montaigne was made unknown until the age of 24 because no clear information is published regarding this matter. It is said that Montaigne may be in other places mastering his crafts and enjoying the days of his youth (Frame, 1965).
Montaigne met his strongest influence in 1557, Étienne de la Boétie when He became the councilor of the Bordeaux. La Boétie became one of the contiguous friends of Montaigne and shared a lot of interests when it comes to old antiquity. Unfortunately, la Boétie died in August 1563 because of dysentery. And on the 9 days of illness, Montaigne never left his friend. The death of La Boétie brought anxiety to Montaigne and inspired him to make an essay that he dedicated to his friend which was published in 1571. After the death of his friend, Montaigne married Françoise de la Chassaigne and had six children but only one has survived. Montaigne described his relationship with his wife as a very likable one because the relationship is somewhat a cool friendship between them (Frame, 1965).
The death of Montaigne’s father made him translated ‘Book of Creatures or Natural Theology’ by Spanish Theologian Raymond Sebond into the French language. The book was published in early 1569 and gave a clearer view of Montaigne’s crafts as a writer. The translation was about the apologies for the Christian Religion which was based on reality. Montaigne wrote a very critical essay that opened his cynical philosophy of doubt and hit human knowledge as insolent and egotistical. He also concluded that human knowledge is like the result of understanding unawareness (Lowndes, 1978).
Montaigne resigned from his position as a councilor of Bordeaux in April 1570. He sold his position to a friend and formally began writing essays. He turned his back on the wealthy possessions he has and concentrated on his passion. Montaigne died peacefully while listening to a sermon in a mass on the 13th of September, 1592. Being a Devoted Catholic, he died with his loyalty yet did have respect for the views of other religions (Lowndes, 1978).
Discussion
Lazarillo’s theme of Education focused primarily on the reality of life. The book which described the life of Lazarillo de Tormes is like the Hero’s autobiographical explanation with the various people he has been acquainted with. The novel has simplicity and vibrancy of dialogue which gave strength to the whole story. The literary genre of de Tormes influenced many writers of Spain, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Latin America (Cirlot, 1953).
As it was said, the picaresque novel has a descriptive form with an episodic narration cultivated from the eighth century until the present era. Picaro, that serves several masters and should use disobedience and deception to escape from starvation, is the main character. The journey of the life of Picaro and misfortunes are the main topic of the novel which is connected to the real-life of Lazarillo. A young boy who was given to a blind poor man by his mother to be his guide, serving a niggardly priest and an impecunious squire made him strong and fight for his safeties. Picaro learned to defend himself from the cruel world at a very young age. How Picaro was passed from one master to another master, until he was able to live independently and make for his living was very realistic in that era of the renaissance (Villegas, 1945).
The literary search in terms of the dichotomization of the narrator-protagonist into two or characters can be viewed in the work. Another thing is, the discoveries that were made and provenances made to Lazaro of many different personalities in the relation to the makeup of the novel are essential. Some studies said that taking into the experiences of Lazarillo when he was a child is depicted in the whole story. Also, indications of ethical principles, Christianity, success socio-economically, and that the complete work acquires unity at least from two different segments: by the temporal perspective and by the narrator’s purpose. Lazarillo encountered a lot of miseries in life. Being the bastard son of a prostitute brought a lot of ideas of reality that belong to the negative side of thinking. Human hypocrisy is so much into the literary works. The readers with the same struggles will relate to the concept and may give the lessons which Lazarillo conveyed. In the societal issue, hunger is one of the common problems for the people who are in the same scenario as the main character in the novel had experienced (Villegas, 1945).
The idea of Lazarillo about the importance of education is not quite essential because his ignorance being the façade was shown in the character that he portrayed in his works. Technically, education was not the way Lazarillo learned his crafts. He was able to survive all the struggles in life through his experiences and motivated himself to go on with his life by making his difficulties an inspiration.
On the other hand, Montaigne is a highly educated French writer and rose by a reputable family. From the time Montaigne was born, he was taught how to be close to the people by sending him into a different way of life which is relatively far from the living of his wealthy clan. Montaigne’s father hired servants who only speak Latin to formally adapt by Montaigne.
The essays of Montaigne have begun to publish in 1580. Montaigne used his essays as a portrayal of human realization. The inspiration of Montaigne in writing His essays was primarily because he wanted to have a firm description of a man and a description of himself as a man with the touch of reality and bluntness. He described the great diversity and unpredictability of human nature to be the fundamental features of life. He admitted that he has a poor memory and narrates different scenarios about it. He also had descriptions about his capability of solving problems and arbitrates issues of conflicts without getting into trouble and emotionally affected. Montaigne also discouraged man’s search for lasting eminence and he tried to avoid the preparation of the material things for his death (Olivier, 1980).
Montaigne wrote about his abhorrence with the conflicts of the religions during his era. He strongly believed that people will not be able to get definite conviction disbelief. The idea of Montaigne about marriage is that it does not need to have a strong intimate feeling between the couples because the main goal of getting married is to raise the children properly. He saw love as a hindrance to freedom.
In the sense of education, he agreed to have a real paradigm and practice over the teaching of theoretical knowledge and skills that needs to be uncritically recognized. The readers would sense that Montaigne is a keen person when it comes to education. He learned his dexterities in a learning process being collaborated with his experiences as a well-educated being. He cared a lot for the importance of education but he still strongly believed that the person’s natural knowledge should prevail and should have freedom in exercising and developing one’s talent and skills. One of the famous quotations of Montaigne says “If you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved”. The quote depicts that humility is important rather than having the technical skills be flaunted. Montaigne, indeed, is a professional in his era but he admitted that he is not a perfect person and he got a lot of deviations. So what matters is how you make your own life and manage if it would be on the good or evil side of reality (Olivier, 1980).
Conclusion
Some versions of Lazarillo’s genre bring out the magnificent vivacity and wit of this collective masterpiece. Lazarillo’s achievement was instantaneous and its recognition massive. As for its collision with the literary imagination, be adequate to say that it was the foundation for the whole composition of the contemporary novel. The reflections of Lazarillo become more universal and widely accepted that many writers tried to have their revisions of the literary work. However, the presentation of reality is not that gloomy and it obeys the rules of the surrealist attitude compared to the works of Montaigne (Cirlot, 1953). In addition to, irony and satire go beyond the narration scene. His sarcastic and often hilarious comments on the great variety of characters are from which Lazarillo’s world, rather than a satire on social types and a parody on human nature. The portrayal of art by Lazarillo from the beginning of the story to the end gives a clear description and visualization of being an emotional character and conquered by the people who made the life of Lazarillo miserable and full of sacrifices. Also, the unconquerable buoyancy that Lazarillo strives for does not fail to improve reality, to pervade into some of his vitality, and for the novel to be more bearable for the readers. The reality becomes the combination of his real life and the external world which brought him absurdities with the unconsciousness of being into fantasies. In some way, facts and dreams blended into a kind of super-reality.
It is really hard to interpret the essays of Montaigne. Montaigne is some kind of a vague writer because he just writes according to what he wants to express and does not care about the formality of the literary works. He also tried to give every single detail about the general things he puts on his works. Montaigne chose to present the uncertainty of his ideas as his way of illustrating the self-contradiction of which every man possesses. The motto of Montaigne is “Que saisje?” or the English translation, “What do I know?” He has been cynical about the supremacy of human reasoning but still, he argued that every individual should know himself to attain the true meaning of happiness. The essays of Montaigne described self-knowledge and self-portrayal which is like the ones with Lazarillo. Both literary works came out as autobiography. The fact that he squabbles that each person abides by the pound of the condition of the human; the autobiographical practices can also be distinguished as illustrations of the differences of the people. Yet Montaigne is spontaneously assaulting the presupposition, lack of knowledge, and ego, but still, he manages to keep the dignity of nature and man (Lowndes, 1978).
Montaigne, being a doubtful person contradicted bigotry and passion. He believes that the truth should always be not representative. He purely exercised freedom but still, he agreed that some authoritarian laws should be obeyed. He was afraid of turmoil and not having a leader because he thought that the radical rules might give the children an unclear future. He is concerned with the hopes of the children and thinks for the good sake of younger ones (Collington, 2001).
The two personas possessed different artistry within. They came upon different cultures but they both managed to excel in their crafts. The works made by Montaigne and of that Lazarillos’ were very profound and described the life of their own. The novel of Lazarillo and the essays made by Montaigne were both autobiographies. Both kinds of literature focused primarily on self-expression. Lazarillo and Montaigne both believe that experience is essential in representing the realities in life.
The two artists came from different families who have extremely not of the same level. The way of life they had depicted on the kind of masterpieces they have done. Lazarillo who came from a depressed way of living wrote in a style in which the readers could use Lazarillo’s experiences as their inspiration in battling out for life despite many hindrances. Lazarillo as someone who lived differently from Montaigne, who has been an authoritative person, seek authority and wanted to fulfill his hungriness for power. In contrast to that, Montaigne lived an authoritative life being the councilor of Bordeaux. Montaigne’s way of looking into things is more positive than the view of Lazarillo. He only had real assumptions and did not believe in dreaming in some way. The thing that inspired Montaigne to come up with the way he made his style of literature is just he as a liberated person. He wanted to prove that living according to your happiness is the best objective you may have in life and not living with passion for a particular thing (Collington, 2001).
References
Cirlot, Juan- Eduardo. Introduccion el realismo (Madrid: Revista da Occidente, 1953), p.274.
Collington, Philip D. “Self-Discovery in Montaigne’s “Of Solitarinesse” and King Lear. Comparative Drama Volume 35 Nos. 3,4. 2001.
Frame, Donald Murdoch, Montaigne: a biography, San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984, 1965.
Lowndes, M. E. (Mary E.), Michel de Montaigne: a biographical study, Philadelphia: R. West, 1978.
Olivier, T. Shakespeare and Montaigne: A Tendency of Thought. Theoria 54. 1980, 43-59.
Villegas, Francisco. Quevedo, Historia de la vida del Buscon, ed., (Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1945), I, 145.