Krish Kamdar

Professor Peer

ENG 2850

13 March 2017

Essay #1 – Draft 1

            Tricksters are always around somewhere. Tricksters use their cunning to achieve their wants and desires, because they get what they want from being clever in the things they do. Lazarillo de Tormes and the woman in the Life of a Sensuous Woman by Ihara Saikaku represent the tricksters who are nurtured by experiences. The woman in Saikaku’s story had to mold herself to become palace attendants, dancers, a teacher of calligraphy, seamstress, waitresses, a go- between for marital engagements, etc. For Lazarillo de Tormes, we notice his transformation throughout the novel. From an innocent boy, he transforms into a mischievous, eventually vengeful, blind man’s boy and later a husband to an archpriest’s mistress. These experiences taught them to be resourceful to survive. The authors showcase these experiences to show the world they live in. These characters’ cunning is used to make readers understand their world while offering a critical perspective on their societies’ social hierarchy and power roles.

Both works of literature show their protagonist’s pluck and resourcefulness in adversity. Undergoing each experience, enhances their resourcefulness. For Lazarillo, we see that each master he passes through he must be resourceful to survive. The result of these resources shaped the course of his life. The Blind Man provided Lazarillo with crucial life lessons to help develop a foundation of values that helped him survive with his other masters. Specifically, in the following scene, the Blind Man wanted to teach him a lesson of his own on deception:

“when I had my jug leaking as before … the desperate blind man perceived that now was his time to take vengeance of me, … he let it fall upon my mouth, making use (as I say) of all his strength, so that poor Lazaro, who was expecting none of this, but, as at other times, was careless and joyful … Such was the gentle tap he gave me that it stupefied and knocked me senseless” (18).

The truth is Lazarillo was molded by that experience. In the wine episode, Lazarillo ends up having the wine jar smashed on his face; he doesn’t suffer physically after the grape incident but learns a valuable lesson on deception. Having suffered enough at the hands of the blind man, Lazarillo is determined to move on. The blind man ends up half dead on the ground after crashing into a stone pillar. Lazarillo’s parting words are “‘You could smell the sausage but not the post,’ I said to him, ‘why didn’t you smell the post? Smell it now! Smell it now!’” (31-32) It’s Lazarillo’s first clear victory, taking us back at the same time to Lazarillo’s initiation into life with the bull incident. As you can see, Lazarillo was shaped by his experiences for the better and worse. In Ihara Saikaku’s story, The Life of a Sensuous Woman we encounter, a linear decline in the status of the protagonist, from a court lady down to destitute wanderer. An episode that demonstrates her resourcefulness like Lazarillo, is one where she sells herself out to a Buddhist monk for three years. He keeps her hidden in a cellar of his room, and she becomes dissatisfied with her life. She becomes resourceful at this point, to get out of the situation, as follows:

“I was completely shaken. I knew I had no business being in that temple a minute longer. Finally I devised a method of escape that impressed even me, I stuffed a lot of cotton wadding between the outer and inner layers in the front part of my robe. That made me look quite heavy. Then I went to see the head priest. … The priest lost his usual composure. ‘Please go back to our parents’ house’ … ‘Have a safe delivery and then come back here.’” (Saikaku 602)

At this turn of events, the narrator knows she must escape, and does so by: feigning pregnancy. The priest encourages her departure, thinking it temporary, and even provides her with infant’s clothes that had been donated to the temple as an offering by a couple who had lost their own child. In this episode, we can see the woman is depicted as a “trickster”. The qualities of her cunning and deception for her own survival – like Lazarillo.

Through Lazarillo’s eyes, the novel reflects certain segments of society in 16th century Spain. In addition to the main character Lazarillo, the novel provides us a gallery of figures from diverse social classes. Most of these “flat” characters, particularly the mean blind man, the greedy priest, the poor squire, represent not only the value of that period, but also the corrupt social forces though depicted in exaggerated and humorous manner. The picaresque novel uses a down-to-earth, highly satirical portrayal of real life, and particularly the life of the lower classes. Often, the writer, impartial and objective, has a very deep sympathy toward the poor, malicious, greedy blind man and priest. in autobiographical form, his adventures, his misfortunes, and his tricks, both agonizing and amusing, in the struggle to survive.

Ihara Saikaku’s The Life of a Sensuous Woman can be perceived as a small snapshot of life and society in 17^th century Japan. After the Tokugawa shoguns unified Japan and set up the new military government in today’s Tokyo, the society ended the chaos and bloodshed. The prostitution was regulated as mentioned in Marcia Yonemoto’s essay on the Tokugawa period. Additionally, it states, “Legal brothel activity was confined by the government to certain geographic areas in most of Japan’s cities. These areas were referred to as the licensed quarters” thus showcasing the harsh reality that occurred in Japan during that era (Yonemoto). In the text, once the old woman, as she recalls, was working in the licensed quarter. The sensuous woman’s recollection of each short episode of her life follows a similar rise and fall structure. Though her stature fell considerably, the people she encounters, the world that they live in, and the unspoken rules they abide to are all fascinating to a reader. Undoubtedly, we are shown the ugliness of the higher ranked members of society such as, daimyos, monks, and samurais. It makes us wonder what they thought of Saikaku’s portrayal of them and how they had responded, if they did at all. In case of The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, there was an enough uproar that led to the book’s censorship under the Spanish Inquisition in 1554. Because Lazarillo was very critical of the clergy, it was put on the Index in 1559 and further editions were prohibited inside Spain (Coll-Tellechea 77). Eventually, in 1573, an abridged version was printed that omitted the chapters in regards to the second master, the priest, along with other items displeasing to the Inquisition. The banned version was not reprinted until 19th century, when Spain finally uncensored the book and allowed the readers to read the literary work again. As we read through the story and understand the background information at that time, we can see that many aspects in the story reflect the society in that time.

Saikaku’s The Life of a Sensuous Woman revealed a period of relative openness to male and female sexuality of both heterosexual and homosexual variety. The protagonist is not ashamed of the life she lived. But, ultimately ends up pointing out the patriarchal and sexist nature of the Tokugawa era in feudal Japan in 1686. Saikaku leaves his readers with a very distinct impression of the lives women and men led at that time. The story is more encompassing and the myriad positions in work or love they could inhabit as either gender and scrutinizes the intricacies of sexual relationships.

The woman in Saikaku’s stories and Lazarillo distinguish themselves by their “tricksterism” to make the most of often difficult social circumstances. It is their quest for survival that makes them heroes. The protagonists in both the stories have the potential to become anything that they desire. This statement is parallel to the modern society where people have the potential to be anything that they want to be if they put their mind to it.