Free Essay Sample on Lazarillo de Tormes and Nueve Reinas

The novel "Lazarillo de Tormes" talks of a boy named Lazarillo de Tormes which means little 'Lazarus.' He is illustrated as a peasant boy born in a low-income family and in the society which he grew offered minimal social advancement. Therefore, he learned surviving through wit, cunning, and deception. His story began when he was a small boy, his father died and was left with her mother who was unable to feed him. It led to the mother giving out his soon to a beggar where he learned to survive through wit, cunning and deceiving. He embarrasses the world where he learns the only way to greater social power is through lies, tricks and outwitting everyone.

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The 'Nueve Reinas' that is 'Nine Queens' film is a story of two swindlers given character names as 'Juan' and 'Marcos.' The film starts in a convenience store where Juan attempts and successfully scams a cashier. He tries the same trick again where he ended up being caught by his fellow con man Marcos where Marcos was pretending to be the police. After they were far enough, Marcos said to Juan 'am not a cop but your fellow con man.' In the process, they agreed on working together, where they scam many people in the process. One day they held a scheme where Marcos was confronted by his former businessman where he needed to be helped to sell counterfeit copies of a rare stamp.

Unfortunately, the scheme didn't work out such that the fake stamp ended up to be stolen by a person on a motorcycle and he throws them into the river unaware of their value. To save the scheme Marcos confronted his business fellow sister 'Berta' who was the owner of real stamps to agree and sell the stamps to him. Marcos uses a trick to con Juan to give him the actual amount he knew he had saved, but Juan reluctantly agrees to give him. Eventually, they bought the stamps, but the business fellow 'Gandolfo' had changed his mind and agreed to buy the stamp if he sleeps with Marcos sister who was an employee in Gandolfo hotel. It was done for Marcos to confess to his brother how he cheated them on the inheritance of the family in Italy. Eventually, Marcos and Juan ended ruined, but the scheme was set to reveal Marcos and to defraud him for many times he played cards with his partner as well as his family

The two characteristics that are similar to Lazaro de Tormes and in actor Marcos and Juan includes; deception and cunning. Firstly, the acts of deception are very present in Lazaro de Tormes since he used to survive through deceiving. Through the life of Lazaro, he portrays to live a deception life in every of his interaction. He learned the deception behavior through a series of insufferable jobs to survive. His act of deception is identified in chapter two where he lived with a priest and years later he marries archpriest's maid where sometimes he discovered that archpriest has secretly carried a sexual relationship with his wife behind his back. Lazaro gets angry initially, but he made an agreement with archpriest where they will allow the infidelity to continue as long as they both benefit. Lazaro seems content with the arrangement and unconcerned with its moral question as long as he gets helped financially. "And therefore nothing of this sort should be destroyed or thrown away unless it is utterly detestable, but on the contrary, such things should be brought to the knowledge of everyone, especially if they are utterly harmless and even likely to bear some fruit." It is also identified in the film where Marcos and Juan used deception to get money. In the movie, they are in a hotel where Juan gives a tired note for payment, and Marcos claims that he pays the bill using the same money. In these instances, it shows the act of deception in both the film and the novel where the actors end up hurting the society especially the people who they are colliding during their mission.

Secondly, the acts of cunning are used in both the novel and the film. In the story of Lazaro uses guile to survive. The life of Lazaro is a story where he recounts the events of his life to defend himself to 'your Excellency.' The story tells that he carefully describes and carefully thought the event so that to save his newfound prosperity and security. It was eventually revealed that Lazarillo's story was, in fact, a trick and not genuine to gain 'Your Excellency's' trust and think of him as incredible. "It is a joy to me to recount these childish matters to Your Excellency, to show how much virtue there can be in those who are born to a low estate and drag themselves up and how much vice in the great who let themselves be dragged down" (p13).Same acts in the film where Marcus and Juan used a trick to sell the counterfeit stamps to get some extra cash from the scheme but tended to be a way of revenging of the cheating behavior of Juan. In conclusion, both the film and the novel gave the cases of both cunning and deception in their day to day to survive but ended up hurting the members of their family and the society.

Work cited

Baena, Julio. "Lazarillo de Tormes." Renaissance Quarterly65.3 (2012):