The Swindler Summary

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The Swindler by Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco de Quevedo’s The Swindler was written between the year 1603 and the year 1608 but published in the year 1626 in Zaragoza, Spain. The work of fiction is considered as a Spanish picaresque novel, and the main character, Don Pablos, is a person who is less than desirable as others view him, since he is a young thief and the novel follows him as he starts to grow up and learn the lessons of life. This briefly summarizes the novel, identifies the salient themes, and analyzes the themes and a description is provided of how the themes reflect the culture, values, politics, economic and social structures of early modern Spain. Lastly, this report places this literary work within a historical context.
Summary of the plot
In this book, the author narrates the life of a boy called Don Pablos as he strives and endeavours to be a gentleman – that is, a man of leisure – notwithstanding the fact that he is of low-class: his mother is a whore and a witch, and his father is a thief. It is intimated that they are actually Jewish, which was in fact considered bad during that time – the 16th and 17th century Spain. Don Pablos fails miserably to become a gentleman. Don Pablos assumes different other names throughout the book. Pablos, a pretentious social climber is doomed to failure in his attempts to become a gentleman. He is also systematically exposed and scorned for his stupidity. As such, he is actually made to experience complete disillusion, devoid of the benefit of the slightest hope, on any level. Don Pablos is made to understand that neither his attachment to the rich, nor a change of name, nor a formal education can actually change his social identity.
Salient themes
The prominent themes in the book are:
Impossibility of climbing the social ladder
Inability to change one’s social identity
The fall into a life of crime
Analysis of themes
Impossibility of climbing the social ladder: the book to a large extent ridicules the social climbing attempts of Pablos, a poor and low-class man of Jewish blood. Francisco de Quevedo aimed for humorist impact, devoid of overlooking comments of a moral and ethical character, whilst defending the unfeasibility of going up the social ladder. The novel demonstrates that a man in the culture and society of 16th century Spain could not escape his origins. The Swindler is essentially a dark tale without hope of redemption for Pablos. In essence, what Francisco de Quevedo may be trying to convey to his readers is that if you are born low-class in the early modern Spain, you will always be a person of low-class; one cannot change that. The literary work illustrates that in the Spanish culture during the 1600s, it was not possible for a low-born subject of Jewish blood to climb the social ladder. A low-born subject with no occupation or fixed profession was known as a picaro (de Quevedo 221). The novel shows how, in the culture of early modern Spain, picaros faced discrimination along racial and socio-economic lines. It shows that during this period in Spain, the closed, static system excluded any likelihood for social mobilit...