# The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes — Character guide

> Key figures in The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous.

- [Lazarillo de Tormes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/lazarillo_de_tormes.md): Born to a thief and a washwoman and passed along as a servant, Lazarillo learns early that his belly, not his honor, sets the terms of each day. His voice is sly, self-deprecating, and startlingly modern: he confesses sh
- [The Blind Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_blind_man.md): Lazarillo's first master, he survives on alms and cleverness, keeping his wine and sausages under lock while his servant starves beside him. He is cruel, shrewd, and oddly instructive, beating the boy for every failed tr
- [The Priest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_priest.md): Lazarillo's second master, he embodies the gap between the Church's plenty and its ministers' greed, keeping a chest of loaves while his servant gnaws hunger. His obsession with accounting turns charity into arithmetic, 
- [The Squire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_squire.md): Lazarillo's third master, he owns nothing but his lineage and a carefully brushed coat, and he would rather go hungry than admit poverty to a servant. For the first time the boy must beg on someone else's behalf, discove
- [The Friar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_friar.md): Lazarillo's fourth master, a friar who abandons him after a short time.
- [The Bull Seller](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_bull_seller.md): Lazarillo's fifth master, he travels from town to town hawking bulls of pardon, and when sales lag he stages a heavenly rebuke with a confederate and a conveniently timed fit. His fraud exposes how easily faith can be ma
- [The Chaplain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_chaplain.md): Lazarillo's seventh master, a chaplain who gives him a steady job.
- [The Archpriest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_archpriest.md): The Archpriest of San Salvador becomes Lazarillo's patron in his adult years, arranging his marriage to a servant woman and securing him a modest post. His generosity is real but tangled, and the town's whispers about hi
- [The Archpriest's Maid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_archpriests_maid.md): The woman Lazarillo takes as wife at the Archpriest's urging, whose suspicious household arrangements keep the town's tongues wagging and his honor on edge.
- [Diego Hurtado de Mendoza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/diego_hurtado_de_mendoza.md): The nobleman-poet to whom Lazarillo de Tormes is traditionally attributed, a Mendoza scion whose lineage runs from chivalric battlefields to the Marquis of Santillana's verse.
- [Íñigo López de Mendoza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/inigo_lopez_de_mendoza.md): Marquis of Santillana, a prominent ancestor in the Mendoza family history.
- [Doña Eleanor Hurtado](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/dona_eleanor_hurtado.md): A female ancestor in the Mendoza family tree, mentioned in the genealogy.
- [Maria de Haro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/maria_de_haro.md): A family member in the Mendoza lineage, mentioned in the genealogy.
- [Juan de Luna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/juan_de_luna.md): A person mentioned in the context of the book's publication or translation history.
- [Abel Jeffes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/abel_jeffes.md): A printer or publisher associated with an early edition of the book.
- [David Rowlands](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/david_rowlands.md): A translator of the book into English, mentioned in the translation history.
- [Charles V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/charles_v.md): Holy Roman Emperor, mentioned as a historical figure in the narrative.
- [Cervantes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/cervantes.md): The famous Spanish author, mentioned in the introductory material.
- [Don Diego Lopez de Pacheco](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/don_diego_lopez_de_pacheco.md): A nobleman mentioned in the Mendoza family context.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters