Maldad e ingenio en la obra de picaresca El guitón Onofre (1604) del licenciado Gregorio González

Abstract

Four centuries have passed since the Spanish picaresque novel, El guitón Onofre (1604), by Gregorio González, was written. However, it has only been four decades since it was published for the first time (1973). Even though it is the third picaresque novel ever written, no more than ten articles have surfaced, and it remains in a very marginal position in the genre. In El guitón Onofre we find the character of Onofre Caballero, a pícaro, who turns into a rich hustler through a series of frauds, and manages to prosper. He has a very sly personality, and mistreats and lies to as many characters as he needs, in order to, first eat, and afterwards become rich. After being sent to jail by the Royal Council, he successfully counterfeits documents, and manages to escape. In order to avoid prosecution, he then joins a monastery. Such an extraordinary progression in society, together with Onofre’s sharpness and various intricacies of the novel, breaks the boundaries of the genre. In this thesis, I analyze an important theme that has not previously been studied, which also is one of the main features of the book: evil, and its variations. This study is divided into five different chapters. The first one is the introduction. The second one is about Onofre’s misbehavior and evil nature, and the third one analyzes Onofre’s astuteness and its humoristic manifestations. In the fourth chapter, I delve into social criticism, which shows González’s perception of social misbehavior. I offer my conclusions in the last chapter. With this research, I study one of El guitón Onofre’s main themes, and by doing so I try to increase awareness towards this interesting and peculiar novel.