This dissertation analyzes the different responses of eighteen Spanish picaresque novels to the Machiavellian concepts of virtue and fortune, taking La Celestina as its starting point. By so doing, rather than proclaiming a direct and systematic influence of Machiavelli on the picaresque, this thesis suggests the applicability of the Machiavellian method of virtue and fortune to the study of the picaresque. As a result of this approach, the picaresque novels fall into two main categories: the Speculative Picaresque, which concentrates on speculation about fortune--or Divine Providence or the Devil--and the Empiric Picaresque, which concentrates on the pragmatic connotations of virtue.
The dissertation establishes the premises on which this classification is based: Machiavelli's concepts of virtue and fortune; the different attitudes to Machiavellism within Spanish political thought at the time; the juxtaposition of fortune, fate and providence in the Spanish literary tradition, and the concepts of speculation and experience.
The dissertation then proceeds to analyze the picaresque novels according to the following categories: (1) Speculative Providentialist picaresque: Segunda parte de Guzman (Lujan); Marcos de Obregon; Alonso mozo de muchos amos, and Tercera parte de Guzman. (2) Speculative Fatalist picaresque: El guiton Honofre; Segunda parte de Lazarillo (Luna) and Lazarillo de Manzanares. (3) Speculative Diabolic picaresque: La hija de Celestina; Guzman de Alfarache; El Buscon; Lazarillo de Tormes, analyzed in conjunction with Lazarillo de Amberes, and Estebanillo Gonzalez. (4) Empiric picaresque: La picara Justina, and Castillo Solorzano's Las harpias en Madrid, La nina de los embustes, El bachiller Trapaza and La garduna de Sevilla.
The principal conclusion of this dissertation is that Spanish picaresque novels are Speculative for the most part, and largely Speculative Diabolic. The study also attempts to scan the Machiavellian aspects of the picaresque novels, with special emphasis on the analysis of Lazarillo de Amberes, the Machiavellian elements of which are interpreted as an anti-Machiavellian satire directed at the figure of Charles V.