In this blog post, we’ll examine François Rabelais’s masterpiece ‘Gargantua’, focusing on the preparation required of the reader, the meaning of the laughter contained within the work, and how the historical context shapes that meaning.
Rabelais’s ‘Gargantua’ and the Demand for Laughter
If you’re getting ready to open ‘Gargantua’, you’d better be thoroughly prepared. What kind of preparation? The preparation to laugh, that is.
What kind of mindset do you usually have when you open a novel? Of course, it’s different from the mindset you have when opening a textbook. You’re probably secretly hoping to have some fun. Still, in the back of your mind, you can’t help but feel a serious desire to learn something. After all, even if it’s a novel, isn’t it still a “book”? Moreover, isn’t it a world-renowned masterpiece praised by many? Surely you can’t just plow through a “world-renowned masterpiece” as if it were a video game, can you? Shouldn’t something stick with you?
Yet, right from the very beginning of the novel, Rabelais first informs the reader that
“Laughter is human nature”
. Is that all? ‘Gargantua’ actually begins with the words
“Dedicated to the illustrious drunkards and the noble syphilitics”
. A novel dedicated to “drunkards and syphilitics”! Did I misread that? I’m beginning to doubt my own eyes. It overturns our expectations right from the start.
It declares outright that this novel was not written for sound-minded people who think normally and lead normal lives. It feels as though the author would scold you if you approached it with the same serious attitude you’d use when reading other novels.
Yet this very novel of his is regarded as the work that had the greatest influence on later French literature. Since the 18th century, the masters of French literature have praised Rabelais to the skies.
Victor Hugo called Rabelais
“the abyss of the human mind”
, and Balzac
“the great teacher of humanity who encapsulates Pythagoras, Hippocrates, and Dante”
, while Flaubert
“a beautiful work brimming with mystery, just as our lives are filled with mystery”
. Furthermore, the renowned Russian literary scholar Bakhtin even assesses Rabelais’s work as the origin of the modern novel in the truest sense.
So how can this work—which, from the very first page, tells us to prepare to laugh and to turn our common sense upside down—receive such acclaim? What is laughter? What does it mean to turn things upside down?
The Renaissance Setting and the Tone of ‘Gargantua’
To truly understand the meaning behind the laughter in ‘Gargantua’, one must understand the historical context of the work. Rabelais’s ‘Gargantua’, like Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote’, is set against the backdrop of the Renaissance. The Renaissance—as I will explain later in the commentary on ‘Don Quixote’—means “rebirth.” It signifies that the world had changed so drastically that people felt as if they had been reborn.
However, the two works take completely different stances toward this new era. ‘Don Quixote’ is a novel that depicts the lost spirit of chivalry. In contrast, ‘Gargantua’ is a novel that wholeheartedly welcomes the new era. In ‘Don Quixote’, the protagonist Don Quixote becomes the object of ridicule because he continues to practice chivalry even as the world has changed. However, Gargantua, the protagonist of ‘Gargantua’, mocks the entire world.
Don Quixote mistakes what he has read in books for reality and takes everything in the world far too seriously. Conversely, Gargantua mocks everything in this world that is taken seriously. It is precisely this difference that makes ‘Don Quixote’ a bit saddening, while ‘Gargantua’ is delightful.
The laughter in ‘Gargantua’ is a mockery of established authority and order. It is laughter that mocks all thoughts and actions still bound by outdated rules and customs, even as a new era has dawned.
The True Meaning of Laughter: Liberation and the Thirst for Knowledge
However, the true meaning of the laughter in ‘Gargantua’ lies elsewhere. That laughter goes beyond mockery; it is laughter of joy and jubilation. It is the laughter of liberation from oppression and constraint. From what oppression and constraints has it been freed?
As everyone knows, the Western Middle Ages were a period dominated by Christian values. In other words, it was a time when the authority of the Church reigned supreme. The Church’s authority was so strong that the Pope even engaged in power struggles with the Emperor.
If the Church fulfills its role in a healthy manner, there isn’t much of a problem. However, by the late Middle Ages, the Church began to fall into corruption. In Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’, which we’ve already read, and even in Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’, clergymen are portrayed as beings who do not hesitate to commit all manner of evil deeds. The Church becomes a hotbed of corruption rather than a place to encounter God.
The more the Church decays, the louder the clergy shout God’s name—but the God they invoke at that time is not the true God. It is merely a name borrowed to oppress and constrain others.
Because that oppression is so severe, a subtle rebellion against God begins to emerge. So what about us humans? Are we just puppets? Are we supposed to simply do as the Church tells us, without even the freedom to find out how this world really works? We have the ability to think and the freedom to do so! We have the right to know!
The laughter in ‘Gargantua’ is precisely the joyful laughter that comes from realizing that freedom. What kind of freedom? It may sound strange, but it is the “freedom to know.” In fact, what the corrupt Church of the late Middle Ages suppressed most was precisely people’s “freedom to know.”
Since it is easier to exert coercive authority when people are ignorant and uninformed, the corrupt Church of the late Middle Ages suppressed people’s “right to know” in the name of God. In other words, it suppressed humanity’s “thirst for knowledge,” claiming it ran counter to God’s will. The Renaissance can be seen as an era when humanity’s desire to know stirred in resistance to that oppression. It was, in every sense, a period of massive upheaval and transformation.
Through works such as ‘Gargantua’, Rabelais shows us that “the human desire to know something” is a very natural part of human nature. You, too, have likely experienced the immense joy of discovering something new that you didn’t know before. That joy is different from the joy of getting a good grade on a test. You’re simply happy for no particular reason. You’re happy even without any tangible gain. That’s how natural it is.
Through his novels, Rabelais demonstrates that this thirst for knowledge is as natural as the human appetite. The fact that Gargantua is a giant with a tremendous appetite is a literary device meant to show that his thirst for knowledge is equally vast and natural. Gargantua is an optimistic and joyful character because he finds boundless satisfaction in quenching that thirst for knowledge.
Let me ask a slightly off-the-wall question. Have you ever been scolded for studying? Have you ever felt a secret joy while studying in secret? Of course not. If you study hard, you’re praised—not scolded! How could you possibly find joy in studying when you’re forced to do it? Here’s one secret to doing well in school: Read ‘Gargantua’ and laugh your heart out. Laughter sets you free. It’s joyful to discover something new. Studying becomes fun. Worries about test scores disappear. Then, an excellent report card will naturally await you.
Rabelais’s Life and Publication of His Works
François Rabelais, a leading writer of 16th-century France, was born in 1483 (though some claim he was born in 1493) in the small village of La Denivière near Chinon, as the second son of Antoine Rabelais, a lawyer. Around 1510, he began his life as a monk at the Franciscan monastery in La Baumette near Angers. It is said that the order, a conservative religious community that emphasized strict asceticism, did not suit his free-spirited nature and failed to satisfy his intellectual curiosity.
Ravelled, who had a strong thirst for knowledge, studied law and theology before turning his attention to medicine. He left the priesthood to study medicine and began his studies at the University of Montpellier. After graduating from university, he worked as a physician and published several translations of medical classics.
Rabelais began his career as a writer in earnest in 1532 with the publication of ‘Pantagruel’ in Lyon. He explained that his motivation for writing this work came from the popular anonymous novel ‘The Great Chronicle of Pantagruel’, which was in vogue at the time. Following the huge success of his first work, he published ‘Gargantua’ in 1534. Since ‘Pantagruel’ is Gargantua’s son, he wrote the story by going back in time.
The novel we have just read is ‘Gargantua’, published in 1534, and it is widely regarded as his masterpiece. He went on to publish the ‘Gargantua’ series in succession, releasing the ‘Third Book’ in 1546 and the ‘Fourth Book’ in 1552. Although the ‘Fifth Book’ was published in 1562—after his death (he died on April 9, 1553)—whether this work is actually by Rabelais remains a subject of debate to this day.
With the exception of “Book IV,” all of Rabelais’s published works were banned on the grounds of heresy and obscenity. This was because it was a turbulent period when the authority of the Church still held sway. It is said that as he passed away at his home on Rue des Jardins in Paris in early April 1553, he left these words:
“Lower the curtain. The comedy is over.”
“I am going in search of great possibilities.”
Rabelais remained filled with hope for the future right up until his death.
