Pantagruel freely savours the joys of existence and manifests its own unbridled vitality through laughter. Rabelais, in the prologue of the novel addressed to the readers, writes: "And, reading, do not be scandalized: / Here there is neither evil nor infection. [...] It is better to laugh than to cry, / What a rider is above all human ". The creativity and joy of Pantagruel and his traveling companions are the comic representation of human optimism on the goodness of human nature re-evaluated in all its aspects. Rabelais stands against asceticism and medieval dogmatism, against the attempt to suppress the instincts of the Catholic and Protestant religions, against the theories and the speculative procedures of theologians and philosophers. The writer exercises his pungent sarcasm also against the cultural tradition and the vices of his time, in various areas: politics, education, religion, that is a "universal" culture, rebel to schemes and impositions, whose vision, even pedagogical, is of humanistic matrix. The ideal is that of a tolerant and free man, naturally good, and the rule established in the Abbey of Thelème "Do what you want", summarizes the confident and utopian humanistic aspiration to freedom, as opposed to the dogmatism of official culture and censorship of ecclesiastical and political power.
Reference: “The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali” by Albert Field.73-7, Ref. A page 173-174. Published by “The Salvador Dali Archives”.