MODULE 2

This module consists of two novels of Dr. Jose Rizal. The Noli me Tangere and El
Filibusterimo. Rizal called the Noli the bridge between the Propaganda movement and the
Revolution of 1896. The Fili was a morality, a profound description of the mentality and climate
revolt, with the urgency of its demands, and with all its shortcomings in their fulfillment. But to
Spain, it was a last and terrible warning.

LESSON 5 Rizal's Novels (Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

Learning Outcomes:

1. Describe the context in Noli Me Tangere

2. Appraise important characters in the novel and what they represent
3. Examine the present Philippine situation through the examples mentioned in the Noli
4. Evaluate how Noli me tangere contributed to the formation of Filipino national
consciousness

Value the role of the youth in the development and future of society

Meanings, Features, Background and Characters

Noli Me Tangere Definition

Noli Me Tangere is Latin for "touch me not," an allusion to the Gospel of St. John where Jesus
says to Mary Magdelene: "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father."
Rizal entitled this novel as such drawing inspiration from John 20:13-17 of the Bible, the technical
name of a particularly painful type of cancer (back in his time, it was unknown what the modern
name of said disease was). He proposed to probe all the cancers of Filipino society that
everyone else felt too painful to touch.
Noli Me Tángere, is an 1887 novel by José Rizal during the colonization of the Philippines by
Spain to describe perceived inequities of the Spanish Catholic friars and the ruling government.
Originally written in Spanish, the book is more commonly published and read in the
Philippines in either Tagalog or English.
Early English translations of the novel used titles like An Eagle Flight (1900) and The Social
Cancer (1912), disregarding the symbolism of the title, but the more recent translations were
published using the original Latin title. It has also been noted bythe
Austro-Hungarian writer Ferdinand Blumentritt that "Noli Me Tángere" was a name used by
local Filipinos for cancer of the eyelids; that as an ophthalmologist himself Rizal was influenced
by this fact is suggested in the novel's dedication, "To My fatherland".

Background
José Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and medical doctor, conceived the idea of writing a novel that
would expose the ills of Philippine society after reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin. He preferred that the prospective novel express the way Filipino culture was perceived to
be backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of
Enlightenment. He was then a student of medicine in the Universidad Central de Madrid.
In a reunion of Filipinos at the house of his friend Pedro A. Paterno in Madrid on 2 January 1884,
Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines written by a group of Filipinos. His
proposal was unanimously approved by the Filipinos present at the time, among whom were
Pedro, Maximino Viola and Antonio Paterno, Graciano López Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de
Lete, Julio Llorente and Valentin Ventura. However, this project did not materialize. The people
who agreed to help Rizal with the novel did not write anything. Initially, the novel was planned to
cover and describe all phases of Filipino life, but almost everybody wanted to write about women.
Rizal even saw his companions spend more time gambling and flirting with Spanish women.
Because of this, he pulled out of the plan of co-writing with others and decided to draft the novel
alone.
History on Publication
Rizal finished the novel in February 1887. At first, according to one of Rizal's biographers, Rizal
feared the novel might not be printed, and that it would remain unread. He was struggling with
financial constraints at the time and thought it would be hard to pursue printing the novel.
Financial aid came from a friend named Máximo Viola; this helped him print the book at
Berliner Buchdruckerei-Aktiengesellschaft in Berlin. Rizal was initially hesitant, but Viola insisted
and ended up lending Rizal ₱300 for 2,000 copies. The printing was finished earlier than the
estimated five months. Viola arrived in Berlin in December 1886, and by March 21, 1887, Rizal
had sent a copy of the novel to his friend, Blumentritt.
The book was banned by Spanish authorities in the Philippines, although copies were smuggled
into the country. The first Philippine edition (and the second published edition) was finally printed
in 1899 in Manila by Chofre y Compania in Escolta.

Influence on Filipino nationalism

Rizal depicted nationality by emphasizing the positive qualities of Filipinos: the devotion of a
Filipina and her influence on a man's life, the deep sense of gratitude, and the solid common
sense of the Filipinos under the Spanish regime.
The work was instrumental in creating a unified Filipino national identity and consciousness, as
many natives previously identified with their respective regions. It lampooned, caricatured and
exposed various elements in colonial society. Two characters in particular have become classics in
Filipino culture: María Clara, who has become a personification of the ideal Filipino woman,
loving and unwavering in her loyalty to her spouse; and the priest Father Dámaso, who reflects the
covert fathering of illegitimate children by members of the Spanish clergy.
The book indirectly influenced the Philippine Revolution of independence from the Spanish
Empire, even though Rizal actually advocated direct representation to the Spanish government and
an overall larger role for the Philippines within Spain's political affairs. In 1956,
Congress passed Republic Act 1425, more popularly known as the Rizal Law, which requires all
levels in Philippine schools to teach the novel as part of their curriculum. Noli me tangere is being
taught to third year secondary school (now Grade 9, due to the new K-12 curriculum) students,
while its sequel El filibusterismo is being taught for fourth year secondary school (now Grade 10)
students. The novels are incorporated to their study and surveyof Philippine literature.[4]
Both of Rizal's novels were initially banned from Catholic educational institutions given its
negative portrayal of the Church, but this taboo has been largely superseded as religious schools
conformed to the Rizal Law.

Major Characters

Crisóstomo Ibarra
Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, commonly referred to in the novel as Ibarra or
Crisostomo, is the novel's protagonist. The mestizo (mixed-race) son of Filipino businessman
Don Rafael Ibarra, he studied in Europe for seven years. Ibarra is also María Clara's fiancé.
María Clara
María Clara de los Santos, commonly referred to as María Clara, is Ibarra's fiancée and the most
beautiful and widely celebrated girl in San Diego. She was raised by Kapitán Tiago de los Santos,
and his cousin, Isabel. In the later parts of the novel, she was revealed to be an illegitimate daughter
of Father Dámaso, the former curate of the town, and Doña Pía Alba, Kapitán Tiago's wife, who
had died giving birth to María Clara.
At the novel's end, a heartbroken yet resolved María Clara entered the Beaterio de SantaClara
(a nunnery) after learning the truth of her parentage and mistakenly believing that her lover,
Crisóstomo, had been killed. In the epilogue, Rizal stated that it is unknown whether María Clara
is still living within the walls of the convent or is already dead
A character of Leonor Rivera who was Rizal’s longtime love interest,
Kapitán Tiago
Don Santiago de los Santos, known by his nickname Tiago and political title Kapitán Tiago, is
said to be the richest man in the region of Binondo and possessed real properties in
Pampanga and Laguna de Baý. He is also said to be a good Catholic, a friend of the Spanish
government and thus was considered a Spaniard by the colonial elite. Kapitán Tiago never attended
school, so he became the domestic helper of a Dominican friar who gave him an informal
education. He later married Pía Alba from Santa Cruz.
Padre Dámaso
Dámaso Verdolagas, better known as Padre Dámaso, is a Franciscan friar and the former parish
curate of San Diego. He is notorious for speaking with harsh words, highhandedness, and his
cruelty during his ministry in the town. An enemy of Crisóstomo's father, Don Rafael Ibarra,
Dámaso is revealed to be María Clara's biological father. Later, he and María Clara had bitter
arguments on whether she would marry Alfonso Linares de Espadaña (which he preferred) or enter
the nunnery (her desperate alternative). At the end of the novel, he is again reassigned to a distant
town and later found dead in his bed.
Elías
Elías is Ibarra's mysterious friend and ally. Elías made his first appearance as a pilot during a picnic
of Ibarra and María Clara and her friends.
The 50th chapter of the novel explores the past of Elías and history of his family. About sixty years
before the events of Noli Me Tángere, Elías's grandfather Ingkong in his youth worked as a
bookkeeper in a Manila office. One night the office burned down, and Don Pedro Eibarramendia,
the Spaniard owner, accused him of arson. Ingkong was prosecuted and upon release wasshunned
by the community as a dangerous lawbreaker. His wife Impong turned to prostitution to support
themselves but eventually they were driven into the hinterlands. There Impong bore her first son,
Balat.
Driven to depression, Ingkong hangs himself deep in the forest. Impong was sickly for lack of
nourishment in the forest and was not strong enough to cut down his corpse and bury him, and
Balat was then still very young. The stench led to their discovery, and Impong was accused of
killing her husband. She and her son fled to another province where she bore another son. Balat
grew up to be a bandit.
Eventually Balat's legend grew, but so did the efforts to capture him, and when he finally fell he
was cut limb by limb and his head was deposited in front of Impong's house. Seeing the head of
her son, Impong died of shock. Impong's younger son, knowing their deaths would somehow be
imputed upon him, fled to the province of Tayabas where he met and fell in love with a rich young
heiress.
They have an affair and the lady got pregnant. But before they could marry, his records were dug
up. Then the father, who disapproved of him from the start, had him imprisoned. The lady gave
birth to Elías and his twin sister but died while the two were still children. Nonetheless, the twins
were well cared for, with Elías even going to Ateneo and his sister going to La Concordia, but as
they wanted to become farmers they eventually returned to Tayabas.
He and his sister grew up not knowing about their father, being told that their father had long died.
Elías grew up to be a young abusive brat who took particular joy in berating an elderly servant
who, nevertheless, always submitted to his whims. His sister was more refined and eventually was
betrothed to a fine young man. But before they could marry, Elías ran afoul witha distant relative.
The relative struck back by telling him about his true parentage. The verbal scuffle mounted to the
point where records were dug up, and Elías and his sister, as well as a good part of town, learned
the truth. The elderly servant who Elías frequently abused was their father.
The scandal caused the engagement of Elías' sister to break off. Depressed, the girl disappeared
one day and was eventually found dead along the shore of the lake. Elías himself lost face before
his relatives and became a wanderer from province to province. Like his uncle Balat he became a
fugitive and his legend grew, but by degrees he became the gentler, more reserved, and more noble
character first introduced in the novel.
Pilósopong Tasyo
Filósofo Tasio (Tagalog: Pilósopong Tasyo) was enrolled in a philosophy course and was a
talented student, but his mother was a rich but superstitious matron. Like many Filipino Catholics
under the sway of the friars, she believed that too much learning condemned souls to hell. She then
made Tasyo choose between leaving college or becoming a priest. Since he was in love, he left
college and married.
Tasyo lost his wife and mother within a year. Seeking consolation and in order to free himself from
the cockpit and the dangers of idleness, he took up his studies once more. But he became so
addicted to his studies and the purchase of books that he entirely neglected his fortune and
gradually ruined himself. Persons of culture called him Don Anastacio, or Pilósopong Tasyo, while
the great crowd of the ignorant knew him as Tasio el Loco on account of his peculiar ideas and his
eccentric manner of dealing with others.
Seeking for reforms from the government, he expresses his ideals in paper written in a
cryptographic alphabet similar from hieroglyphs and Coptic figures hoping "that the future
generations may be able to decipher it.
Doña Victorina
Doña Victorina de los Reyes de de Espadaña, commonly known as Doña Victorina, is an
ambitious Filipina who classifies herself as a Spaniard and mimics Spanish ladies by putting on
heavy make-up. The novel narrates Doña Victorina's younger days: she had lots of admirers, but
she spurned them all because none of them were Spaniards. Later on, she met and married Don
Tiburcio de Espadaña, an official of the customs bureau ten years her junior. However, their
marriage is childless.
Her husband assumes the title of medical "doctor" even though he never attended medical school;
using fake documents and certificates, Tiburcio illegally practices medicine. Tiburcio's usage of
the title Dr. consequently makes Victorina assume the title Dra. (doctora, female
doctor). Apparently, she uses the whole name Doña Victorina de los Reyes de de Espadaña,
with double de to emphasize her marriage surname. She seems to feel that this awkward titling
makes her more "sophisticated".
Sisa, Crispín, and Basilio
Sisa, Crispín, and Basilio represent a Filipino family persecuted by the Spanish authorities:

• Narcisa, or Sisa, is the deranged mother of Basilio and Crispín. Described as beautiful and
young, although she loves her children very much, she cannot protect them from the beatings
of her husband, Pedro.
• Crispín is Sisa's seven-year-old son. An altar boy, he was unjustly accused of stealingmoney
from the church. After failing to force Crispín to return the money he allegedly stole, Father
Salví and the head sacristan killed him. It is not directly stated that he was killed, but
 a dream of Basilio's suggests that Crispín died during his encounter with Padre Salví and his
minion.
• Basilio is Sisa's 10-year-old son. An acolyte tasked to ring the church's bells for the Angelus,
he faced the dread of losing his younger brother and the descent of his mother into insanity. At
the end of the novel, a dying Elías requested Basilio to cremate him and Sisa in the woods in
exchange for a chest of gold located nearby. He later played a major role in El filibusterismo.
Due to their tragic but endearing story, these characters are often parodied in modern Filipino
popular culture.

• Salomé is Elías' sweetheart. She lived in a little house by the lake, and though Elías would like
to marry her, he tells her that it would do her or their children no good to be related to a fugitive
like himself. In the original publication of Noli Me Tángere, the chapter that explores the
identity of Elías and Salomé was omitted, classifying her as a totally non-existent character.
This chapter, entitled Elías y Salomé, was probably the 25th chapter of the novel. However,
recent editions and translations of Noli include this chapter either on the appendix or as Chapter
X (Ex).

Noli Me Tangere

Plot
Crisóstomo Ibarra, the mestizo son of the recently deceased Don Rafael Ibarra, is returning to San
Diego in Laguna after seven years of study in Europe. Kapitán Tiago, a family friend, bids him to
spend his first night in Manila where Tiago hosts a reunion party at his riverside homeon
Anloague Street. Crisóstomo obliges. At dinner he encounters old friends, Manila highsociety,
and Padre Dámaso, San Diego's old curate at the time Ibarra left for Europe. Dámaso treats
Crisóstomo with hostility, surprising the young man who took the friar to be a friend of his father.
Crisóstomo excuses himself early and is making his way back to his hotel when Lieutenant
Guevarra, another friend of his father, catches up with him. As the two of them walk to
Crisóstomo's stop, and away from the socialites at the party who may possibly compromise them
if they heard, Guevarra reveals to the young man the events leading up to Rafael's death and
Dámaso's role in it. Crisóstomo, who has been grieving from the time he learned of his father's
death, decides to forgive and not seek revenge. Guevarra nevertheless warns the young man to be
careful.
The following day, Crisóstomo returns to Kapitán Tiago's home in order to meet with his childhood
sweetheart, Tiago's daughter María Clara. The two flirt and reminisce in the azotea, a porch
overlooking the river. María reads back to Crisóstomo his farewell letter wherein he explained to
her Rafael's wish for Crisóstomo to set out, to study in order to become a more useful citizen of
the country. Seeing Crisóstomo agitated at the mention of his father, however, María playfully
excuses herself, promising to see him again at her family's San Diego home during the town fiesta.
Crisóstomo goes to the town cemetery upon reaching San Diego to visit his father's grave.
However, he learns from the gravedigger that the town curate had ordered that Rafael's remains
be exhumed and transferred to a Chinese cemetery. Although Crisóstomo is angered at the
revelation, the gravedigger adds that on the night he dug up the corpse, it rained hard and he feared
for his own soul, causing him to defy the order of the priest by throwing the body into the lake. At
that moment, Padre Bernardo Salví, the new curate of San Diego, walks into the cemetery.
Crisóstomo's anger explodes as he shoves him into the ground and demands anaccounting; Salví
fearfully tells Crisóstomo that the transfer was ordered by the previous curate, Padre Dámaso,
causing the latter to leave in consternation.
Crisóstomo, committed to his patriotic endeavors, is determined not to seek revenge and to put the
matter behind him. As the days progress he carries out his plan to serve his country as his father
wanted. He intends to use his family wealth to build a school, believing thathis paisanos
would benefit from a more modern education than what is offered in the schools run by the
government, whose curriculum was heavily tempered by the teachings of the friars.
Enjoying massive support, even from the Spanish authorities, Crisóstomo's preparations for his
school advance quickly in only a few days. He receives counsel from Don Anastacio, a revered
local philosopher, who refers him to a progressive schoolmaster who lamented the friars' influence
on public education and wished to introduce reforms. The building was planned to begin
construction with the cornerstone to be laid in a ceremony during San Diego's town fiesta.
One day, taking a break, Crisóstomo, María, and their friends get on a boat and go on a picnic
along the shores of the Laguna de Baý, away from the town center. It is then discovered that a
crocodile had been lurking on the fish pens owned by the Ibarras. Elías, the boat's pilot, jumps into
the water with a bolo knife drawn. Sensing Elías is in danger, Crisóstomo jumps in as well, and
they subdue the animal together. Crisóstomo mildly scolds the pilot for his rashness, while Elías
proclaims himself in Crisóstomo's debt.
On the day of the fiesta, Elías warns Crisóstomo of a plot to kill him at the cornerstone-laying. The
ceremony involved the massive stone being lowered into a trench by a wooden derrick. Crisóstomo,
being the principal sponsor of the project, is to lay the mortar using a trowel at the bottom of the
trench. As he prepares to do so, however, the derrick fails and the stone falls into the trench,
bringing the derrick down with it in a mighty crash. When the dust clears, a pale, dust-covered
Crisóstomo stands stiffly by the trench, having narrowly missed the stone. In his place beneath the
stone is the would-be assassin. Elías has disappeared.
The festivities continue at Crisóstomo's insistence. Later that day, he hosts a luncheon to which
Padre Dámaso gatecrashes. Over the meal, the old friar berates Crisóstomo, his learning, his
journeys, and the school project. The other guests hiss for discretion, but Dámaso ignores them and
continues in an even louder voice, insulting the memory of Rafael in front of Crisóstomo. At the
mention of his father, Crisóstomo strikes the friar unconscious and holds a dinner knife to his neck.
In an impassioned speech, Crisóstomo narrates to the astonished guests everything heheard from
Lieutenant Guevarra, who was an officer of the local police, about Dámaso's schemes that resulted
in the death of Rafael. As Crisóstomo is about to stab Dámaso, however, María Clara stays his
arm and pleads for mercy.
Crisóstomo is excommunicated from the church, but has it lifted through the intercession of the
sympathetic governor general. However, upon his return to San Diego, María has turned sickly and
refuses to see him. The new curate whom Crisóstomo roughly accosted at the cemetery,
Padre Salví, is seen hovering around the house. Crisóstomo then meets the inoffensive Linares,
a peninsular Spaniard who, unlike Crisóstomo, had been born in Spain. Tiago presents Linares as
María's new suitor.
Sensing Crisóstomo's influence with the government, Elías takes Crisóstomo into confidence and
one moonlit night, they secretly sail out into the lake. Elías tells him about a revolutionary group
poised for an open and violent clash with the government. This group has reached out to Elías in a
bid for him to join them in their imminent uprising. Elías tells Crisóstomo that he managed to delay
the group's plans by offering to speak to Crisóstomo first, that Crisóstomo may use his influence
to effect the reforms Elías and his group wish to see.
In their conversation, Elías narrates his family's history, how his grandfather in his youth worked
as a bookkeeper in a Manila office but was accused of arson by the Spanish owner when the office
burned down. He was prosecuted and upon release was shunned by the community as a dangerous
lawbreaker. His wife turned to prostitution to support the family but were eventually driven into
the hinterlands.
Crisóstomo sympathizes with Elías, but insists that he could do nothing, and that the only change
he was capable of was through his schoolbuilding project. Rebuffed, Elías advises Crisóstomo to
avoid any association with him in the future for his own safety.
Heartbroken and desperately needing to speak to María, Crisóstomo turns his focus more towards
his school. One evening, though, Elías returns with more information – a rogue uprising was
planned for that same night, and the instigators had used Crisóstomo's name in vain torecruit
malcontents. The authorities know of the uprising and are prepared to spring a trap on the rebels.
In panic and ready to abandon his project, Crisóstomo enlists Elías in sorting out and destroying
documents in his study that may implicate him. Elías obliges, but comes across a name familiar
to him: Don Pedro Eibarramendia. Crisóstomo tells him that Pedro was his great-grandfather,
and that they had to shorten his long family name. Elías tells him Eibarramendia was the same
Spaniard who accused his grandfather of arson and was thus the author of the misfortunes of
Elías and his family. Frenzied, he raises his bolo to smite Crisóstomo, but regains his senses and
leaves the house very upset.
The uprising follows through, and many of the rebels are either captured or killed. They point to
Crisóstomo as instructed and Crisóstomo is arrested. The following morning, the instigators are
found dead. It is revealed that Padre Salví ordered the senior sexton to kill them in order to prevent
the chance of them confessing that he actually took part in the plot to frame Crisóstomo. Elías,
meanwhile, sneaks back into the Ibarra mansion during the night and sorts through documents and
valuables, then burns down the house.
Some time later, Kapitán Tiago hosts a dinner at his riverside house in Manila to celebrate María
Clara's engagement with Linares. Present at the party were Padre Dámaso, Padre Salví, Lieutenant
Guevarra, and other family friends. They were discussing the events that happened in San Diego
and Crisóstomo's fate.
Salví, who lusted after María Clara all along, says that he has requested to be transferred to the
Convent of the Poor Clares in Manila under the pretense of recent events in San Diego being too
great for him to bear. A despondent Guevarra outlines how the court came to condemn Crisóstomo.
In a signed letter, he wrote to a certain woman before leaving for Europe,
Crisóstomo spoke about his father, an alleged rebel who died in prison. Somehow this letter fell
into the hands of an enemy, and Crisóstomo's handwriting was imitated to create the bogus orders
used to recruit the malcontents to the San Diego uprising. Guevarra remarks that the penmanship
on the orders was similar to Crisóstomo's penmanship seven years before, but not at the present
day. And Crisóstomo had only to deny that the signature on the original letter was his, and the
charge of sedition founded on those bogus letters would fail. But upon seeing the letter, which was
the farewell letter he wrote to María Clara, Crisóstomo apparently lost the will to fight the
charges and owned the letter as his.
Guevarra then approaches María, who had been listening to his explanation. Privately but
sorrowfully, he congratulates her for her common sense in yielding Crisóstomo's farewell letter.
Now, the old officer tells her, she can live a life of peace. María is devastated.
Later that evening Crisóstomo, having escaped from prison with the help of Elías, climbs up the
azotea and confronts María in secret. María, distraught, does not deny giving up his farewell letter,
but explains she did so only because Salví found Dámaso's old letters in the San Diego parsonage,
letters from María's mother who was then pregnant with María. It turns out that Dámaso was
María's father. Salví promised not to divulge Dámaso's letters to the public in exchange for
Crisóstomo's farewell letter. Crisóstomo forgives her, María swears her undying love, and they
part with a kiss.
Crisóstomo and Elías escape on Elías's boat. They slip unnoticed through the Estero de Binondo
and into the Pasig River. Elías tells Crisóstomo that his treasures and documents are buried in the
middle of the forest owned by the Ibarras in San Diego. Wishing to make restitution, Crisóstomo
offers Elías the chance to escape with him to a foreign country, where they will live as brothers.
Elías declines, stating that his fate is with the country he wishes to see reformed and liberated.
Crisóstomo then tells him of his own desire for revenge and revolution, to lengths that even Elías
was unwilling to go. Elías tries to reason with him, but sentries catch up with them at the mouth of
the Pasig River and pursue them across Laguna de Bay. Elías orders Crisóstomo to lie down and
to meet with him in a few days at the mausoleum of Crisóstomo's grandfather in San Diego, as he
jumps into the water in an effort to distract the pursuers. Elías is shot several times.
The following day, news of the chase were in the newspapers. It is reported that Crisóstomo, the
fugitive, had been killed by sentries in pursuit. At the news, María remorsefully demands of
Dámaso that her wedding with Linares be called off and that she be entered into the cloister, or the
grave.
Seeing her resolution, Dámaso admits that the true reason that he ruined the Ibarra family and her
relationship with Crisóstomo was because he was a mere mestizo and Dámaso wanted María to be
as happy as she could be, and that was possible only if she were to marry a full-blooded
peninsular Spaniard. María would not hear of it and repeated her ultimatum, the cloister or the
grave. Knowing fully why Salví had earlier requested to be assigned as chaplain in the Convent of
the Poor Clares, Dámaso pleads with María to reconsider, but to no avail. Weeping, Dámaso
consents, knowing the horrible fate that awaits his daughter within the convent but finding it more
tolerable than her suicide.
A few nights later in the forest of the Ibarras, a boy pursues his mother through the darkness. The
woman went insane with the constant beating of her husband and the loss of her other son, an altar
boy, in the hands of Padre Salví. Basilio, the boy, catches up with Sisa, his mother, inside
the Ibarra mausoleum in the middle of the forest, but the strain had already been too great for Sisa.
She dies in Basilio's embrace.
Basilio weeps for his mother, but then looks up to see Elías staring at them. Elías was dying himself,
having lost a lot of blood and having had no food or nourishment for several days as he made his
way to the mausoleum. He instructs Basilio to burn their bodies and if no one comes, to dig inside
the mausoleum. He will find treasure, which he is to use for his own education.
As Basilio leaves to fetch the wood, Elías sinks to the ground and says that he will die without
seeing the dawn of freedom for his people and that those who see it must welcome it and not forget
them that died in the darkness.
In the epilogue, Padre Dámaso is transferred to occupy a curacy in a remote town. Distraught, he
is found dead a day later. Kapitán Tiago fell into depression and became addicted to opium and
is forgotten by the town. Padre Salví, meanwhile, awaits his consecration as a bishop. He is also
the head priest of the convent where María Clara resides. Nothing is heard of María Clara; however,
on a September night, during a typhoon, two patrolmen reported seeinga specter
(implied to be María Clara) on the roof of the Convent of the Poor Clares moaning and weeping in
despair.
The next day, a representative of the authorities visited the convent to investigate previousnight's
events and asked to inspect all the nuns. One of the nuns had a wet and torn gown andwith
tears told the representative of "tales of horror" and begged for "protection against the outrages of
hypocrisy" (which gives the implication that Padre Salví regularly rapes her when he is present).
The abbess however, said that she was nothing more than a madwoman. A General J. also
attempted to investigate the nun's case, but by then the abbess prohibited visits to the convent.
Nothing more was said again about María Clara.

Required Reading:
Rizal, José. 1996. Noli Me Tangere, trans. Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin. Makati:
Bookmark.PQ8897 R5 N531 1996 [Read Dedication and Chaps. 1–32]
Rizal, José.. 1996. El filibusterismo, trans. Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin. Makati: Bookmark.
PQ8897.R5 F43l 1996 [Read “To the Filipino People and their Government,” “To the Memory
of the Priests,” and Chaps. 1–19]

Supplemental Readings: Anderson, Benedict. 2008. Why counting counts: A study of forms of
consciousness and problems of language in Noli me tangere and El filibusterismo, pp. 1–37.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. PQ8897 R5 Z5253

Constantino, Renato."Our task: to make Rizal obsolete" in This week, Manila Chronicle ( 14
June 1959)
Textbook Reference:
Pasigui, Ronnie E. and Danilo H. Cabalu (2014). The man and the hero (Chronicles, Legacies
and Controversies). C & E Publishing, Inc.
Rizal’s Novel (El Filibusterismo)

Learning Outcomes:

1. Understand the context of El Filibusterismo

2. Identify the learning strategy of Rizal on this novel.
3. Compare and contrast the characters, plots, and themes of the Noli and Fili
4. Appraise how El Filibusterismo contributed to the national consciousness and the
revolution
5. Identify the analytical perspective on El filibusterismo

Meanings, Features, Background and Characters

El filibusterismo (transl. The filibusterism; The Subversive or The Subversion, as in the Locsín

English translation, are also possible translations), also known by its alternative English title The
Reign of Greed, is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel
to Noli Me Tángere and, like the first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891
in Ghent.
The novel centers on the Noli-El fili duology's main character Crisóstomo Ibarra, now returning
for vengeance as "Simoun". The novel's dark theme departs dramatically from the previous novel's
hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying Ibarra's resort to solving his country's issues through
violent means, after his previous attempt in reforming the country's system made no effect and
seemed impossible with the corrupt attitude of the Spaniards toward the Filipinos.
The novel, along with its predecessor, was banned in some parts of the Philippines as a result of
their portrayals of the Spanish government's abuses and corruption. These novels, along with
Rizal's involvement in organizations that aimed to address and reform the Spanish system and its
issues, led to Rizal's exile to Dapitan and eventual execution. Both the novel and its predecessor,
along with Rizal's last poem, are now considered Rizal's literary masterpieces.
Both of Rizal's novels had a profound effect on Philippine society in terms of views about national
identity, the Catholic faith and its influence on the Filipino's choice, and the government's issues
in corruption, abuse of power, and discrimination, and on a larger scale, the issues related to the
effect of colonization on people's lives and the cause for independence. These novels later on
indirectly became the inspiration to start the Philippine Revolution.
Throughout the Philippines, the reading of both the novel and its predecessor is
now mandatory for high school students throughout the archipelago, although it is now read
using English, Filipino, and the Philippines' regional languages.
The theme and plot of El Filibusterismo was changed to convey the message that the present
system of government in the Philippines through corrupt officials, dominated by the friars can lead
to the downfall of Spain.

Major Characters

• Simoun – Crisóstomo Ibarra in disguise, presumed dead at the end of Noli Me Tángere. Ibarra
has returned as the wealthy jeweler Simoun. His appearance is described as being tanned,
having a sparse beard, long white hair, and large blue-tinted glasses. He was sometimes crude
and confrontational. He was derisively described by Custodio and Ben-Zayb as an American
mulatto or a British Indian. While presenting as the arrogant elitist on the outside, he secretly
plans a violent revolution in order to avenge himself for his misfortunes as Crisóstomo Ibarra,
as well as hasten Elias' reformist goals.
• Basilio – son of Sisa and another character from Noli Me Tángere. In the events of El fili, he
is an aspiring and so far successful physician on his last year at university and was waiting
for his license to be released upon his graduation. After his mother's death in the Noli, he
applied as a servant in Kapitán Tiago's household in exchange for food, lodging, and being
allowed to study. Eventually he took up medicine, and with Tiago having retired from society,
he also became the manager of Tiago's vast estate. He is a quiet, contemplative man who is
more aware of his immediate duties as a servant, doctor, and member of the student association
than he is of politics or patriotic endeavors. His sweetheart is Juli, the daughter ofKabesang
Tales whose family took him in when he was a young boy fleeing the GuardiaCivil and
his deranged mother.
• Isagani – Basilio's friend. He is described as a poet, taller and more robust than Basilio although
younger. He is the nephew of Padre Florentino, but is also rumored to be Florentino's son with
his old sweetheart before he was ordained as a priest. During the events of the novel, Isagani is
finishing his studies at the Ateneo Municipal and is planning to take medicine. A member of
the student association, Isagani is proud and naive, and tends to put himself on the spot when
his ideals are affronted. His unrestrained idealism and poeticism clash with the more practical
and mundane concerns of his girlfriend, Paulita Gomez. When Isagani allows himself to be
arrested after their association is outlawed, Paulita leaves him for Juanito Peláez. In his final
mention in the novel, he was bidding goodbye to his landlords, the Orenda family, to stay with
Florentino permanently.
• Father Florentino – Isagani's uncle and a retired priest. Florentino was the son of a wealthy
and influential Manila family. He entered the priesthood at the insistence of his mother. As a
result he had to break an affair with a woman he loved, and in despair devoted himself instead
to his parish. When the 1872 Cavite mutiny broke out, he promptly resigned from the
priesthood, fearful of drawing unwanted attention. He was an indio and a secular, or a priest
that was unaffiliated with the orders, and yet his parish drew in a huge income. He retired to
his family's large estate along the shores of the Pacific. He is described as white-haired, with
a quiet, serene personality and a strong build. He did not smoke or drink. He was well respected
by his peers, even by Spanish friars and officials.
• Father Fernández – a Dominican who was a friend of Isagani. Following the incident with
the posters, he invited Isagani to a dialogue, not so much as a teacher with his student but as
 a friar with a Filipino. Although they failed to resolve their differences, they each promised
to approach their colleagues with the opposing views from the other party – although both
feared that given the animosity that existed between their sides, their own compatriots may not
believe in the other party's existence.
• Kapitán Tiago – Don Santiago de los Santos. María Clara's stepfather. Having several
landholdings in Pampanga, Binondo, and Laguna, as well as taking ownership of the Ibarras'
vast estate, Tiago still fell into depression following María's entry into the convent. He
alleviated this by smoking opium, which quickly became an uncontrolled vice, exacerbated
by his association with Padre Írene who regularly supplied him with the substance. Tiago hired
Basilio as a capista, a servant who given the opportunity to study as part of his wages; Basilio
eventually pursued medicine and became his caregiver and the manager of his estate. Tiago
died of shock upon hearing of Basilio's arrest and Padre Írene's embellished stories of violent
revolt.
• Captain-General – the highest-ranking official in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial
period. The Captain-General in El fili is Simoun's friend and confidant, and is described as
having an insatiable lust for gold. Simoun met him when he was still a major during the Ten
Years' War in Cuba. He secured the major's friendship and promotion to Captain-General
through bribes. When he was posted in the Philippines, Simoun used him as a pawn in his own
power plays to drive the country into revolution. The Captain-General wasshamed into not
extending his tenure after being rebuked by a high official in the aftermath of Basilio's
imprisonment. This decision to retire would later on prove to be a crucial elementto Simoun's
schemes.
• Father Bernardo Salví – the former parish priest of San Diego in Noli Me Tángere, and now
the director and chaplain of the Santa Clara convent. The epilogue of the Noli implies that Salví
regularly rapes María Clara when he is present at the convent. In El fili, he is described as her
confessor. In spite of reports of Ibarra's death, Salví believes that he is still alive and lives in
constant fear of his revenge.
• Father Millon – a Dominican who serves as a physics professor in the University of Santo
Tomas.
• Quiroga – a Chinese businessman who aspired to be a consul for China in the Philippines.
Simoun coerced Quiroga into hiding weapons inside the latter's warehouses in preparation for
the revolution.
• Don Custodio – Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous "contractor"
who was tasked by the Captain-General to develop the students association's proposal for an
academy for the teaching of Spanish, but was then also under pressure from the priests not to
compromise their prerogatives as monopolizers of instruction. Some of the novel's most
scathing criticism is reserved for Custodio, who is portrayed as an opportunist who married his
way into high society, who regularly criticized favored ideas that did not come from him, but
was ultimately, laughably incompetent in spite of his scruples.
• Ben-Zayb – A columnist for the Manila Spanish newspaper El Grito de la Integridad. Ben-
Zayb is his pen name and is an anagram of Ybanez, an alternate spelling of his lastname
Ibañez. His first name is not mentioned. Ben-Zayb is said to have the looks of a friar, who
believes that in Manila they think because he thinks. He is deeply patriotic, sometimesto the
point of jingoism. As a journalist he has no qualms embellishing a story, conflating and
butchering details, turning phrases over and over, making a mundane story sound better than
it actually is. Father Camorra derisively calls him an ink-slinger.
• Father Camorra – the parish priest of Tiani. Ben-Zayb's regular foil, he is said to look like
an artilleryman in counterpoint to Ben-Zayb's friar looks. He stops at nothing to mock and
humiliate Ben-Zayb's liberal pretensions. In his own parish, Camorra has a reputation for
unrestrained lustfulness. He drives Juli into suicide after attempting to rape her inside the
convent. For his misbehavior he was "detained" in a luxurious riverside villa just outside
Manila.
• Father Írene – Kapitán Tiago's spiritual adviser. Along with Custodio, Írene is severely
criticized as a representative of priests who allied themselves with temporal authority for the
sake of power and monetary gain. Known to many as the final authority who Don Custodio
consults, the student association sought his support and gifted him with two chestnut-colored
horses, yet he betrayed the students by counseling Custodio into making them fee collectors
in their own school, which was then to be administered by the Dominicans instead of being a
secular and privately managed institution as the students envisioned. Írene secretly but
regularly supplies Kapitán Tiago with opium while exhorting Basilio to do his duty. Írene
embellished stories of panic following the outlawing of the student association Basilio was
part of, hastening Kapitán Tiago's death. With Basilio in prison, he then struck Basilio out of
Tiago's last will and testament, ensuring he inherited nothing.
• Placido Penitente – a student of the University of Santo Tomas who had a distaste for study
and would have left school if it were not for his mother's pleas for him to stay. He clashes
with his physics professor, who then accuses him of being a member of the student
association, whom the friars despise. Following the confrontation, he meets Simoun at the
Quiapo Fair. Seeing potential in Placido, Simoun takes him along to survey his preparations
for the upcoming revolution. The following morning Placido has become one of Simoun's
committed followers. He is later seen with the former schoolmaster of San Diego, who was
now Simoun's bomb-maker.
• Paulita Gómez – the girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doña Victorina, the
old Indio who passes herself off as a Peninsular, who is the wife of the quack doctor
Tiburcio de Espadaña. In the end, she and Isagani part ways, Paulita believing she will have
no future if she marries him. She eventually marries Juanito Peláez.
Characters from Barrio Sagpang:

• Kabesang Tales – Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former kabesa of Barrio Sagpang in Tiani. He
was a sugarcane planter who cleared lands he thought belonged to no one, losing his wife
and eldest daughter in the endeavor. When the Dominicans took over his farm, he fought to
his last money to have it retained in his possession. While his suit against the Dominicans
was ongoing, he was kidnapped by bandits while he was out patrolling his fields. Having no
money to pay his captors, his daughter Juli was forced to become a maid in exchange for her
mistress paying his ransom. When his son Tano was conscripted into the Guardia Civil,
again Tales had no money to pay for Tano's exclusion from the draft. When in spite of all
Tales lost the case, he not only lost his farm but was also dealt with a heavy fine. He later
joined the bandits and became one of their fiercest commanders. Tandang Selo, his father,
would later on join his band after the death of Juli.
• Tandang Selo – father of Kabesang Tales and grandfather of Tano and Juli. A deer hunter
and later on a broom-maker, he and Tales took in the young, sick Basilio who was then
fleeing from the Guardia Civil. On Christmas Day, when Juli left to be with her mistress,
Selo suffered some form of stroke that impaired his ability to speak. After Juli's suicide, Selo
 left town permanently, taking with him his hunting spear. He was later seen with the bandits
and was killed in an encounter with the Guardia Civil – ironically by the gun of the troops'
sharpshooter Tano, his grandson.
• Juli – Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of Kabesang Tales.
When Tales was captured by bandits, Juli petitioned Hermana Penchang to pay for his ransom.
In exchange, she had to work as Penchang's maid. Basilio ransomed her and boughta house for
her family. When Basilio was sent to prison, Juli approached Tiani's curate, Padre Camorra, for
help. When Camorra tried to rape her instead, Juli jumped to her death from the church's tower.
• Tano – Kabesang Tales's son, second to Lucia who died in childhood. He was nicknamed
"Carolino" after returning from Guardia Civil training in the Carolines. His squad was
escorting prisoners through a road that skirted a mountain when they were ambushed by
bandits. In the ensuing battle, Tano, the squad's sharpshooter, killed a surrendering bandit
from a distance, not knowing it was his own grandfather Selo.
• Hermana Penchang – the one among the "rich folks" of Tiani who lent Juli money to ransom
Kabesang Tales from the bandits. In return, Juli will serve as her maid until the money was paid
off. Penchang is described as a pious woman who speaks Spanish; however,her piety was
clouded over by the virtues taught by the friars. While Juli was in her service, she made her
work constantly, refusing to give her time off so she can take care of her grandfather Selo.
Nevertheless, when the rich folks of Tiani shunned Juli because to support her family in any
way might earn some form of retribution from the friars, Penchang was the only one who took
pity upon her.
• Hermana Báli – Juli's mother-figure and counselor. She accompanied Juli in her efforts to
secure Kabesang Tales' ransom and later on Basilio's release. Báli was a panguinguera – a
gambler – who once performed religious services in a Manila convent. When Tales was
captured by bandits, it was Báli who suggested to Juli the idea to borrow money from Tiani's
wealthy citizens, payable when Tales' legal dispute over his farm was won.

Discussion:

Using Graphic Organizer compare and contrast, and show continuities and/or changes in
Rizal's ideas expressed in the Noli and Fili Reflection: Discussion board; participate in the discussion
by commenting on the following: What is the role of the youth in the society? What is freedom? How
is lack of freedom portrayed in the novels? What were the roles of creoles in Philippine society? What
were the roles of young ilustrados? Why are the ordinary people, the masses important as sector of
the society?

Class Activity: Creative monologue, dramatization

References: Rizal

https://www.academia.edu/38319751/Syllabus_Rizal_Life_and_Works

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_filibusterismo