Background of the

Noli: The Desire for

a Filipino Novel
During a meeting in the house of Pedro Paterno in Madrid on
January 4, 1884, an idea of writing a novel was hatched. It was
proposed by Rizal who said that he wanted to write a novel about
the Philippines. The proposal was welcomed by those present such
as Graciano Lopez, Jaena, Antonio Paterno, Evaristo Aguirre,
Eduardo de Lete, Julio Llorente, and Valentin Ventura. It was
decided that the novel will discuss aspects of life in the
Philippines.
Rizal on his part, wrote the Noli Me Tangere, which was inspired by Uncle
Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe which was about the cruelty of
America slave-owners. Aside from the American slave owners there were
blacks who were subservient to their white owners. These are the uncle
Tom’s reffered to in Stowe’s novel. Although they themselves were
oppressed, they remained faithful to their white slave owners. To the other
black slaves, they were accused of selling out to the whites. In Rizal’s
book, the villains were the Spanish friars who were supported by their
native sycophants-natives doing the bidding of Spaniards and natives who
thought of themselves as Spaniards.
In looking for a little, Rizal borrowed from the gospel of St.
John Chapter 20 Verses 13 to 17. Noli Me Tangere in Latin
means “Touch Me Not” in which Mary Magdalene
encountered the newly risen Jesus Christ. Overjoyed in
seeing he Lord alive and rise. Mary Magdalene tried to hug
Christ but the latter told her not to touch him as he had not
yet gone to his Father. Using the biblical context to his
novel, Rizal said that he was writing something nobody
wanted to touch the untouchability of the friars.
SYNOPSIS OF
THE NOLI ME
TANGERE
The story of the Noli Me Tangere starts with a party held in the house of Kapitan
Santiago de los Reyes (also known as Kapitan Tiago) in the town of San Diego in
honor of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y Magsalin who had just arrived from Europe. Juan
Crisostomo, also known as Ibarra had studied in Europe. Present in the party were
friars led by the town curate, Fr. Damaso Verdolagas. Ibarra impressed everybody
present with what he learned and saw in Europe but Fr. Damaso belittles him. Ibarra
however did not take offenses. Through a sympathetic town official named Capitan
Guevarra, Ibarra learned about the circumstances regarding the death of his father,
Don Rafael Ibarra who died while he was in Europe. The elder Ibarra defended a
young boy who was taunting an ignorant tax collector. The tax collector was offended
by his meddling and a fight ensued. During the struggle the tax collector was
knocked down and hit his head on a rock and died as a result. Don Rafael was sent to
prison where he died.
For laying violent hands on Fr. Damaso, Ibarra found himself
excommunicated and his engagement to Maria Clara broken.
Meanwhile the Governor General happened to visit San Diego
and learned about the incident. He persuaded Kapitan Tiago to
accept Ibarra as his future son-in-law and promised to have the
excommunicated on Ibarra lifted. Maria Clara on the other hand
suffered a strange illness. She was treated by a Spanish
physician with dubious credentials named Don Tiburcio de
Espadana whose treatment only worsened her illness. She would
have died if not for the medicines secretly sent by Ibarra.
Another subplot in the Noli was the story of Ellias. The story of Elias began
sixty years before as Elias’ grandfather who was young bookkeeper was
accused of burning down the company warehouse. He was beaten and
flogged in public until he was almost dead. His wife who was pregnant
was forced to beg for alms to support her husband who had become a
cripple. Later she became a prostitute to support the family. Elias’
grandfather soon died. With the young son and an elder, one Elias’
grandmother lived in the mountains. The elder son became a notorious
bandit named Balat. The authorities later captured himj, cut off his head
which was hung from a tree. When she saw her son’[s severed head.
Elias’ grandmother died from shock.
Between the subplots, there were mini stories, which provided comic relief
such as the quarrel between the two Spaniard Dona wannabes, Victoria
and Consolacion. Both supposedly respectable women insulted each other
with gutter language until Padre Salvi intervened to stop the fight. Padre
Salvi himself was not immune from comic relief. In one of the scenes the
good padre was asked by bystanders why was he was painting and
perspiring and why his soutane was had many amor seco seeds attached to
it. Amor seco is a type of grass whose seeds attach themselves to the
clothes of anyone who brushes against them. It turned out that Padre Salvi
sneaked through a patch of amor seco grass to spy on women bathing on
the river. One of those women was Maria Claria. The sight the bathing
women made him sexually aroused and it caused his heart to palpitate.
Going back to story of Ibarra, his enemies continued to plot his downfall.
Padre Salvi who had lusted Maria Clara was intercepting her letters and
using these to gain information about him. Later Ibarra was implicated
in the attack by bandits on the headquarters of the civil guard. The
captured bandits were made to confess that it was Ibarra who was their
leader. Ibarra was quickly arrested and sent to prison. Elias freed Ibarra
from jail and hid him in his boat loaded with zacate grass. They were
sailing toward Laguna de bay but on the way Ibarra asked that they stop
by the house of Maria Clara which overlooked the river. In their
meeting, Ibarra forgave Maria Clara for his letters, which were used as
evidences against him. Maria Clara revealed that his letters were
exchange for the one from late mother Dona Pia Alba. Her real father,
she learned, was not Kapitan Tiago, but father damaso.
Going back to Basilio, he tried to seek revenge for his brother Crispin but was
overpowered by the Sacristan Mayor. He drag Basilio to cliff and threw him over into
a river. A family, which lived in the forest, found him and nursed him back to health.
He then left to search for his mother. Upon seeing Basilio, Sisa thought he has seen a
ghost and he run towards the mausoleum of Ibarras. Basilio became unconscious
when he fell climbing down the walls of the mausoleum. It was Sisa recovered her
sanity. A few moments later he died while Basilio awakened to find his mother has
just died.

The novel had colorful epilogue which narrates what happened to the characters in the
novel, Maria Clara refused to marry Linares and threatened to kill himself. The
nunnery of death, she said to her real father, Fr. Damaso become despondent with her
decision knowing the things that happen those convent walls, Maria Clara entered the
nunnery of Santa Clara while, Fr. Salvi who was secretly lusting for her become it’s
chaplain.
THE EFFECT OF THE NOLI IN
THE FORMATION OF
FILIPINO NATIONAL
CONSCIOUSNESS
The noli me tangre already made waves in the Philippines as copies of the
book had arrived ahead Rizal’s return from Europe in 1887. Copies of the
book were acquired by many people and some of these fell to in the hands
of Spaniards. As the book discussed matters that are taboo, the novel
though totally fictional and mainly allegorical touched many sensitive
matters. The noli exposed the excesses of the friars who had dominated
the political, social and cultural life of the islands; the hypocrisy of
religious authorities; th subservience and slavishness of leading indios to
the Spaniards; the wholesale colonial mentality of the people at the
expenses of their national identity and the grinding oppression of the
people by the Spanish and native elite.
After reading the book, the governor saw nothing wrong about the novel. Yet
the friars were adamant, the archbishop Pedro Payo, O.P. sent a copy of
the novel to Fr. Gregorio Echavarria, Rector of the University of Santo
Tomas who formed a committee of faculty members to review the novel.
The committee later sent a report to the archbishop calling noli as
“heretical, impious and scandalous in the religious order, anti-patriotic,
subversive of the public order, injurious to the government of Spain and
the Philippines Islands in the political order.

As the novel was already known in Spain, Vicente Barrantes who was
denounced by Rizal’s fellow propagandists as “a paid Spanish snakes,”
attacked Rizal and his book in a column in the Spanish newspaper España
Moderna.
Eventually the Noli was translated into the vernacular, Andres Bonifacio was
said to have translated the Noli but the real translator was Diego Mojica
of Cavite. The novel can now be read by people who are not very
conversant with Spanish. It was said that novel was read by katipuneros
and its contents were discussed by its members.

However being a work of fiction and work of propaganda the Noli provided
an imbalanced view of the real conditions. The novel portrayed a very
negative condition of the Philippines. In the novel, the friars were
depicted as self-seeking and corrupt, not all of them were such. Some of
the Friars despite the violation of their vows, were actually loved by the
populace.
Publication of the Noli Me Tangere. Nevertheless, Rizal could
have portrayed the women in the sequel of the Noli but he
depicted them as a young male students of the University of
Santo Tomas in El Filibusterismo. In conclusion, to fully
understand the value of the Noli Me Tangere as well other
novels and works of Rizal we must understand Rizal’s
motive’s in writing his works, his use of information, and the
context of how he used such information.