RIZAL and

NOLI ME
TANGERE
 Objectives:
1.Familiarize the characters, settings
and plot of the Noli Me Tangere
2.Describe the context in which Rizal
wrote Noli Me Tangere.
3.Evaluate how Noli Me Tangere
contributed to the national
consciousness of the Filipinos.
Noli Me Tangere,
words was taken
from the Gospel
of St. John
(20:17), "mean
touch me not”
The book contains then, things that nobody in our country has spoken of until
the present. They are so delicate that they cannot be touched by anyone.
With reference to myself, I have attempted to do what nobody had wished to
do. I have described the social condition, the life there, our beliefs, our
hopes, our desires, our complaints, our sorrows. I have unmasked hypocrisy
that under the cloak of religion has impoverished and brutalized us. I have
distinguished the true religion from the false, from the superstitious, from that
which capitalizes the holy word in order to extract money, in order to make us
believe in absurdities of which Catholicism would blush if it would know
them. I have lifted the curtain in order to show what is behind the deceitful
and glittering words of our government. I have told our compatriots our
defects, our vices, our culpable and cowardly complacency with the miseries
over there (Philippines)
Rizal wrote a letter to Ferdinand Bluemetritt on
March 21, 1887
”It is the first impartial book on the life of the Tagalogs. The
Filipinos will find it the history of the last ten years. I hope
you will note how different my descriptions are from those
other writers. The government and the friars will probably
attack the work, refuting my arguments, but I trust in God
of Truth and in the persons who have seen our suffering at
close range. Here I answer all the false concepts which
have formed against us and all the insults which have been
intended to belittle us. I hope you will understand.
Maximo Viola from San
Miguel, Bulacan arrived in
Berlin and as a friend he
gladly helped Rizal with his
financial problem and loaned
him with the amount needed
for the printing of his novel.
On March 21, 1887, the
printing was done and ready
for distribution.
Blumentritt described the work as ”written
with the blood of the heart, and so the heart
speaks.”

Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor said that “your Noli

Me Tangere will bring you an equal glory,
with your modesty and your voracious and
able appraisal, you have dealt a mortal blow
to that old tree full of blemishes”

Jose M. Cecelio saying ”it has all the

qualities of a social novel, very brilliant
description and style, forceful dialogue and
without exaggeration, magnificent literature.
He told Rizal how the novel will be read in
the Philippines and with the help of Manuel
Rodriguez Arias owner of Agencia Editorial.
Primary school teacher and
Tagalog lexicographer Pedro
Serrano Laktaw wrote to Rizal
about his Noli saying that,
“with regret I inform you that
until now the box is still in the
warehouses of the customs
and I believe will remain there
for some days until the censor
deigns to already known
“Clearance.
Much has been said and
speculated over the intent of the
book, as it reached the Philippine
soil. It created unrest to people,
government, and particularly to
friars. The Noli’s existence made
the dream of Philippine
independence possible, and both
friars and the civil government
now, more than ever, considered
Rizal as subversive (Augenbraum,
2006).
 After years of study and fascination of foreign
countries, Rizal decided to return home in August
1887. In his letter to Blumentritt on June 19,
1887, Rizal expressed his desire of returning
home saying: “Your advice that I live in Madrid
and continue to write from there is very
benevolent, but I cannot accept it. I cannot
endure the life in Madrid where everything is a
voice in a wilderness. My parents want to see me,
and I want to see them also. All my life I desire to
live in my country by the side of my life. Until now
I am not Europeanized like the Filipinos in Madrid;
I always like to return to the country of my birth”
(“Jose Rizal: Correspondence with Blumentritt,
Vol 1.”,2011)
His desire to return to the
Philippines was prompted by the
following reasons:
1.To operate his mother’s eye
ailment.
2.Wanted to know the effect of the
Noli Me Tangere and other
writings.
3.His desire to serve his
countrymen; and
4.Wanted to know why Leonor Rivera
stopped writing
Copies of the Noli Me
Tangere had arrived in the
Philippines before his arrival,
Filipinos and Spaniards in
the Island were able to read
the book, particularly the
friars who were angry at the
content of the novel which
portrayed them as villains.
Rizal received a letter from Governor-General
Terrero requesting him to visit Malacañang, for
the governor wanted to know whether his novel
contained subversive ideas. During the meeting
with Terrero, Rizal explained his novel merely
exposes the true picture about the conditions in
the Philippines. The governor knew that Rizal’s
enemies may endanger his life, he sent a
bodyguard named Lieutenant Jose Taviel de
Andrade to watch over him whom Rizal
described as a cultured and educated lieutenant
of the civil guard (”Jose Rizal: Correspondence
with Blumentritt, vol 1”, 2011).
Controversy surrounding the Noli
and the danger of possessing
the novel spread throughout the
countryside. Friars preached
against the novel and clamored
for harsh measures against
people caught reading the novel
and its author. Priests such as
Fr. Font and Fr. Jose Rodriguez
published a series of pamphlets
against Rizal’s novel.
An unexpected defense of the Noli came
from a Filipino Catholic priest-scholar, a
Manila Cathedral theologian named Fr.
Vicente Garcia, wrote the following:

1. Rizal cannot be ignorant, for he

graduated from a Spanish university;

2. The novel was an attack on the immoral

and corrupt practices of the friars and
of ficials;

3. Since some friars and of ficials were

reading the novel, therefore they were
also committing a mortal sin (“Jose
Rizal: Correspondence with Fellow
Reformists”, 2011).
The Story began with a gathering at
Don Santiago de los Santos (known
as Captain Santiago), at his house on
Analogue Street as a welcome party
for the homecoming of Crisostomo
Ibarra after Seven Years of Studies in
Europe. Crisostomo, son of wealthy
landlord was betrothed from early
youth to Maria Clara. His presence to
the gathering was favored by many
except for Padre Damaso, who
sarcastically entertained his travel
abroad.
As the young man headed toward La Plaza de
Binondo, he was approached by Señor
Guevarra. The lieutenant told him about the
sad death of his father Don Rafael Ibarra,
because of helping a boy who was being
punished by a tax collector by accidentally
pushing the tax collector whose head hardly
hit on the stone. Upon hearing the fate of his
father, Crisostomo was shocked and hurt, led
him to investigate and confront Padre Salvi
who cowardly told the young man that it was
all the doings of Padre Damaso, the former
parish priest of San Diego and Maria Clara’s
biological father.
Aside from the tragic events in the coming
home of Ibarra, the novel also talked about
the meeting of Crisostomo and Don Anastasio
(Pilosopo Tasio), whose characteristics may be
judged by an ordinary person as lunatic
because of his odd ideas and the strange
manner of dealing with people. The odd old
man was a former philosophy student, feared
by his mother to be subversive and that such
knowledge would lead his son to leave his
faith, so he was offered the choice of
becoming a priest or leaving his philosophy
studies, which he chose the latter.
Another affecting part in the
story is the fate of Sisa, who
because of love for her family
became insane, as hopes gone
and abandoned. She wandered
the whole town in search for her
son’s Crispin and Basilio, who
both disappeared without
comprehending what really
happened to her sons.
The novel ended with an epilogue that
talked about some misfortunes that struck
to some characters. Maria Clara decided
to enter a convent, despite impending
arrange marriage to Linares by Padre
Damaso and one night killed herself.
Capatain Tiago fell into depression and
began to smoke opium and cockfighting.
Doña Victorina added the habit of wanting
to drive her own coach horses. Linares
died of dysentery. Padre Damaso was
assigned to a distant province and the
following day he was found dead.
Despite unpleasant circumstances, Rizal
managed to contribute service towards
members of his community. He established a
clinic in Calamba, and his first patient was his
mother, he carefully treated his mother’s eye
ailment which was considered a miracle and
people flocked to his clinic. Eventually, Rizal
became a sensation and people from
neighboring towns visited him, and earned
the name “Doctor Uliman”, aside from the
clinic, he also keep himself busy by engaging
his townmates in sports. He built a
gymnasium, hoping to discourage them from
going to cockpit or sitting down gambling.