LESSON 2: NOLI ME TANGERE and EL FILIBUSTERISMO

Objectives:

1. Explain the lesson learned from the great novel “Noli Me Tangere” with that of the
present situation in the Philippines.
2. Appraise important characters in the novel and what they represent.
3. Appraise how El Filibusterismo contributed to the national consciousness and the
revolution.
4. Compare and contrast El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere
5. Apply the different virtues and values learned in the novel in real-life situations.
6. Value the role of the youth in the development and future of society.

NOLI ME TANGERE: The Writing of the Novel

Jose 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 backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideas of the Age of
Enlightenment. He was then a student of medicine at 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 party,
among whom were Pedro, Maximino 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 (Mandirigma.org, 2006).

Rizal managed to finish the first half of the Noli Me Tangere in Madrid. He continued
writing in Paris where he was inspired by the immortal declaration of the rights of man, that
had been passed and implemented. To economize for the printing of the novel Rizal moved
to Berlin, Germany with the help of a friend Dr. Maximo Viola from San Miguel Bulacan.

The Title Noli Me Tangere “Touch me not” was taken by Rizal from the Gospel of
Saint John 20:13-7 when the newly risen Christ says to Mary Magdalene: “Touch me not”; I
am not yet ascended unto my father but go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend to
my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.

The Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer as the alternative English title) is written by
Rizal in the Spanish Language that is credited with the awaking of nationalism among
Filipinos.
 Introduction to José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere
Written in Spanish and published in 1887, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere played a
crucial role in the political history of the Philippines. Drawing from experience, the
conventions of the nineteenth-century novel, and the ideals of European liberalism, Rizal
offered up a devastating critique of a society under Spanish colonial rule.
The plot revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra, mixed-race heir of a wealthy clan,
returning home after seven years in Europe and filled with ideas on how to better a lot of
his countrymen. Striving for reforms, he is confronted by an abusive ecclesiastical hierarchy
and a Spanish civil administration by turns indifferent and cruel. The novel suggests, through
plot developments, that meaningful change in this context is exceedingly difficult, if not
impossible.
The death of Ibarra’s father, Don Rafael, before his homecoming, and the refusal of a
Catholic burial by Padre Damaso, the parish priest, provokes Ibarra into hitting the priest,
for which Ibarra is excommunicated. The decree is rescinded, however, when the governor
general intervenes. The friar and his successor, Padre Salvi, embody the rotten state of the
clergy. Their tangled feelings one paternal, the other carnal—for Maria Clara, Ibarra’s
sweetheart, and rich Capitan Tiago’s beautiful daughter, steel their determination to spoil
Ibarra’s plans for a school. The town philosopher Tasio wryly notes similar past attempts
have failed, and his sage commentary makes clear that all colonial masters fear that an
enlightened people will throw off the yoke of oppression.
Precisely how to accomplish this is the novel’s central question and one which Ibarra
debates with the mysterious Elias, with whose life he is intertwined. The privileged Ibarra
favors peaceful means, while Elias, who has suffered injustice at the hands of the
authorities, believes violence is the only option.
Ibarra’s enemies, particularly Salvi, implicate him in a fake insurrection, though the
evidence against him is weak. Then Maria Clara betrays him to protect a dark family secret,
public exposure of which would be ruinous. Ibarra escapes from prison with Elias’s help and
confronts her. She explains why, Ibarra forgives her, and he and Elias flee to the lake. But
chased by the Guardia Civil, one dies while the other survives. Convinced of Ibarra’s death,
Maria Clara enters the nunnery, refusing a marriage arranged by Padre Damaso. Her
unhappy fate and that of the more memorable Sisa, driven mad by the fate of her sons,
symbolize the country’s condition, at once beautiful and miserable.
Using satire brilliantly, Rizal creates other memorable characters whose lives
manifest the poisonous effects of religious and colonial oppression. Capitan Tiago; the social
climber Doña Victorina de Espadaña and her toothless Spanish husband; the Guardia Civil
head and his harridan of a wife; the sorority of devout women; the disaffected peasants
forced to become outlaws: in sum, a microcosm of Philippine society. In the afflictions that
plague them, Rizal paints a harrowing picture of his beloved but suffering country in a work
that speaks eloquently not just to Filipinos but to all who have endured or witnessed
oppression.
 About José Rizal
Born on June 19, 1861, José Rizal was from an upper-class Filipino family. His
mother, Teodora Alonso, a highly educated woman, exerted a powerful influence on his
intellectual development. He would grow up to be a brilliant polymath, doctor, fencer,
essayist, and novelist, among other things.
By the late nineteenth century, the Spanish empire was in irreversible decline. Spain
had ruled the islands since 1565, except for a brief hiatus when the British occupied the
islands in 1762. The colonial government was unresponsive and often cruel, with the
religious establishment wielding as much power as the state. Clerical abuses, European
ideas of liberalism, and growing international trade fueled a burgeoning national
consciousness. For Rizal and his generation, the 1872 Cavite Mutiny, in which three native
priests were accused of treason and publicly executed, provided both inspiration and a
cautionary tale.

Educated at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila and the Dominican University of Santo
Tomas in Manila, Rizal left for Spain in 1882, where he studied medicine and the liberal arts,
with further studies in Paris and Heidelberg. The charismatic Rizal quickly became a leading
light of the Propaganda Movement—Filipino expatriates advocating, through its newspaper,
La Solidaridad, various reforms such as the integration of the Philippines as a province of
Spain, representation in the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), the Filipinization of the clergy,
and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards before the law. To Rizal, the main impediment to
reform lay not so much with the civil government but with the reactionary and powerful
Franciscan, Augustinian, and Dominican friars, who constituted a state within a state.
In 1887, he published his first novel, Noli Me Tangere, written in Spanish, a searing
indictment of clerical abuse as well as of colonial rule’s shortcomings. That same year, he
returned to Manila, where the Noli had been banned and its author now hated intensely by
the friars. In 1888, he went to Europe once more, and there wrote the sequel, El
Filibusterismo (The Subversive), published in 1891. In addition, he annotated an edition of
Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, showing that the Philippines had had a long
history before the advent of the Spaniards. Rizal returned to Manila in 1892 and founded a
reform society, La Liga Filipina, before being exiled to Dapitan, in Mindanao, Southern
Philippines. There he devoted himself to scientific research and public works. Well-known as
an ophthalmologist, he was visited by an English patient, accompanied by his ward,
Josephine Bracken, who would be his last and most serious romantic involvement.
In August of 1896, the Katipunan, a nationalist secret society, launched a revolution
against Spain. Its leaders venerated Rizal and tried to persuade him to their cause. He
refused, convinced that the time was not yet ripe for armed struggle. In the meantime, he
volunteered to serve as a doctor with the Spanish forces fighting against Cuban
revolutionaries. En route, Rizal was arrested and subjected to a mock trial in Manila by the
authorities although he had nothing to do with the revolution. Found guilty, he was shot at
dawn on December 30, 1896. On the eve of his execution, Rizal penned “Mi último adiós”
(My Last Farewell), considered a masterpiece of nineteenth-century Spanish verse. He was
thirty-five.
Rizal’s martyrdom only intensified the ultimately successful fight for independence
from Spain. Because of his role in shaping his country’s destiny, José Rizal is often described
as the “First Filipino” and has since served as an inspiration to countless nationalists and
intellectuals.
Summary of the Noli Me Tangere
The young and idealistic Juan Crisostomo Ibarra returns home after seven years in
Europe. The wealthy mestizo, like his father Don Rafael, endeavors for reform primarily in
education to eliminate poverty and improve the lives of his countrymen. Upon learning
about his father’s demise and the denial of a Catholic burial for his father Ibarra was
provoked to hit Padre Damaso which eventually led to his ex-communication. The ex-
communication was later rescinded upon the intervention of the Governor General.

Padre Salvi, Ibarra’s mortal enemy accused Ibarra of

insurrection. Ibarra’s letter to his beloved Maria Clara was
used against him. Later in the story, Maria Clara will tell
Ibarra that she did not conspire to indict him. She was
compelled to give Ibarra’s letter in exchange for the letters
of her mother before she was born. Maria Clara found out
that the letters her mother were addressed to Padre Damaso
about their unborn child which means that she is the
biological daughter of the priest and not of her father,
Capitan Tiago.
Meanwhile, Ibarra was able to escape the prison with
Elias, who also experienced injustice from the authorities.
Ibarra was able to speak with Maria Clara about the letters
and thereafter forgave her. Ibarra and Elias flee to the lake
and were chased by the Guardia Civil. One was shot and the
other survives. Upon hearing the news, Maria Clara believed
that Ibarra was dead; she entered the nunnery instead of marrying Alfonso Linares.
The fatally wounded Elias found the child Basilio and his dead mother Sisa. The latter
was driven to insanity when she learned that her children were implicated in theft by the
sacristan mayor. Elias instructed Basilio to dig for his and Sisa’s graves and there is a buried
treasure that he can use for his education.
Noli Me Tangere brilliantly described Philippine society with its memorable characters. The
melancholic fate of Maria Clara and the insanity of Sisa characterized the country’s pitiful
state, which was once beautiful, and turned miserable. Reading Noli Me Tangere will open
one’s mind to oppression and tyranny.
Characters and Symbolisms in the novel ‘Noli Me Tangere’
1. Ibarra (Crisostomo Ibarra Y Magsalin)

• Liberal European-educated Filipino. He is a loyal son, courageous, civic-minded, liberty-

loving, and patriotic.
• Represents the Filipino culture that was being forged in Europe among young students
whom Rizal endeavored to get involved in the national movement.
• Represents the idea of Liberalism.
• Jose Rizal

2. The Couple Capitan Tiago and Doña Pia

• Represented the Spanish and the Philippines without a promising future.

3. Elias

• humble, courageous, thoughtful, and farsighted. He comes from a family of

persecuted.
• represents the basic core of the Filipinos which was the persistent foundation of
the pre-Spanish Filipino culture which survived the onslaught of invasion by the culture
which was brought to the Philippines by the Spaniards – the secular and the religious.

4. Don Rafael Ibarra

• Crisostomo’s father. Represents a rich landlord with a social conscience because he

is a philanthropist. His strict standard of conduct regulates his actions. His independent
views find opposition in Father Damaso who calls him a heretic and filibusters.

5. Tasio

• Called Pilosopo Tasio. He entertains new ideas which his generation cannot
understand.
• represented the Filipino intellectuals who never left the country and who came
under the tutorship of religious missionary work, but who, who came under the tutorship of
the religious institutions, being prepared for work, had to disengage from this commitment.
• Paciano Rizal

6. Kapitan Tiago, Anastacio De Los Santos

• Another rich landowner whose wealth makes him an “oligarch”, represents the
Filipino who is subservient to the authorities because his interests must be secured. A
religious fanatic, he is at peace with God, the government, and the people.
7. Dona Victorina De Los Reyes De Espadana

• The paragon of colonial mentality. A pure-blooded Filipina who disdains what is

Filipino and imitates what is Spanish.

8. Dona Consolacion

• The mistress of the Alferez. Another woman who passed herself as a Peninsular; is
best remembered for her abusive treatment of Sisa.

9. Maria Clara

• Represents a type of Filipino womanhood brought up in the convent and educated

along religious lines. She is a beautiful, charming, pious, faithful lover and self-sacrificing.
• She also represents the idea of conservatism.

10. Sisa

• The mother of Crispin and Basilio. Illustrates the lack of concern of society in trying
to help her solve her problems – the maltreatment of her two sons and the indignities she
suffers which finally drive her to mental derangement.

11. The Gobernadorcillo

• Signifies the nullity, the despotism towards those below, and blind obedience to
the caprices of those above. In contrast to his attitude, we find the teniente mayor, Don
Filipo Lino, who represents dignity, courtesy, and probity of authority.

12. The School Teacher

• Personifies the educated individual who dreams of better ways of making the
pupils learn than the method of learning with corporal punishment.

13. Padre Damaso

• The old kura paroko of San Diego. Carries the trappings of the dirty Franciscan,
always gross, always tyrannical, and constantly corrupted. The biological father of Maria
Clara. He represents the old missionaries who used their positions to secure and maintain
their power.

14. Padre Salvi

• Represents the young missionaries who, instead of introducing change, followed

the footsteps of the old missionaries.
 EL FILIBUSTERISMO: The Writing of the Novel
Rizal started writing El Filibusterismo in October 1887 in Calamba during his first
homecoming. The novel was thus written against the background of threats and oppressions
he and his family suffered because of the Holi and the so-called Calamba agrarian trouble.

He continued working on it, making some revisions, in London in 1888. Rizal then
went on to write the novel in Paris. and then in Brussels where distractions were less, and
the cost of living was cheapened being able to focus on finishing the book, Rizal had finally
completed it by March 29.1891 in Biarritz (Mañebog et al., 2018).

Jose Alejandrino, Rizal's roommate in Belgium related that he was the one who
looked for a printing press for El Fili. The F. Meyer van Loo press charged the lowest fee and
was willing to print the book on an installment basis, but the printing had to be suspended
because he could no longer give the needed amount for the printing and almost hurled the
manuscript into flames because of despair (Ariola, 2018).

Finally, on September 18, 1891, the printing of the El Fili was completed with the
help of Valentin Ventura. With Ventura’s salvific act, Rizal gave him the novel’s original
manuscript, a pen, and an autograph printed copy. In 1925, the Philippine government
bought the El Fili manuscript from Ventura paying the amount of 10,000.00 pesos, and now
being kept at the National Library (G. Zaide & S. Zaide, 1984).

Filibustero and Gomburza

The Filibusterismo in the novel's title is derived from the simpler term filibuster Rizal
defined the word ('filibustero') to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt who encountered but did
not fully comprehend the word in the Noli. Rizal, thus, explained in a letter ("El
Filibusterismo, 2011):

"The word filibustero is little known in the Philippines ...I heard it for the first time in
1872 when the tragic executions [of the Gomburza] took place. I still remember the panic
that this word created. Our father forbade us to utter it, as well as the words Cavite, Burgos
(one of the executed priests), etc. The Manila newspapers and the Spaniards apply this word
to one whom they want to make a revolutionary suspect. The Filipinos belonging to the
educated class fear the reach of the world. It means a dangerous patriot who will soon be
hanged or well, a presumptuous man."

The word filibustero, thus, contextually means subversive, dissident, revolutionary,

seditious, insurrectionary, and treasonous. Fittingly, Rizal dedicated the book to the
memory of the Gomburza, the three Filipino patriotic priests who were accused of being
filibustero and, thus, executed. In his dedication, Rizal fearlessly declared his conviction that
the Spanish officials' treatment of the priests' case was unjust "as [their] complicity in the
Cavite Mutiny is not proved."
 The dedication partly reads: "To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85
years old), Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in
the Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February 1872 ... I have the right to dedicate my work
to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to combat.” Filibusterismo, 2013)

Rizal, however, made mistakes in indicating the ages of the priests and the date of
their execution. During their martyrdom on the 17th (not 28th) of February. 1872, Gomez
was then 73 (not 85), Burgos was 35 (not 30) and Zamora was 37 (not 35). Like many other
students today (especially men), Rizal was perhaps not that good at memorizing historical
details, like dates and ages (Mañebog et al., 2018).

A closer look: El Filibusterismo

The second and last novel completed by José Rizal (though he left behind the
unfinished manuscript of a third one), El Filibusterismo is a sequel to Noli Me Tangere. A
dark, brooding, at times satirical novel of revenge, unfulfilled love, and tragedy, the Fili (as it
is popularly referred to) still has as its protagonist Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra. Thirteen years
older, his idealism and youthful dreams shattered, and taking advantage of the belief that
he died at the end of Noli Me Tangere, he is disguised as Simoun, an enormously wealthy
and mysterious jeweler who has gained the confidence of the colony’s governor-general.

Several other characters from the Noli reappear, among them: Basilio, whose
mother and younger brother Crispin met tragic ends; Father Salví, the devious former curate
of San Diego responsible for Crispin’s death, and who had lusted after Ibarra’s love, María
Clara; the idealistic schoolmaster from San Diego; Captain Tiago, the wealthy widower and
legal father of María Clara; and Doña Victorina de Espadaña and her Spanish husband, the
faux doctor Tiburcio, now hiding from her with the Indio priest Father Florentino at his
remote parish on the Pacific coast.

Where Ibarra had argued eloquently against violence to reform Manila society,
Simoun is eager to foment it to get his revenge: against Father Salví, and the Spanish
colonial state. He hopes to liberate the love of his life, María Clara, from her suffocating life
as a cloistered nun, and the islands from the tyranny of Spain. As a confidant to the
governor-general, he advises him in such a manner as to make the state even more
oppressive, hoping thereby to force the masses to revolt. Simoun has a few conspirators,
such as the schoolmaster and a Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who aid him in planning
terroristic acts. In sum, Simoun has become an agent provocateur on a grand scale.

Basilio, now a young man, has risen from poverty to become Captain Tiago’s charge.
Close to acquiring his medical degree, he is pledged to Julí, the beautiful daughter of
Cabesang Tales, a prosperous farmer whose land is taken away from him by the friars. Tales
subsequently murders his oppressors, turns to banditry, and becomes the scourge of the
countryside.

In contrast to Simoun’s path of armed revolution, a group of university students—

among them, Isagani, Peláez, and Makaraig—push for the founding of an academy devoted
to teaching Castilian, in line with a decree from Madrid. Opposed even to such a benign
reform, the friars manage to co-opt the plan. Subsequently, the students are accused of
being behind flyers that call for rebellion against the state. Most observers see the hand of
the friars in this whole affair, which results in the incarceration of the student leaders, even
of Basilio, though he was not involved, and the break-up between Isagani and the
beauteous Paulita Gómez, who agrees to marry the wealthy Peláez, much to the delight of
Doña Victorina, who has favored him all along.

In the meantime, Tiago, addicted to opium, dies of a drug overdose while attended
to by Father Irene. A meager inheritance is all that is given to Basilio, and all the
incarcerated students are soon released except for him. Julí approaches Father Camorra to
request him to obtain Basilio’s release. The friar attempts to rape her, but she commits
suicide rather than submit to his lustful designs. Released from prison, with Julí dead and his
prospects considerably dimmed, Basilio, one of the few who knows who Simoun is,
reluctantly becomes a part of the latter’s plot.

The lavish wedding celebration is to be held at the former residence of Captain

Tiago, purchased by Don Timoteo Peláez, the bridegroom’s father. Simoun has mined the
residence, so it will blow up once a fancy lamp—packed with nitroglycerin, it is Simoun’s
wedding gift—has its wick lit. The resulting assassination of the social and political elite
gathered at the feast will be the signal for an armed uprising. But Isagani, informed by
Basilio of what will happen, rushes into the house, snatches the lamp, and throws it into the
river, and in the confusion can escape.

The planned uprising is aborted, and Simoun’s identity is finally revealed, partly
through a note, he leaves for Father Salví at the feast. Wounded, he eludes capture and
manages to seek refuge at Father Florentino’s residence. There, he commits suicide but not
before revealing to the priest what he has wrought. He leaves behind his case of jewels,
which the good father throws into the sea, with the injunction that the precious stones yield
themselves only when the country needs them for a “holy, sublime reason”.

About Jose Rizal

Born on June 19, 1861, José Rizal was from an upper-class Filipino family. His
mother, Teodora Alonso, a highly educated woman, exerted a powerful influence on his
intellectual development. He would grow up to be a brilliant polymath, doctor, fencer,
essayist, and novelist, among other things.

By the late nineteenth century, the Spanish empire was in irreversible decline. Spain
had ruled the islands since 1565, except for a brief hiatus when the British occupied them in
1762. The colonial government was unresponsive and often cruel, with the religious
establishment wielding as much power as the state. Clerical abuses, European ideas of
liberalism, and growing international trade fueled a burgeoning national consciousness. For
Rizal and his generation, the 1872 Cavite Mutiny, in which three native priests were accused
of treason and publicly executed, provided both inspiration and a cautionary tale.

Educated at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila and the Dominican University of Santo
Tomas in Manila, Rizal left for Spain in 1882, where he studied medicine and the liberal arts,
with further studies in Paris and Heidelberg. The charismatic Rizal quickly became a leading
light of the Propaganda Movement—Filipino expatriates advocating, through its newspaper,
La Solidaridad, various reforms such as the integration of the Philippines as a province of
Spain, representation in the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), the Filipinization of the clergy,
and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards before the law. To Rizal, the main impediment to
reform lay not so much with the civil government but with the reactionary and powerful
Franciscan, Augustinian, and Dominican friars, who constituted a state within a state.

In 1887, he published his first novel, Noli Me Tangere, written in Spanish, a searing
indictment of friar abuse as well as of colonial rule’s shortcomings. That same year, he
returned to Manila, where the Noli had been banned and its author now hated intensely by
the friars. In 1888, he went to Europe once more, and there wrote the sequel, El
Filibusterismo (The Subversive), published in 1891. In addition, he annotated an edition of
Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, showing that the Philippines had had a long
history before the advent of the Spaniards. Rizal returned to Manila in 1892 and founded a
reform society, La Liga Filipina, before being exiled to Dapitan, in Mindanao, Southern
Philippines. There he devoted himself to scientific research and public works. Well-known as
an ophthalmologist, he was visited by an English patient, accompanied by his ward,
Josephine Bracken, who would be his last and most serious romantic involvement.

In August of 1896, the Katipunan, a nationalist secret society, launched a revolution

against Spain. Its leaders venerated Rizal and tried to persuade him to their cause. He
refused, convinced that the time was not yet ripe for armed struggle. In the meantime, he
volunteered to serve as a doctor with the Spanish forces fighting against Cuban
revolutionaries. En route, Rizal was arrested and subjected to a mock trial in Manila by the
authorities although he had nothing to do with the revolution. Found guilty, he was, at the
age of thirty-five, shot at dawn on December 30, 1896. On the eve of his execution, Rizal
penned Mi Ultimo Adios (“My Last Farewell”), considered a masterpiece of nineteenth-
century Spanish verse.

Rizal’s martyrdom only intensified the ultimately successful fight for independence
from Spain. Because of his role in shaping his country’s destiny, José Rizal is often described
as the “First Filipino” and has since served as an inspiration to countless nationalists and
intellectuals.
Summary of El Filibusterismo
The story of El Filibusterismo revolves around its main character Simoun who
affluent jeweler Simoun is Crigostorno Ibarra of the Noh who was thought to have been
killed by the Guardia Civil at Laguna de Bay, He has escaped, and fled to Cuba, become
wealthy, and made connections with influential Spanish officials, upon his return to the
Philippines after many years, he becomes very influential as the governor-general, who
owes so much to him, consults him in making decisions.

However, everything Sirnoun does is just part of his grand plan to take revenge
against the Spanish officials and rescue Maria Clara from the convent. Planning to stage a
revolution, he smuggles arms and looks for followers, mainly from the exploited and abused
natives. One of his recruits is Basilio, the son of Sisa, who with Capitan Tiago'g help was able
to study in Manila. Simoun also allies with the revolutionary group of Kabesang Tales, a
former Cabeza de barangay who suffered maltreatment at the hands of the friars. Using his
influence, Simoun encourages corruption, decadence, and more oppressive government
policies so that the citizens may become more infuriated.

However, the planned revolt one night is not carried out because Sir-noun, upon
hearing that Maria Clara died in the nunnery, decides not to give the signal for the outbreak
of the uprising,

Another plan is made some months later. At the venue of the wedding reception of
Juanito Pelaez and Paulita Gomez, Simoun plants many explosives enough to kill the guests,
primarily the friars and government officials. According to the plot, the big explosion shall
be started by the gift he will give to the newlyweds at the reception a kerosene lamp with
an explosive. When the lamp flickers and someone turns the wick, it will result in a big
explosion that will become a signal to the revolutionary troops to simultaneously attack all
the government buildings in Manila.

During the reception, Simoun gives his gift to the newlyweds. Before hurriedly
leaving the venue, he leaves a piece of mysterious paper bearing the message "You will die
tonight" signed by Juan Crisostomo Ibarra. Meanwhile, Isagani, the rejected lover of Paulita,
is standing outside the reception. His friend Basilio tells him to leave the place because the
lamp will soon blow up.
When Father Salvi identifies the handwriting in the note and confirms that it is
indeed Ibarra's, the guests begin to panic. When the lamp flickers, Father Irene tries to turn
the wick up. But Isagani, wanting to save Paulita's life, rushes into the house, grabs the
lamp, and throws it into the river where it explodes.

Simoun's revolutionary plot is thus known, and he is hunted by the law enforcers. He
manages to escape but is seriously wounded. Carrying his jewelry chest, he finds shelter by
Learning of the presence of the priest the lieutenant of the Guardia Civil informs Padre
Florentino that he will come in the evening to arrest Simoun.

Simoun then takes poison so that he will not be caught alive. As the poison’s effects
start to take t l on his body, he confesses to Florentino his identity and his plan of revenge
through a bloody revolution After the emotional and agonizing confession of the dying marc
the priest absolves the dying man of his sins. saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun He
knows that we are fallible. He has seen that you have suffered He has frustrated your plans
one by one first by the death of Maria Clara. then by a lack of preparation than in some
mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and render Him thanks!”

The story ends with the priest throwing Simoun's treasures into the sea so that they
will not be used by the greedy. The priest hopes that when the Tight time comes, they will
be recovered and used only for the good.
Characters of El Filibusterismo

1. Simoun Crisostomo Ibarra in disguise, was left for dead at the end of Noli Me
Tangere. Ibarra has resurfaced as the wealthy jeweler, Simoun, sporting a beard, blue-tinted
glasses, and a revolver. Fueled by his mistreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and his
fury at Maria Clara's fate, Simoun secretly plans a revolution to seek revenge against those
who wronged him.

2. Basilio Son of Sisa and another character from Noli Me Tangere. After his
mother's death, he became a vagabond until Captain Tiago took him in out of pity and hired
him as a houseboy in exchange for sending him to school. In the events of the book, he is a
graduating medical student who discovered Simoun's true identity and befriended him. His
girlfriend is Julie.

3. Isagani - Basilio's friend and one of the students who planned to set up a new
school. He is very idealistic and hopes for a better future for the Philippines. His girlfriend
was the rich and beautiful Paulita Gomez, but they broke up once he was arrested. Despite
this, his love for her still endured. He sabotaged Simounts plans by removing the lamp that
contained explosives and throwing it into the waters.

4. Kabesang Tales - Cabeza Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former Cabeza de barangay

(barangay head) of Sagpang, a barangay in San Diego's neighboring town Tiani, who
resurfaced as the feared Luzón bandit Matanglawin, He is the son of Tandang Selo, and
father of Juli and Tano.

5. Don Custodio - Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous

"journalist" who was asked by the students about his decision for the Academia de
Castellano. He is quite an ordinary fellow who married a rich woman to be a member of
Manila's high society.

6. 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 Juanito Peláez are wed, and she dumps Isagani, believing that
she will have no future if she marries him.

7. Macaraig - One of Isagani's classmates at the University of Santo Tomas. He is a

rich student and serves as the leader of the student yearning to build the Academia de
Castellano.

8. Father Florentino - Isagani's godfather, and a secular priest; was engaged to be

married but chose to be a priest after being pressured by his mother, the story hinting at
the ambivalence of his decision as he chooses an assignment to a remote place, living in
solitude near the sea. Florentino also harbors great hatred for the corrupt Spanish friars. He
offered shelter to Don Tiburcio de Espada when the latter was hiding from his wife, Donya
Victorina.
 9. Juli - Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of
Kabesang Tales. To claim her father from the bandits, she had to work as a maid under the
supervision of Hermana Penchang. Eventually, she was freed but committed suicide after
Father Camorra attempted to rape her.

10. Juanito Pelaez - A favorite student of the professors. They belong to noble
Spanish ancestry. After failing in his grades, he became Paulita's new boyfriend and they
eventually wed.

11. Doña Matutinay Victorina delos Reyes de Espadaña, known in Noli Me Tangere
as Tiburcio de Espadaña's cruel wife. She is the aunt of Paulita Gomez and favors Juanito
Pelaez over Isagani. She is searching for her husband, who has left her and is in hiding.
Although of Indio heritage, she considers herself as one of the Peninsular.

12. Father Camorra - The lustful parish priest of Tiani, San Diego's adjacent town
who has longtime desires for young women. He nearly raped Juli causing the latter to
commit suicide.

13. Ben-Zayb - The pseudonym of Abraham Ibañez, a journalist who believes he is

the "only" one thinking in the Philippines. Ben-Zayb is an anagram of Ybanez, an alternate
spelling of his name.

14. Placido Penitente - A student of the University of Santo Tomas who was very
intelligent and wise but did not want, if not only by his mother’s plea, to pursue his studies.
He also controls his temper against Padre Millon, his physics teacher. During his High School
days, he was an honor student hailing from Batangas.

15. Hermana Penchang - Sagpang's rich pusakal (gambler). She offers Juli to be her
aid so the latter can obtain money to free Kabesang Tales. Disbelieving Juli and her close
friends, she considers herself an ally of the friars.

16. Tiburcio de Espadaña - Don Tiburcio is Victorina de Espadaña’s lame husband. He

is currently in hiding at Father Florentino's.

17. Father Irene - Captain Tiago's spiritual adviser. Although reluctant, he helped the
students to establish the Academia de Castellano after being convinced by giving him a
chestnut. The only witness to Captain Tiago's death, he forged the last will of the latter so
Basilio will obtain nothing from the inheritance,

18. Quiroga - A Chinese businessman who dreamed of being a consul for his country
in the He hid Simouns weapons inside his house.

19. Don Timoteo Pelaez - Juanito's father. He is a rich businessman and arranges a
wedding for his son and Paulita. He and Simoun became business partners,

20. Tandang Selo - Father of Kabesang Tales and grandfather of Tano and Juli. He
raised the sick and young Basilio after he left their house in Noli me Tangere. He died in an
encounter in the mountains with his son Tales when he was killed by a battalion that
included his grandson, Tano.

21. Father Fernandez - The priest-friend of Isagani. He promised Isagani that he and
the other priests will give in to the student’s demands.

22. Sandoval - The vice-leader of Macaraig's gang. A Spanish classmate of Isagani, he

coerces his classmates to lead alongside him in the opening of the Spanish language
academy.

23. Hermana Bali - Another wealthy gambler in Tiani. She became Juli's mother-
figure and counselor; helped to release Kabesang Tales from the hands of bandits.

24. Father Millon - A Dominican friar who serves as the Physics professor at the
University of Santo Tomas, He always becomes vindictive with Placido and always taunts
him during class. Millon is based on/inspired by an ill-mannered Dominican friar who was
Rizal's anatomy professor in Santo Tomas.

25. Tadeo - Macaraig's classmate He, along with the other three members of their
gang, supposedly posted the posters that "thanked" Don Custodio and Father Irene for the
opening of the Academia de Castellanos

26. Leeds - An American who holds stage plays starring severed heads; he is good
friends with Simoun.

27. Tano - Kabesang Tales's elder son after his older sister, Lucia died in childhood.
He took up the pseudonym "Carolina" after returning from exile in the Caroline Islands and
became a civil guard. He was among the battalion that killed his grandfather, Selo, who was
part of a group of attacking rebels

28. Pepay - Don Custodio's supposed "girlfriend". A dancer, she is always agitated
about her "boyfriend's" plans. She seems to be a close friend of Macaraig.

29. Gobernador General - The highest-ranking official in the Philippines during the
Spanish colonial period, this unnamed character pretends that what he is doing is for the
good of the Indios, the local citizens of the country, but, he prioritizes the needs of his
fellow Spaniards living in the country.

30. Father Hernando de la Sibyla - A Dominican friar introduced in Noli Me Tangere,

now the vice-rector of the University of Santo Tomas.

31. Pecson – ca classmate who had no idea about the happenings occurring around
him. He Ssuggestedthat they held the mock celebration at the panciteria.

32. Father Bernardo Salvi - Former parish priest of San Diego in Noli Me Tangere,
now the director and chaplain of the Santa Clara convent.
 33. Capitan Tiago – Santiago Delos Santos, Captain Tiago is Maria Clara’s stepfather
and the foster father to Basilio. His health disintegrates gradually because of his frequent
smoking of opium until he died.

COMPARISON OF THE TWO NOVELS OF RIZAL

FEATURE/ASPECT NOLI ME TANGERE EL FILIBUSTERISMO

Date &Place March 21, 1887 September 18, 1891

of Publication Berlin, Germany Ghent, Belgium
Spanish (Laguage) Noli Me Tangere El Filbusterismo
English (Language) Touch Me Not The Reign of Creed
The Social Cancer
Filipino (Langauge) Huwag mo akong salingin Ang Paghahari ng
Kasakiman
Genre The romantic novel is a story Political novel, a story of
of exposing the real revenge and revolution
situation in the Philippines
Concept An idealist choosing To revenge the suffering of
peaceful reforms in Politics, the family and countrymen
Social, Economic, and resulting from bitter and
Education traumatic experiences, and
the failure of the revolution
planned by Simoun
Dedication Motherland GOMBURZA
Length 64 Chapters 38 Chapters
Inspiration of Rizal in Uncle Tom’s Cabin The Count of Monte Cristo
writing the novel and the Wandering Jew

The Novel’s Legacy

For fearlessly depicting the corruptions and abuses by the Spanish clergy and the
colonial government during the Spanish regime in the Philippines, the two novels are
historically very significant. A social sketch of the country then, the Noll' and Fili reveal the
true setting and condition of Filipino society in the era.

As essential sources of sociological and anthropological studies, the books provide

rich insights into the culture of the 19th and 20th-century Philippines, their realistic
depictions expose a conflicted colonial society seriously split between the oppressors and
the suffering local slaves. The novels' characters mimic the various elements and types of
individuals in that society. Furthermore, they show favorable positive traits of the natives
then, like the sense of gratitude, the fidelity of women to their loved ones, and the yearning
for freedom and equality

For their explicit portrayal of what the locals wished for their country the books were
instrumental in forming the Filipino's (Indios) sense of national identity Indirectly but
significantly, the novels influenced the revolution led by the Katipunan as they inspired
Andres Bonifacio and the other revolutionaries in their cause.

Rizal was arrested, exiled to Dapitan, and ultimately executed in 1896 based
principally on his writings in 1956, the Philippine Congress passed the Rizal Law (Republic
Act 1425) requiring all levels of Philippine schools to teach as part of the curriculum the
hero's two novels.

Originally Written in Spanish, the Noli and the Fili had been translated into various
languages like Filipino, English, German, French, and Chinese. and some other Philippine
languages. In 2007, an English version of Noli Me Tangere was released to major Australian
bookstores. It was published by Penguin Books Classics as part of the publication's
commitment to publish the major literary classics of the world.