The TITLE


The title, in meaning Touch me
not, refers to John 20:17 in the
as
tried to touch the newly
risen , He said "Touch me not;
for I am not yet ascended to my
Father."
 
JOSE RIZAL preferred that the
prospective novel expresses the
backward, anti-progress and
anti-intellectual way Filipino
culture was.
 
 On JUNE 2, 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.
 PUBLICATION

 Rizal finished the novel in December 1886.
 Rizal feared the novel might not be printed, and
that it would remain unread.
 A financial aid came from a friend named
Máximo Viola which helped him print his book
at a fine print media in Berlin named Berliner
Buchdruckerei-Aktiengesellschaft.
 
Son of a Filipino
businessman, Don Rafael
Ibarra, he studied in
Europe for seven
years. Ibarra is also María
Clara's fiancé. Several
sources claim that Ibarra is
also Rizal's reflection.
 María Clara

 Ibarra's fiancée. She was
raised by Capitán Tiago and
is the most beautiful and
widely celebrated girl in San
Diego.
 an illegitimate daughter of
Father Dámaso.
Capitan Tiago

 Santiago de los Santos, known by his
nickname Tiago and political
title Capitán Tiago is a Filipino
businessman and the cabeza de
barangay or head of barangay of the
town of San Diego. He is also the known
father of María Clara.
 Padre Dámaso
or Padre
 Dámaso Verdolagas,
Dámaso is a Franciscan friar
and the former parish curate
of San Diego. He is best
known as a notorious
character who speaks with
harsh words and has been a
cruel priest during his stay in
the town.
 Elias

 Elías is Ibarra's mysterious
friend and ally. He wants to
revolutionize the country and to
be freed from Spanish
oppression.
 Pilosopong Tacio

 DON ANASTASIO: Seeking for
reforms from the government, he
expresses his ideals in paper written
in a cryptographic alphabet "that the
future generations may be able to
decipher it" and realized the abuse
and oppression done by the
conquerors.
 Doña Victorina

Doña Victorina de los Reyes de
Espadaña, is an ambitious Filipina
who classifies herself as a Spanish
and mimics Spanish ladies by
putting on heavy make-up.
 Sisa, Crispín, and Basilio

Narcisa or Sisa is the deranged
mother of Basilio and Crispín.
Described as beautiful and
young, although she loves her
children very much, she can not
protect them from the beatings of
her husband, Pedro.
 
 Crispín is Sisa's 7-year-old son. An altar
boy, he was unjustly accused of stealing
money 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 the dream of Basilio
suggests that Crispín died during his
encounter with Padre Salvi and his minion.
 
Basilio is Sisa's 10-year-old son. An acolyte
tasked to ring the church 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, Elías wished Basilio to bury him by
burning in exchange of chest of gold located
on his death ground. He will later play a
major role in El Filibusterismo.
 
Having completed his studies in
Europe,
comes back to the
Philippines after a 7-year
absence.
 
In his honor,
a
family friend, threw a get-
together party, which was
attended by friars and other
prominent figures.
 
One of the guests, former San
Diego curate
belittled and
slandered Ibarra.
 
The next day, Ibarra visits
, his love, the
beautiful daughter of
Captain Tiago and affluent
resident of Binondo.
 
Their long-standing love was
clearly manifested in this meeting,
and María Clara cannot help but
reread the letters her sweetheart
had written her before he went to
Europe.
 
Before Ibarra left for San Diego,
Lieutenant Guevara, a Civil
Guard, reveals to him the
incidents preceding the death of
his father, , a
rich hacendero of the town.
 
According to Guevara, Don Rafael
was unjustly accused of being a
heretic, in addition to being a
subversive — an allegation brought
forth by Dámaso because of Don
Rafael's non-participation in the
Sacraments, such as Confession
and Mass.
 
Dámaso's animosity against Ibarra's
father is aggravated by another incident
when Don Rafael helped out on a fight
between a tax collector and a child
fighting, and the former's death was
blamed on him, although it was not on
purpose.
 
Suddenly, all of those who
thought ill of him surfaced
with additional complaints. He
was imprisoned, and just when
the matter was almost settled,
he died of sickness in jail.
Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans,
instead he carried through his father's
plan of putting up a school, since he

believed that education would pave the
way to his country's progress (all over
the novel the author refers to both
Spain and the Philippines as two
different countries as part of a same
nation or family, with Spain seen as the
mother and the Philippines as the
daughter).
During the inauguration of the
school, Ibarra would have been

killed in a sabotage had
— a mysterious man who had
warned Ibarra earlier of a plot
to assassinate him — not saved
him. Instead the hired killer
met an unfortunate incident
and died.
 
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosted a
luncheon during which Dámaso, gate-
crashing the luncheon, again insulted him.
Ibarra ignored the priest's insolence, but
when the latter slandered the memory of his
dead father, he was no longer able to restrain
himself and lunged at Dámaso, prepared to
stab him for his impudence
 

As a consequence,
Dámaso excommunicated Ibarra, taking this
opportunity to persuade the already-
hesitant Tiago to forbid his daughter from
marrying Ibarra. The friar wished María
Clara to marry Linares, a Peninsular who
had just arrived from Spain.
 
With the help of the Governor-
General, Ibarra's excommunication
was nullified and the Archbishop
decided to accept him as a member of
the Church once again.
 
Meanwhile, in Capitan Tiago's
residence, a party was being held to
announce the upcoming wedding of
María Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with
the help of Elías, took this opportunity
to escape from prison.
Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to
María Clara and accused her of
betraying him, thinking that she

gave the letter he wrote her to the
jury. María Clara explained that she
would never conspire against him,
but that she was forced to surrender
Ibarra's letter to Father Salvi, in
exchange for the letters written by
her mother even before she, María
Clara, was born.
María Clara, thinking that
Ibarra had been killed in the
shooting 
incident, was
greatly overcome with grief.
Robbed of hope and
severely disillusioned, she
asked Dámaso to confine
her into a nunnery.
Dámaso reluctantly agreed
when she threatened to take

her own life, demanding, "the
nunnery or death!“
Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra
was still alive and able to
escape. It was Elías who had
taken the shots.
It was Christmas Eve when
Elías woke up in the forest

fatally wounded, as it is here
where he instructed Ibarra to
meet him. Instead, Elías
found the altar boy Basilio
cradling his already-dead
mother, Sisa.
 
The latter lost her mind when she
learned that her two sons,
Crispín and Basilio, were chased
out of the convent by the
sacristan mayor on suspicions of
stealing sacred objects.
Elías, convinced that he
would die soon, instructs
Basilio to builda funeral pyre
and burn his and Sisa's
bodies to ashes. He tells
Basilio that, if nobody reaches
the place, he come back later
on and dig for he will find
gold.
He also tellshim (Basilio) to
take the gold he finds and go
to school. In his dying
breath, he instructed Basilio
to continue dreaming about
freedom for his motherland
with the words:
 
“I shall die without seeing the
dawn break upon my
homeland. You, who shall see
it, salute it! Do not forget
those who have fallen during
the night”
 
Elías died thereafter.
 EPILOGUE

Tiago became addicted to
opium and was seen to
frequent the opium house
in Binondo to satiate his
addiction.
 EPILOGUE

María Clara became a nun
where Salví, who has
lusted after her from the
beginning of the novel,
regularly used her to
fulfill his lust.
 EPILOGUE

One stormy evening, a
beautiful crazy woman was
seen at the top of the convent
crying and cursing the
heavens for the fate it has
handed her.
 EPILOGUE

While the woman was
never identified, it is
insinuated that the said
woman was Maria
Clara.
 EL FILIBUSTERISMO

Thirteen years after leaving the Philippines,
Crisostomo Ibarra returns as Simoun, a rich
jeweler sporting a beard and blue-tinted
glasses, and a confidant of the Captain-
General. Abandoning his idealism, he
becomes a cynical saboteur, seeking revenge
against the Spanish Philippine system
responsible for his misfortunes by plotting a
revolution.
 
Simoun insinuates himself into
Manila high society and
influences every decision of the
Captain-General to mismanage
the country’s affairs so that a
revolution will break out.
 

He cynically sides with the upper

classes, encouraging them to
commit abuses against the masses
to encourage the latter to revolt
against the oppressive Spanish
colonial regime.
  not attempt to
This time, he does
fight the authorities through legal
means, but through violent
revolution using the masses.
Simoun has reasons for instigating
a revolution. First is to rescue
María Clara from the convent and
second, to get rid of ills and evils
of Philippine society.
 
His true identity is discovered
by a now grown-up Basilio
while visiting the grave of his
mother, Sisa, as Simoun was
digging near the grave site for
his buried treasures.
Simoun spares Basilio’s life and
asks him to join in his planned
revolution against the
government, egging him on by
bringing up the tragic
misfortunes of the latter's
family. Basilio declines the offer
as he still hopes that the
country’s condition will
improve.
Basilio, at this point, is a
graduating student of medicine at
 de Manila.
the Ateneo Municipal
After the death of his mother,
Sisa, and the disappearance of his
younger brother, Crispín, Basilio
heeded the advice of the dying
boatman, Elías, and traveled to
Manila to study.
Basilio was adopted by Captain
Tiago after María Clara entered the
 Tiago’s help,
convent. With Captain
Basilio was able to go to Colegio de
San Juan de Letrán where, at first,
he is frowned upon by his peers and
teachers not only because of the
color of his skin but also because of
his shabby appearance.
Captain Tiago’s confessor, Father Irene
is making Captain Tiago’s health worse

by giving him opium even as Basilio
tries hard to prevent Captain Tiago
from smoking it. He and other students
want to establish a Spanish language
academy so that they can learn to speak
and write Spanish despite the
opposition from the Dominican friars of
theUniversidad de Santo Tomás.
With the help of a reluctant Father
Irene as their mediator and Don
Custodio’s decision, the academy is
established; however they will only
serve as caretakers of the school not
as the teachers. Dejected and
defeated, they hold a mock
celebration at a pancitería while a
spy for the friars witnesses the
proceedings
Simoun, for his part, keeps in close
contact with the bandit group of
Kabesang Tales, a former cabeza de
barangay who suffered misfortunes
at the hands of the friars. Once a
farmer owning a prosperous
sugarcane plantation and a cabeza
de barangay (barangay head), he
was forced to give everything to the
greedy and unscrupulous Spanish
friars.