The Plot

Noli Me Tangere

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra returns home to San Diego, been

away for 7 years
Don Rafael Ibarra died in prison for accidental killing of a
Spanish tax-collector
Ibarra works on establishing a school patterned after
progressive schools in Europe
An attempt is made on Ibarras life but he is saved by Elias

The Plot
Noli Me Tangere

Ibarra was excommunicated by the friar, but he is soon

absolved by the archbishop
Ibarra is implicated as the leader of a false rebellion
Elias died while Ibarra escaped
Maria Clara enters the nunnery of the Poor Clares

The Plot
Noli Me Tangere

Which literally means touch me not, sketches a wound

that has reached the point where even the healers touch
causes more agony than relief. It shows the concerned
healer the actions a pained society might possibly resort to
in the moment of despair. Such despair could force the
patient to insurgence, as El Filibusterismo, the sequel,
suggests.

The Plot
Noli Me Tangere

Attempted to expose the plight of the Philippine

inhabitants who lived by the mercy and whims of the
Spanish rulers who considered the natives with derision
and exploitation

The Plot
El Filibusterismo

After 13 years, Ibarra returns to San Diego, disguised as

Simoun on board the dingy steamer Tabo
Basilion stumbles on Simouns secret on a Christmas day
visit to his mothers grave
Simoun attempts to ignite the fires of rebellion twice, but
failed in both times
Simoun took poison to escape his pursuers, then he died

The Plot
El Filibusterismo

Was Rizals contribution in acquainting the people with the

demands of the revolution so that they would have
sufficient basis for whatever decision they were to take in
their involvement in the movement

The Plot
El Filibusterismo

After Fil came off the press Rizal decided to come home,
as if hurriedly attracted by an irresistible force to found a
nation.
First, the national consciousness or the idea of nation
must be aroused and formed in the minds of the
Filipinos.
Second, to the awakening would be organization

The Plot
On the night of 19 November 1891, Rizal arrived in
Hongkong and on 1 December of the same year, he wrote to
his parents.
I am following step by step by step the painful calvary which you travel.
If you would permit me to join you there, what happiness that would be!
Perhaps everything would change. Give me, then, this permission and I
shall go immediately. Hopefully, I am sure that we will fare well.

The Plot
I have known of the departure of our four townmates to Jolo and the
return of my brother to Manila. I also knew that nanay, pangoy, and
trining have been recalled by the civil government. Patience, a little
patience. Valor.

As time presses, I close this letter.

I burn with desire to embrace you.

The Plot
The cover of Noli Me Tangere was designed by Rizal. It is a sketch
of explicit symbols. A womans head atop a Maria Clara bodice
represents the nation and the women, victims of the social cancer.
One of the causes of the cancer is symbolized in the friars feet,
outsized in relation to the womens head. The other aggravating
causes of oppression and discrimination are sown in the guards
helmet and the iron chains, the teachers whip and the Alferezs
scourge. A slight cluster of bamboo stands at the backdrop; these
are the people, forever in the background of their own countrys
history. There are a cross, a maze, flowers and thorny plants, a
flame; these are indicative of the religious policy, the misdirected
ardor, the people strangled as a result of all these.

The Purpose
Rizals purpose in writing the novels is defined in his dedication of Noli Me Tangere:
To my Country:
In the catalogue of human ills there is to be found a cancer so malignant that the least
touch inflames it and causes agonizing pains; afflicted with such a cancer, has your dear image
appeared to me, when for my own hearts ease or to compare you with others, I have sought, in the
centers of modern civilization, to call you to mind.

The Purpose
Now, desirous of your welfare, which is also ours, and seeking for the best cure for your
ills, I shall do with you what was done in ages past with the sick, who were exposed on the steps of
the temple so that the worshippers, having invoked the gods, should each propose a remedy.

To this end I shall endeavour to show you condition, faithfully and ruthlessly. I shall lift a
corner of the veil which shrouds the disease, sacrificing to the truth everything, even self-love for, as
your son, your defects and weaknesses are also mine.

The Purpose
The fervor in Rizals nationalism is felt in the dedication of El
Filibusterismo:
To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez, eighty five, Don Jose Burgos,
thirty, and Don Jacinto Zamora, thirty-five, who were executed on the scaffold of
Bagumbayan on 28 February 1872.

The Purpose
The church by refusing to unfrock you has put in doubt the crime charged
against you; the government by enshrouding your trial in mystery and pardoning your
co-accused has implied that some mistake was committed when you fate was decided;
and the whole of the Philippines in paying homage to your memory and calling you
martyrs totally rejects your guilt.

The Purpose
As long therefore as it is not clearly shown that you tool part in the
uprising in Cavite, I have the right, whether or not you were patriots and whether or
not you were seeking justice and liberty, to dedicate my work to you as victims of the
evil I am trying to fight. And while we wait for Spain to clear your names someday,
refusing to be a party to your death, let these pages serve as a belated wreath of
withered leaves on your forgotten graves. Whoever attacks your memory without
sufficient proof has your blood upon his hands.

Ibarra - Simoun
Ibarra:

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra

Don Rafael Ibarra
Well-mannered, educated, and respectful
Requested the construction of a public school in San
Diego

Ibarra - Simoun
Simoun:

An influential jeweler
Dresses in the English fashion
Started and planned the failed revolution

Maria Clara

Fiancee of Ibarra
Raised by Capitan Tiago
Real father: Padre Damaso
Most beautiful girl
Later became a nun
Leonor Rivera

Elias
Ibarras knight in shining armor/prince charming
Wants to revolutionize the country and be freed from
Spanish oppression
It was his familys misfortune that led him to become
an outlaw
Andres Bonifacio

Tasio
Don Anastacio
Tasio the scholar; Tasio the fool/insane
Was made to choose between becoming a priest or
leaving college
Became Ibarras sympathizer and ally
Tried to testify for Ibarras innocence
Paciano Rizal

Tasio
Symbolizes those Filipinos who once embraced the
culture of the Spaniards but then eventually was
disappointed and disheartened upon learning the
treatment Filipinos received from the Spaniards.

Father Damaso

Damaso Verdolagas
Franciscan Friar and former priest of San Diego
Best known for his notorious character
Takes advantage of people
Enemy of Don Rafael and Crisostomos number one
hater
Real father of Maria Clara

Capitan Tiago
Don Santiago
Businessman and head of the barangay of San Diego
Richest property owner in Binondo, Pampanga, and
San Diego
He patrionizes trends but not new ideas
Father of Maria Clara
Money comes first
Abuses opium

The Espadaas
Doa Victorina:
Ambitious and classifies herself as Spanish
Despises her Filipino admirers
Don Tiburcio de Espadaa:
Came to the Philippines to be a custom official
Married Doa Victorina
Doctor of medicine

The Others
Sisa represents the motherland
Crispin represents innocent people that have been
wrongly accused
Basilio symbolizes the Filipino youth
Cabesang Tales represents the injustice people who
has no voice in the society experiences
Juli sacrificed herself for her family and her beloved.

The Others
Father Florentino a native/Filipino priests whom
Ibarra confesses to before his death
Isagani nephew of Father Florentino and the one
who devoted himself in saving Paulita but failed
Simon
Paulita Gomez niece of Dona Victorina and beloved
of Isagani

Decadence in the Social Order

below decks could be seen brown faces and black hair; natives, Chinese, halfbreeds, jammed in among baggage and cargo, while above them on the upper deck,
under the awning that protected them from the sun, a handful of passengers
dressed in European style, friars and officials were seated in comfortable
armchairs smoking huge cigars and admiring the view, without taking the
slightest notice of the effort of the skipper and the crew to negotiate the difficulties
of the passage.

Abuses of the Religious Authorities

The chief moral, political, and civil authority in the
town, supported by his Order, feared by the
Government, rich, powerful, consulted, listened to,
believed and obeyed always by all.

Abuses of the Religious Authorities

Listen to what the Holy Councils say. When a native meets a priest on the
street, he shall bend his head and offer his neck so that the Father may lean on
it; if the priest and the native are both on horseback, then the native shall
stop, and shall take off his hat reverently; and finally, if the native is on
horseback and the priest is on foot, the native shall get off his horse and will
not remount until the priest tells him to be off, or has gone out of sight. That
is what the Holy Councils say, and whoever does not obey shall be
excommunicated.

Abuses of the Religious Authorities

But the natives should not know Spanish, dont you realize that?
When they do, they start arguing with us and they have no business
arguing, all they should is pray and obey, they have no business
interpreting laws and books.

Corruption in the Civil Government

Here, we old soldiers must do everything and be everything: King, Ministers of State, of
War, of the Interior, of Economic Development, of Justice, and all that. What is worse, we
must consult the home government on every point, and that distant government, according to
the circumstances, approves or disapproves our proposals, sometimes without knowing anything
about them. And we Spaniards say: jack of all trades, master of none! Furthermore, we
come, usually knowing little about the country, and leave it just when we are getting to know
it. We in the Government do not lack good intentions, but we are compelled to make use of
the eyes and arms of others whom we usually do not know, and who perhaps, instead of
serving the interests of the country, only serve their own. That is not our fault but that of
circumstances.

Guardia Civil
It paralyzes communications because everybody is afraid of being harassed for petty causes. It is
concerned with appearances rather than with fundamentals one of the first symptoms of
incapacity. A man has tied and beaten up because he has forgotten his identity card, no matter if he
is a decent person with a good reputation. The officers think it is their first duty to exact a salute,
willing or unwilling, even at night, and they are imitated in this by their subordinates, who use it as
an excuse although an excuse is never lacking to manhandle and fleece the peasants. The
sanctity of the home does not exist for them; not long ago they entered a house in Calamba through
the window and beat up a peaceful inhabitant to whom their commanding officer owed money and
favours. There is no security for the individual: When they want their barracks or their houses
cleaned, they go out and seize anyone who does not resist and make him work the whole day.

The Defective Educational System

No building designed as a school
Limited by the curriculum prescribed by parish priest
One went to class not to learn but to avoid the mark (of
absence)

The Plight of Filipinos

Filipinos are continuously exploited and harassed by the
authorities.
Sisa
Crispin
Family of Cabesang Tales

It was futile for them to complain against excesses of

authority.
No right to question the authority

The Plight of Filipinos

Many had grown callous through suffering or had
learned by experience that it was dangerous to go
against the establishment.
Seor Pasta
Basilio

Rizal criticized unuttered embarrassment of the natives

for their own ancestry
Capitan Tiago
Doa Victorina

The Plight of Filipinos

Filipinos undiscerning obedience and surrender of
individual judgment
Tertiary sisters and members of municipal board of
San Diego (mayor)

Prevailing ignorance among natives because of fear that

education would bring about an early death
Capitana Tinay

The Urgency of Reforms

Elias
Radical reforms in the armed forces, in the clergy, in the
administration of justice a more paternal approach
from the government; more respect for human dignity,
greater security for the individual, less strength in the
armed forces, less privileges for an organization which
so easily abuses them

The Urgency of Reforms

Isagani
Reforming the faulty educational system
Redefine its educational goals
When we have real professors, you shall have real
students

The Urgency of Reforms

Through Simon,

Take the lead in forming your own individuality, try to lay the
foundations of a Filipino nation. Keep alive our native culture for
our people and develop an independent, not colonial, mentality

Symbolic Characters
Maria Clara

Presented as the fruit of an illicit and immoral

relationship symbolizes the product of the vices of its
Spanish rulers, among them the friars, and weakness of
natives themselves

Symbolic Characters
Sisa

Features are generally recognized marks of Filipina

beauty
Her traits that she represents motherland, as well as
Rizals own mother and all Filipino women

Response to the Novels

Admiration
Maddening anger and alarm
Electric
Fear
Enlightenment
Aroused Curiosity

Actual Impact

Nationalism
Filipino National Identity
Consciousness
Revolution
Unity
Realization and Awakening
Progress and Nation Building