LESSON # 5: THE LIFE AND
WORKS OF JOSE RIZAL
Noli Me Tangere
The Making of Noli me
Tangere
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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 LópezJaena, Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Julio
Llorente and Valentin Ventura.
● Rizal finished the novel in December1886. 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.
Character
s
Crisostomo
Ibarra
Son of a Filipino businessman,
Don Rafael Ibarra, he studied
in Europe for seven years.
Ibarra is also María Clara’s
fiancé.
Padre
Ďamaso
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
Maria Clara
Ibarra’s fiancée. She was
raised by Capitán Tiago and is
the most beautiful and widely
celebrated girl in San Diego.
Elias
Elías is Ibarra’s mysterious
friend and ally. He wants to
revolutionize the country and to
be freed from Spanish
oppression
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
o
Pilosopong
Tacio
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
is an ambitious Filipina who
classifies herself as a Spanish
and mimics Spanish ladies by
putting on heavy make-up
Sisa
is the deranged mother of Basilio and
Crispín. Described as beautiful and
young, although she loves her children
very much, she cannot protect them
from the beatings of her husband,
Pedro
Basilio
Crispin
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,
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
EPILOGUE
●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 haciendero 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 formers 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, gatecrashing 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.
●Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the opium house
in Binondo to satiate his addiction.
●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.
●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.
●While the woman was never identified, it is insinuated that the said woman
was Maria Clara.
Thank you!!!
“ Baldinar ”
“ Dejucos ”
“ Gracias ”
“ Mingoy ”
“ Papa ”
“ Sarmiento ”
“ Untalasco ”
—Group Members