Title

The title is Latin for "Touch me not", and is taken from John 20:17 in the Bible, where a newly-
risen Jesus admonishes a bewildered Mary Magdalene: Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to
my Father.[1]
Early English translations of the novel used titles like An Eagle Flight (1900) and The Social
Cancer (1912), disregarding the symbolism of the title, but the more recent translations were
published using the original Latin title. It has also been noted by the Austro-
Hungarian writer Ferdinand Blumentritt that "Noli Me Tngere" was a name used
by ophthalmologists for cancer of the eyelids; that as an ophthalmologist himself Rizal was
influenced by this fact is suggested in the novel's dedication, "To My household".

Background
Jos 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 ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. He was then a student
of medicine in 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 tite, among whom
were Pedro, Maximino Viola and Antonio Paterno, Graciano Lpez 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.

Plot
Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisostomo Magsalin Ibarra (Spanish Juan
Crisstomo Ibarra y Magsalin) returns to the Philippines after a seven-year absence. In his honor,
Don Santiago de los Santos, also known as "Captain Tiago", a family friend, throws a reunion party,
attended by friars and other prominent figures. One of the guests, a Franciscan friar named Dmaso
Vardolagas, the former curate of San Diego, belittled and slandered Ibarra.
The next day, Ibarra visits his betrothed Mara Clara, the beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago and
affluent resident of Binondo. Their long-standing love was clearly manifested in this meeting, and
Mara Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to
Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego in time for the town fiesta, Lieutenant Guevara, a Civil
Guard, reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a
rich hacendero of the town.
According to Guevara, Rafael discovered the abuses and corruption committed by the friars.
Although a practicing Catholic, Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such
as Confession and Mass were caused by another discovery of Damaso's evil acts. He was then
alleged by Damaso as a subversive and was unjustly accused of being a heretic. Fr. Dmaso's
animosity towards Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out to
stop a fight between a tax collector and a child, with the former's accidental death being blamed on
him. People who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. Rafael was imprisoned, and
just when the matter was almost settled, he died of an illness in jail. Guevara adds that Rafael's
remains, formerly interred at the local cemetery, were ordered by Dmaso to be exhumed and
transferred to the Chinese cemetery, which Damaso believes is a burial place for heathens; people
who do not acknowledge God few years past. However the graveyard caretakers, who sympathize
Rafael and the Ibarra family while also despising the friars, instead threw the remains in the lake to
fool Dmaso.
Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans, instead he carried through his father's plan of putting up a school,
since he believed education would pave the way to his country's progress (all throughout the novel,
the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries but part of the 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 Elas a mysterious
man who had warned Ibarra earlier of a plot to assassinate him not warned him of the plot (which
involved the derrick supporting the cornerstone to be laid on the foundation collapsing on him).
Instead the hired assassin was killed.
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosted a luncheon wherein Dmaso attended despite not being invited.
The friar again insulted Ibarra, who ignored the priest's insolence. But when Dmaso slandered the
memory of his dead father, Ibarra was no longer able to restrain himself. He picks up a knife and
lunged at Dmaso, holding the knife to his neck. After Ibarra tells everyone the truth about the friar's
evil acts and what he had done to insult his late father, he berates Dmaso and prepares to stab him
to death only for Maria Clara to stop him out of mercy. Ibarra aborts his plan to kill Dmaso, and
is excommunicated for assaulting a cleric after news of the incident reaches the Church. Damaso
takes this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant Tiago to forbid his daughter from marrying
Ibarra. The friar instead wanted Mara Clara to marry Alfonso Linares de Espadaa,
a Peninsular who just arrived from Spain.
With the help of the sympathetic Governor-General, Ibarra's excommunication was lifted
by Archbishop of Manila and he (the Archbishop) receives him into the Church once again. A revolt
happened soon after, and both Spanish colonial officials and friars implicated Ibarra as its
mastermind. Thus, he was arrested and detained, then later disdained by those who had become his
friends.
Meanwhile, in Capitn Tiago's residence, a party was being held to announce the upcoming wedding
of Mara Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elas and the sympathetic Governor-General,
took this opportunity to escape from prison. Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to Mara Clara and accused
her of betraying him, thinking she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. Mara Clara explained that
she would never conspire against him, but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to Father
Salv, in exchange for the letters written by her mother, Doa Pia, even before she, Mara Clara, was
born. The letter states that Damaso is Maria Clara's real father.
Mara Clara, thinking Ibarra had been killed in the shooting incident, was greatly overcome with grief.
Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asked Dmaso to confine her to a nunnery. Dmaso
reluctantly agreed when she threatened to take her own life, demanding, the nunnery or
death![2] Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra was still alive and able to escape, as it was Elas who had taken
the shots.
On Christmas Eve, a fatally injured Elas awakens in a forested land owned by Ibarra's family, where
he had instructed Ibarra to meet him. Instead, Elas found the altar boy Basilio cradling his already-
dead mother, Sisa. The woman descended to madness after learning that Basilio and her other son,
Crispn, were chased out of the convento by the sacristan mayor on suspicions of stealing two gold
pieces.
Elas, convinced he would die soon, instructs Basilio to build a funeral pyre and cremate his and
Sisa's corpses. He tells Basilio that, if nobody reaches the place, he was to return later and dig some
of Ibarra's treasures and gold buried in a concealed spot near their graves then use them to get
education. 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, wh

Elas died thereafter.
In the epilogue, it was explained that Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the
public opium den in Binondo. Mara Clara became a nun and Salv, who had lusted after her from
the beginning of the novel, regularly used her to sate his carnal desires. One stormy evening, a
beautiful yet insane woman was seen on the roof of the nunnery, crying and cursing the heavens for
the fate it had handed her. While the woman was never identified by name, the novel insinuates that
it was Mara Clara.

Publication history