PAMANTASAN

NG LUNGSOD NG VALENZUELA
Prof. Runnel Santos Baguioet
Life and Works of Dr. Jose Rizal


LESSON 5: Rizal’s Literary Works and Ideas Noli Me Tangere El Filibusterismo Other
Literary Works

Objectives:

1. Appraise important characters of the novel and what they represent

2. Compare and contrast the characters, plot, and theme.

3. Demonstrate the ability to appreciate literary works creatively and evaluate Rizal’s
writings

4. Analyze Rizal’s ideas on how to rewrite Philippine history

5. Value the role of the youth in the development and future of society

6. Produce a creative work that conveys the significance of Rizal for the current
generation

7. Analyze and explain the context of Rizal’s various works


Essential Questions:

1. How does the novel Noli Me Tangere represent the contemporary Philippine society?

2. What does this novel indicate about national consciousness and revolution?

3. What is the major difference of El Filibusterismo to Noli Me Tangere?

4. How important Rizal’s works in analyzing and reimagining Philippine society?

Noli Me Tangere

Introduction:

Jose Rizal’s fame started in 1897 when his book Noli Me Tangere was published.
The novel outlined a new form of Philippine nationalism and influenced a new generation of
revolutionaries.

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. review the political ideals/ideologies of Jose Rizal in his novel Noli Me Tangere; and
2. relate to the contemporary society the political ideologies of Jose Rizal
encompassed in the said novels.


Content

Noli Me Tangere: A Glance

The title of Rizal’s book Noli Me Tangere means ‘Touch Me Not’ is a Latin version words
spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection from John 20:13-17
- It was first written in Spain and was published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany
- The English translation was originally titled The Social Cancer


Below is a letter of the author found in the introductory part of the Noli..

To My Fatherland:
Recorded in the history of human sufferings is a cancer of so malignant a
character that the least touch irritates it and awakens in it the sharpest pains. Thus,
how many times, when in the midst of modern civilizations I have wished to call thee
before me, now to accompany me in memories, now to compare thee with other
countries, hath thy dear image presented itself showing a social cancer like to that
other!
Desiring thy welfare, which is our own, and seeking the best treatment, I will do with
thee what the ancients did with their sick, exposing them on the steps of the temple
so that every one who came to invoke the Divinity might offer them a remedy.
And to this end, I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully, without
discriminations; I will raise a part of the veil that covers the evil, sacrificing to truth
everything, even vanity itself, since, as thy son, I am conscious that I also suffer from
thy defects and weaknesses.- THE AUTHOR






The Main Characters


Crisóstomo Ibarra – known in his full name as Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, a
native who studied in Europe for 7 years. Son of the deceased Don Rafael Ibarra, richest
person in San Diego; Crisostomo changed his surname from Eibarramendia to Ibarra, from
his ancestor's surname.

María Clara – María Clara de los Santos, Ibarra's childhood sweetheart; the daughter of Pía
Alba and Kapitan Tiago- but biologically she was the daughter of Father Damaso


Kapitan Tiago – also known in his full name as Don Santiago de los Santos, he lives in
Binondo; very skilled in business

Father Dámaso – a Franciscan friar and is quite abusive, he is also the former parish priest
of the town of San Diego

Elías – Ibarra's mysterious friend, a master boater, also a fugitive. He was referred to at
one point as "the pilot." He believes that justice can be obtained through a revolution.

Linares – A distant nephew of Don Tiburcio de Espadaña, the would-be fiance of Maria Clara

Captain-General (no specific name) – The most powerful official in the Philippines, a hater
of secular priests and corrupt officials, and a friend of Ibarra.

Sisa – the mother of Basilio and Crispín, who went insane after losing her sons
Basilio – the elder son of Sisa.
Crispín – the younger son of Sisa who died from the punishment of the soldiers from the
false accusation of stealing an amount of money

Padre Sibyla – Hernando de la Sibyla, a
Filipino friar. He is described as short and has fair skin.

Padre Salví – also known in his full name as Bernardo Salví, a secret admirer of María
Clara and the parish priest of San Diego

Pilosopo Tasyo – also known as Don Anastasio, portrayed in the novel as pessimistic,
 cynic, and mad by his neighbors due to his ideas

The Alférez – chief of the Guardia Civil ; mortal enemy of the priests for power in San Diego

Don Tiburcio – Spanish husband of Donya Victorina who is limp and submissive to his
wife; he also pretends to be a doctor

Pedro – abusive husband of Sisa who loves cockfighting

Doña Victorina – Victorina de los Reyes de De Espadaña, a woman who passes herself off
as a Peninsular

Doña Consolación – wife of the alférez, another woman who passes herself as a
Peninsular; best remembered for her abusive treatment of Sisa

Synopsis of the novel:

- The novel starts at a dinner hosted by Kapitan Tiago where the characters were
introduced along with their ideas. We see the power struggle among the friars present.
- Among the characters we meet are a Teniente Guevara, Padre Sibyla (Dominican) Padre
Damaso (Franciscan).

- Padre Damaso spent 20 years as parish priest in San Diego. The angry conversation
between Padre Damaso and the soldier reveals that a good man, whose son was in
Europe, died. His body was exhumed by the San Diego parish priest and was ordered
buried elsewhere.

- Then comes Crisostomo Ibarra the heir of a wealthy clan from San Diego. He returns to the
Philippines after studying for seven years abroad. It will be revealed later on that the
dinner was meant for him in his return to the country. His father Don Rafael was a close
friend of Kapitan Tiago.

- He heard news about the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, who died a year ago. Where
Don Rafael was sent to prison in connection with the death of a tax collector who was
abusing a child.

- Since Don Rafael stopped receiving holy communion for a long time, he was refused
Catholic burial by Padre Damaso, the parish priest of their town

- Although Ibarra learned about the injustices suffered by his father, he decided to focus on
how he can help his fellowmen.

- Ibarra sees the lack of progress in his town and decides to build a school to teach and
prepare his townspeople. Tandang Tacio (the old philosopher) notes that there have
been many attempts to build a school in the past, but all these had failed.

- Padre Salvi opposes the plan because he is secretly worried that the school project will
threaten the power he wields over their town

- Ibarra almost gets killed while he is laying the cornerstone of the school, but Elias saved
him. Elias is the mysterious fellow who also saved Ibarra previously.

-With so many powerful enemies, Ibarra eventually gets implicated in a staged revolution, and
is hunted down by the guardia civil.

- Maria Clara, Ibarra's sweetheart, unwittingly adds to Ibarra's misery when she switches
Ibarra's letter with another letter for fear that will reveal the true identity of her father
(Fr. Damaso)

- Afterwards, Ibarra and Elías board a boat and flee the place. Elías instructs Ibarra to
liedown and the former covers the latter with grass to conceal the latter's presence. As
luck would have it, they are spotted by their enemies. Elías thinks he could outsmart
them and jumps into the water

- The guards rain shots on the person in the water, all the while not knowing that they
aiming at the wrong man.

- María Clara, thinking that Ibarra has been killed in the shooting incident, is greatly
overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asks Father
Dámaso to confine her into a nunnery.

- Father Dámaso reluctantly agrees when María Clara threatens to take her own
demanding, "the nunnery or death!"

- Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra is still alive and able to escape. It was Elías who has the
shots.

- It is Christmas Eve when Elías wakes up in the forest, gravely wounded and barely alive.
It is in this forest that Elías finds Basilio and his lifeless mother, Sisa.

Points to ponder:

3. Crisostomo Ibarra and Elias can actually be compared in terms of their experiences.
Although the former is an immensely wealthy mestizo and the latter, an
impoverished fellow, both have been victimized by the colonial system; yet they
have contrasting ideas in addressing the social evils that surround them. In one
pivotal scene the two debate passionately about their respective views, as though
the author were debating himself. It was through Ibarra that Rizal the social
reformer makes it clear that he believed greatly in the transformative power of
secular education. Rizal greatly advocates the idea that education will set the
Filipinos free!

4. Tasio, the town sage, is elated by Ibarra’s plan for a school but immediately cautions
the young man, “The first advice I will give you is to never come to me for advice
again.”

5. The Noli is clearly anticlerical in its depiction of the friars and of the Catholic
church. Padre Damaso and Padre Salvi, personify clerical abuses—we see not
only power struggle between them but also how they try to stop new ideas for
progress in order to make the people dependent on the church. Rizal’s portraits,
however, are not one- dimensional; rather, they reveal the all-too-human faults of
each priest


6. The novel describes the life in the town of San Diego and its social and
political hierarchy.

7. The author also mocks the mindless religiosity exhibited by Kapitan Tiago and
some other characters, especially the equally wealthy spinster, Doña Patrocinio,
whom Tiago considers his rival and vice versa. Each strives to make as splashy
material offerings as possible to the church, thinking thereby to ensure their
spiritual future. Indulgences were seen as a ticket to heaven amidst the evil deeds
done by the person.


8. Rizal depicts a gap that exists between the Spanish civil administration and clerical
rule.

9. Sisa goes mad due to her harsh treatment by the Guardia Civil, the death of one
son, and the disappearance of another. Critics have said that she is symbolic of
the oppressed mother country
Title: El Filibusterismo

Introduction:

Before Rizal left for Europe, he had to edit and publish El Filibusterismo, the last
chapters of which were finished in Biarritz.
In his next novel, El Filibusterismo, published in 1891, Rizal continued to argue for
reform. Rizal argues that the young are aware of the need to take political action and
pursue social justice. Rizal said, the young people create a sense of reform.
El Filibusterismo is a book about revolution. The failure and death of Simoun, the
main character, of the novel points out the danger of takingan alternative based on hate and
vengeance.


Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Review the political ideologies of Jose Rizal in his novel El Filibuysterismo; and
2. Relate to the contemporary society the political ideologies of Jose Rizal
encompassed in the said novels.


Content

El Filibusterismo
Jose Rizal defined the word to his friend Blumentritt …

"The word filibustero is little known in the Philippines. The masses do not know it
yet. 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, Jose 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 word. It does not have the meaning of freebooters; it rather means a
dangerous patriot who will soon be hanged or well, a presumptuous man."

At the end of the 19th century the word filibustero in the Philippines means “subversive”.
Rizal began writing the book in October 1887 while he was in Calamba and he completed it in
Biarritz in 1891. Finally, he published it in Ghent, Belgium partially funded by his friend
Valentin Ventura



 Main Characters of the El Fili

• Simoun – he is Ibarra, disguised as a wealthy jeweler, concealing himself behind
dark glasses and a goatee; bent on starting a revolution

• Basilio – surviving son of Sisa, now an aspiring doctor who was helped by Cap. Tiago

• Kabesang Tales - Telesforo Juan de Dios, who suffered from the injustices of the
friar; a former cabeza de barangay (barangay head) who resurfaced as the feared
Luzón bandit Matanglawin

• Isagani - poet and Basilio's best friend; portrayed as emotional and reactive;
Paulita Gómez' boyfriend before being dumped for fellow student Juanito
Peláez


• Doña Victorina- a despicable native who tries to present herself as a European,
she is the wife of the quack doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña

• Father Florentino - a native secular priest who is Isagani's godfather; he was
engaged to be married, but chose the priesthood instead, he decides to be assigned
to a remote place, living in solitude near the sea.

• Juli - Juliana de Dios, the youngest daughter of Kabesang Tales and the
girlfriend of Basilio

• Father Camorra- known as the friar-gunner who rapes Juli and drives her to suicide

• Paulita Gómez - The girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doña Victorina. In the
end, she and Juanito Peláez are wed, and she dumps Isagani, believing that she will
have no future if she marries him.

• Ben Zayb - Abraham Ibañez is his real name. He is a journalist who thinks he is
the "only" one thinking in the Philippines.

• Quiroga - a Chinese businessman who dreamt of being a consul of a "Consulate
of China" in the Philippines. He hid Simoun's weapons inside his house.

• Tandang Selo - father of Kabesang Tales. He raised the sick and young Basilio after
his mother Sisa had died.

• Father Fernandez - the priest-friend of Isagani. He promised to Isagani that he
and the other priests will give in to the students' demands

• Padre Sibyla- Hernando de la Sibyla, a Filipino friar and now vice-rector of the
University of Santo Tomas


Placido Penitente - a student of the University of Santo Tomas who is always
miserable, and therefore controls his temper.

• Captain-General (no specific name)- the powerful highest official in the Philippines


SYNOPSIS OF EL FILIBUSTERISMO

• The FILI takes up where the NOLI left off. It is Ibarra who has survived.

• After amassing a great wealth abroad, he returns to the Philippines as Simoun
the jeweler, with the purpose of subversion to the regime.

• He is said to be influential since he is a friend and adviser of the Governor-General

• He uses his power and wealth to encourage corruption in the government and
provoke economic distress to incite the people to a revolution.

• To his dismay, the biggest obstacle to his plan are the young native intellectuals,
who are dedicated to a program of reforms leading to the assimilation of the
Filipinos into the Spanish nation; particularly, the establishment of an academy of
the Spanish language under lay control.

• Simoun has another purpose, to take Maria Clara away from the nunnery, and to
avenge the ruin of his life. (both plans fail)

• In the first plan he wants to seize Manila with the help of disaffected Filipino
regiments and a band of outlaws

• On the eve of the uprising, he was told that Maria Clara died; in grief, he abandons
his allies and is almost killed by them.

• In the second scheme, during the nuptial feast of Paulita Gomez where all the
important people are present, he plans to send as his wedding gift an elaborate
lamp which is really a bomb that once lit will explode.

• When Isagani learned this, he rushes to the house, seize the lamp and jumps with
it in the river.

• Simoun, now a grievously wounded fugitive from justice, takes refuge in the
solitary mountain retreat of Father Florentino, a virtuous Filipino priest.

• He dies before the authorities can arrest him.


 • Fr. Florentino takes the Simoun’s treasure chest and hurls it into the sea, “where
it will not do evil, thwart justice or incite greed.”

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER:

• The story of Cabesang Tales (What is a man to do when he is denied justice, his
own hands or wait for Spainto give him his rights?)

• Tales, a poor farmer, clears a piece of land under difficult conditions. This will
cost his wife and his oldest daughter their lives.

• After the first harvest, the religious order lays claim to the land. Tales does not
want to get himself into conflict with the powerful friars and agrees to pay a
yearly rent.


• The friars double the rent after two good harvests. Again Tales gives in. He is
diligent and because of this, to a certain extent, he is able to lead a tolerably good
life.

• He is well-liked and respected in the village. He became the head of the village and
tax collector, he was given the title Cabesa (from the Spanish word "cabeza",
meaning director or head of the family)

• Soon he realizes that many farmers are too poor to pay their taxes so that he has to
add his own money in order to make up for the total tax quota.


• The friars, however, increase the rent tenfold and answer the protest of the
farmer, Tales, with the threat that if he cannot pay, his land will be confiscated

• Tales goes to court, spends all his savings paying for the lawyers and the
legal expenses and as expected, loses the lawsuit.


• The next day, the administrator of the order takes a new tenant farmer to Tales' land.
• But the following night the friar, the new tenant farmer and his wife are murdered.

• Tales leaves a message written with his blood behind. He has gone to join the rebels
up in the mountains; there was no longer any other choice for him.

The story has a profound symbolism of Rizal. The question of "evolution or
revolution" and the problem of whether to wait for justice by the hands of the
Spaniards or to take the law in one's own hands are interspersed in the book.


 3. Rizal did not just focus on the evils of the friars but also of the entire regime
including its native defenders and supporters.
4. The passive belief of Basilio (debate between Basilio and Simoun)



Reflection:

1. What do you think the relevance of studying the two main Novels of Jose Rizal
namely Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo? BASED YOUR ANSWER TO THE
SYNOPSIS AND IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER.
2. Make a comparative analysis about Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in terms
of Setting, Plot, and Message of the Novels.