GEC 9: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL

First Semester S.Y. 2022-2023

LEARNING MATERIALS

LESSON 7: Noli Me Tangere: Context and Content

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

a. Describe the context of the publication of the Noli Me Tangere;

b. Discuss the major elements of the Noli Me Tangere as a novel.

VOCABULARY:
Novel – a long written story most often about fictional events and characters
Setting (in a novel) – the context in which the events take place; covers geographical
areas in particular periods of time
Plot – the flow of the narrative in a story

LESSON INTRODUCTION:
Jose Rizal’s first novel, Noli Me Tangere, is considered one of the most important
written outputs by the national hero at the height of his intellectual endeavours in
Europe. In this novel, Rizal mustered his academic acumens as he tapped his knowledge
of various fields and wove a narrative that aimed to represent, of not expose, the
realities of 19th century colonial life in the Philippines. Many appreciate the Noli for its
narrative that takes the readers, through the eyes of its characters, on a journey of love
and deception, struggles and triumphs; and in the process, presents pressing questions
about power and social inequalities.
This lesson will explore the context of the publication of the Noli. The novel’s
major elements will also be appraised from its main characters and settings and its plot
and major conflicts will be tackled.

DISCUSSION:
The Publication of the Noli

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 As a sojourner in Europe, Rizal participated in the movement of the ilustrados to
utilize propaganda to campaign for reforms in the Philippines. Utilizing their intellectual
prowess, the ilustrados released various written outputs from news bits, to feature
articles, and commentaries. They also produced creative outputs from satirical pieces to
world-class paintings. Within this artistic and literary collection, Rizal’s exemplary
mastery of words was clearly evident in one of his most celebrated works, his first
novel, Noli Me Tangere.
The idea of publishing a book was not alien to Rizal. In a meeting of the
ilustrados in 1884, he proposed to write a book project to be done collaboratively with
his fellow writers. Unfortunately, the project did not materialize. He eventually decided
to write a novel on his own. He started working in the project in 1884 and completed it
in 1887.
Many of his biographers cite several works that influenced Rizal in the writing of
the Noli. One of these is Juan Luna’s paiting, Spoliarium, which depicted the sufferings
faced by humanity in the face of inequalities. Another is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel by
Harriet Beecher Stowe that dealt with slavery in America.
Rizal finished the first half of the novel in Spain, supposedly the other half in
France, then completed the draft in 1886. The novel was published the following year in
Germany. Lack of funds delayed the book’s publication until a fellow ilustrado, Maximo
Viola, insisted on lending him 300 pesos for the printing of the first 2,000 copies. By
1887, Rizal was already sending out copies of the Noli to his friends and the book began
to take flight.

Motivations behind Writing the Noli

The title, Noli Me Tangere, had biblical reference to the Gospel of John in which
Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and uttered these words: “Touch me not, for I am
not yet ascended to my Father.” The choice of title according to Rizal was fitting because
he intended to write about themes that were taboo in the Philippines for centuries;
things that people dared not touch.
According to his biographers, Rizal first planned to write his novel in French,
considered to be the language of the intellectuals in Europe at the same time. He,
however, shifted to Spanish because he intended to reach out to his countrymen in the
Philippines. Rizal explained: “I must wake from its slumber the spirit of my country . . . I
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must first propose to my countrymen an example with which they can struggle against
their bad qualities, and afterwards, when they have reformed, many writers would rise
up to present my country to proud Europe.”

Crisó stomo Ibarra, the mestizo son of the recently deceased Don Rafael Ibarra, is
returning to San Diego in Laguna after seven years of study in Europe. Kapitá n Tiago, a
family friend, bids him to spend his first night in Manila where Tiago hosts a reunion
party at his riverside home on Anloague Street. Crisó stomo obliges. At dinner he
encounters old friends, Manila high society, and Padre Dá maso, San Diego's old curate at
the time Ibarra left for Europe. Dá maso treats Crisó stomo with hostility, surprising the
young man who always viewed the friar to be a family friend. Crisó stomo excuses
himself early and is making his way back to his hotel when Lieutenant Guevarra,
another friend of his father, catches up with him. As the two of them walk to
Crisó stomo's stop, and away from the socialites at the party who may possibly
compromise them if they heard, Guevarra reveals to the young man the events leading
up to Rafael's death and Dá maso's role in it. Crisó stomo, who has been grieving from the
time he learned of his father's death, decides to forgive and not seek revenge. Guevarra
nevertheless warns the young man to be careful. The following day, Crisó stomo returns
to Kapitá n Tiago's home in order to meet with his childhood sweetheart, Tiago's
daughter María Clara. The two flirt and reminisce in the azotea, a porch overlooking the
river. María reads back to Crisó stomo his farewell letter wherein he explained to her
Rafael's wish for Crisó stomo to set out, to study in order to become a more useful
citizen of the country. Seeing Crisó stomo agitated at the mention of his father, however,
María playfully excuses herself, promising to see him again at her family's San Diego
home during the town fiesta. Crisó stomo goes to the town cemetery upon reaching San
Diego to visit his father's grave. However, he learns from the groundskeeper that the
town curate had ordered that Rafael's remains be exhumed and transferred to a Chinese
cemetery. Although Crisó stomo is angered by the revelation, the groundskeeper adds
that on the night he dug up the corpse, it rained hard and he feared for his own soul,
causing him to take pity on Rafael and instead defy the curate's orders by throwing the
body into the lake. At that moment, Padre Bernardo Salví, the new curate of San Diego,
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walks into the cemetery. Crisó stomo's anger explodes as he shoves him into the ground
and demands an accounting; Salví fearfully tells Crisó stomo that the transfer was
ordered by the previous curate, Padre Dá maso, causing the latter to leave in
consternation. Crisó stomo, committed to his patriotic endeavors, is determined not to
seek revenge and to put the matter behind him. As the days progress he carries out his
plan to serve his country as his father wanted. He intends to use his family wealth to
build a school, believing that his paisanos would benefit from a more modern education
than what is offered in the schools run by the government, whose curriculum was
heavily tempered by the teachings of the friars. Enjoying massive support, even from
the Spanish authorities, Crisó stomo's preparations for his school advance quickly in
only a few days. He receives counsel from Don Anastacio, a revered local philosopher,
who refers him to a progressive schoolmaster who lamented the friars' influence on
public education and wished to introduce reforms. The building was planned to begin
construction with the cornerstone to be laid in a ceremony during San Diego's town
fiesta. One day, taking a break, Crisó stomo, María, and their friends get on a boat and go
on a picnic along the shores of the Laguna de Baý, away from the town center. It is then
discovered that a crocodile had been lurking on the fish pens owned by the Ibarras.
Elías, the boat's pilot, jumps into the water with a bolo knife drawn. Sensing Elías is in
danger, Crisó stomo jumps in as well, and they slaughter the animal together.
Crisó stomo mildly scolds the pilot for his rashness, while Elías proclaims himself in
Crisó stomo's debt. On the day of the fiesta, Elías warns Crisó stomo of a plot to kill him at
the cornerstone-laying. The ceremony involved the massive stone being lowered into a
trench by a wooden derrick. Crisó stomo, being the principal sponsor of the project, is to
lay the mortar using a trowel at the bottom of the trench. As he prepares to do so,
however, the derrick fails and the stone falls into the trench, bringing the derrick down
with it in a mighty crash. When the dust clears, a pale, dust-covered Crisó stomo stands
stiffly by the trench, having narrowly missed the stone. In his place beneath the stone is
the would-be assassin. Elías has disappeared. The festivities continue at Crisó stomo's
insistence. Later that day, he hosts a luncheon to which Padre Dá maso gatecrashes. Over
the meal, the old friar berates Crisó stomo, his learning, his journeys, and the school
project. The other guests hiss for discretion, but Dá maso ignores them and continues in
an even louder voice, insulting the memory of Rafael in front of Crisó stomo. At the
mention of his father, Crisó stomo strikes the friar unconscious and holds a dinner knife
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to his neck. In an impassioned speech, Crisó stomo narrates to the astonished guests
everything he heard from Lieutenant Guevarra, who was an officer of the local police,
about Dá maso's schemes that resulted in the death of Rafael. As Crisó stomo is about to
stab Dá maso, however, María Clara stays his arm and pleads for mercy. Crisó stomo is
excommunicated from the church, but has it lifted through the intercession of the
sympathetic governor general. However, upon his return to San Diego, María has turned
sickly and refuses to see him. The new curate whom Crisó stomo roughly accosted at the
cemetery, Padre Salví, is seen hovering around the house. Crisó stomo then meets the
inoffensive Linares, a peninsular Spaniard who, unlike Crisó stomo, had been born in
Spain. Tiago presents Linares as María's new suitor. Sensing Crisó stomo's influence
with the government, Elías takes Crisó stomo into confidence and one moonlit night,
they secretly sail out into the lake. Elías tells him about a revolutionary group poised for
an open and violent clash with the government. This group has reached out to Elías in a
bid for him to join them in their imminent uprising. Elías tells Crisó stomo that he
managed to delay the group's plans by offering to speak to Crisó stomo first, that
Crisó stomo may use his influence to effect the reforms Elías and his group wish to see.
In their conversation, Elías narrates his family's history, how his grandfather in his
youth worked as a bookkeeper in a Manila office but was accused of arson by the
Spanish owner when the office burned down. He was prosecuted and upon release was
shunned by the community as a dangerous lawbreaker. His wife turned to prostitution
to support the family but were eventually driven into the hinterlands. Crisó stomo
sympathizes with Elías, but insists that he could do nothing, and that the only change he
was capable of was through his schoolbuilding project. Rebuffed, Elías advises
Crisó stomo to avoid any association with him in the future for his own safety.
Heartbroken and desperately needing to speak to María, Crisó stomo turns his focus
more towards his school. One evening, though, Elías returns with more information – a
rogue uprising was planned for that same night, and the instigators had used
Crisó stomo's name in vain to recruit malcontents. The authorities know of the uprising
and are prepared to spring a trap on the rebels. In panic and ready to abandon his
project, Crisó stomo enlists Elías in sorting out and destroying documents in his study
that may implicate him. Elías obliges, but comes across a name familiar to him: Don
Pedro Eibarramendia. Crisó stomo tells him that Pedro was his great-grandfather, and
that they had to shorten his long family name. Elías tells him Eibarramendia was the
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same Spaniard who accused his grandfather of arson and was thus the author of the
misfortunes of Elías and his family. Frenzied, he raises his bolo to smite Crisó stomo, but
regains his senses and leaves the house very upset. The uprising follows through, and
many of the rebels are either captured or killed. They point to Crisó stomo as instructed
and Crisó stomo is arrested. The following morning, the instigators are found dead. It is
revealed that Padre Salví ordered the senior sexton to kill them in order to prevent the
chance of them confessing that he actually took part in the plot to frame Crisó stomo.
Elías, meanwhile, sneaks back into the Ibarra mansion during the night and sorts
through documents and valuables, then burns down the house. Some time later, Kapitá n
Tiago hosts a dinner at his riverside house in Manila to celebrate María Clara's
engagement with Linares. Present at the party were Padre Dá maso, Padre Salví,
Lieutenant Guevarra, and other family friends. They were discussing the events that
happened in San Diego and Crisó stomo's fate. Salví, who lusted after María Clara all
along, says that he has requested to be transferred to the Convent of the Poor Clares in
Manila under the pretense of recent events in San Diego being too great for him to bear.
A despondent Guevarra outlines how the court came to condemn Crisó stomo. In a
signed letter, he wrote to a certain woman before leaving for Europe, Crisó stomo spoke
about his father, an alleged rebel who died in prison. Somehow this letter fell into the
hands of an enemy, and Crisó stomo's handwriting was imitated to create the bogus
orders used to recruit the malcontents to the San Diego uprising. Guevarra remarks that
the penmanship on the orders was similar to Crisó stomo's penmanship seven years
before, but not at the present day. And Crisó stomo only had to deny that the signature
on the original letter was his, and the charge of sedition founded on those bogus letters
would fail. But upon seeing the letter, which was the farewell letter he wrote to María
Clara, Crisó stomo apparently lost the will to fight the charges and owned the letter as
his. Guevarra then approaches María, who had been listening to his explanation.
Privately but sorrowfully, he congratulates her for her common sense in yielding
Crisó stomo's farewell letter. Now, the old officer tells her, she can live a life of peace.
María is devastated. Later that evening Crisó stomo, having escaped from prison with
the help of Elías, climbs up the azotea and confronts María in secret. María, distraught,
does not deny giving up his farewell letter, but explains she did so only because Salví
found Dá maso's old letters in the San Diego parsonage, letters from María's mother who
was then pregnant with María. It turns out that Dá maso was María's biological father.
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Salví promised not to divulge Dá maso's letters to the public in exchange for
Crisó stomo's farewell letter. Crisó stomo forgives her, María swears her undying love,
and they part with a kiss. Crisó stomo and Elías escape on Elías's boat. They slip
unnoticed through the Estero de Binondo and into the Pasig River. Elías tells Crisó stomo
that his treasures and documents are buried in the middle of a forested land owned by
the Ibarras in San Diego. Wishing to make restitution, Crisó stomo offers Elías the chance
to escape with him to a foreign country, where they will live as brothers. Elías declines,
stating that his fate is with the country he wishes to see reformed and liberated.
Crisó stomo then tells him of his own desire for revenge and revolution, to lengths that
even Elías was unwilling to go. Elías tries to reason with him, but sentries catch up with
them at the mouth of the Pasig River and pursue them across Laguna de Bay. Elías
orders Crisó stomo to lie down and to meet with him in a few days at the mausoleum of
Crisó stomo's grandfather in San Diego, as he jumps into the water in an effort to distract
the pursuers. Elías is shot several times. The following day, news of the chase were in
the newspapers. It is reported that Crisó stomo, the fugitive, had been killed by sentries
in pursuit. At the news, María remorsefully demands of Dá maso that her wedding with
Linares be called off and that she be entered into the cloister, or the grave. Seeing her
resolution, Dá maso admits that the true reason that he ruined the Ibarra family and her
relationship with Crisó stomo was because he was a mere mestizo and Dá maso wanted
María to be as happy as she could be, and that was possible only if she were to marry a
full-blooded peninsular Spaniard. María would not hear of it and repeated her
ultimatum, the cloister or the grave. Knowing fully why Salví had earlier requested to be
assigned as chaplain in the Convent of the Poor Clares, Dá maso pleads with María to
reconsider, but to no avail. Weeping, Dá maso consents, knowing the horrible fate that
awaits his daughter within the convent but finding it more tolerable than her suicide. A
few nights later in the forest of the Ibarras, a boy pursues his mother through the
darkness. The woman went insane with the constant beating of her husband and the
loss of her other son, an altar boy, in the hands of Padre Salví. Basilio, the boy, catches
up with Sisa, his mother, inside the Ibarra mausoleum in the middle of the forest, but
the strain had already been too great for Sisa. She dies in Basilio's embrace. Basilio
weeps for his mother, but then looks up to see Elías staring at them. Elías was dying
himself, having lost a lot of blood and having had no food or nourishment for several
days as he made his way to the mausoleum. He instructs Basilio to burn their bodies and
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if no one comes, to dig inside the mausoleum. He will find treasure, which he is to use
for his own education. As Basilio leaves to fetch the wood, Elías sinks to the ground and
says that he will die without seeing the dawn of freedom for his people and that those
who see it must welcome it and not forget them that died in the darkness. In the
epilogue, Padre Dá maso is transferred to occupy a curacy in a remote town. Distraught,
he is found dead a day later. Kapitá n Tiago fell into depression and became addicted to
opium and is forgotten by the town. Padre Salví, meanwhile, awaits his consecration as
a bishop. He is also the head priest of the convent where María Clara resides. Nothing is
heard of María Clara; however, on a September night, during a typhoon, two patrolmen
reported seeing a specter (implied to be María Clara) on the roof of the Convent of the
Poor Clares moaning and weeping in despair. The next day, a representative of the
authorities visited the convent to investigate the previous night's events and asked to
inspect all the nuns. One of the nuns had a wet and torn gown and with tears told the
representative of "tales of horror" and begged for "protection against the outrages of
hypocrisy" (which gives the implication that Padre Salví regularly rapes her when he is
present). The abbess, however, said that she was nothing more than a madwoman. The
General also attempted to investigate the nun's case, but by then the abbess prohibited
visits to the convent. Nothing more was said again about María Clara.
With this general contour of the narrative, Rizal wove a complex story and
subplots. Reading through the novel, different characters and their corresponding
stories unfolded as told through the voice of an unseen narrator. Truly, the pages of the
Noli reflected the lives of people living in the complicated world of colonial Philippines.

EVALUATION: (See the separate file for Learning Activity)

REFERENCES:
Rhodalyn Wani-Obias et. al., The Life and Works of Jose Rizal. C&E Publishing Inc. (2018)
Eugene Raymond P. Crudo et. al. The Life and Works of Jose Rizal. REX Book Store. (2019)

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 Prepared by:

John Rey R. Buan

Instructor

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