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Study Guide in GE 8:THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL Module No. 6

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 6

Noli me Tangere
CONTEXT AND CONTENT

MODULE OVERVIEW

José Rizal's first novel, Noli Me Tángere, is considered one of the most important written outputs
by the national hero at the height of his intellectual endeavors 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, if not expose, the realities of nineteenth 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 chapter 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.
MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

➢ Describe the context of the publication of the Noli me Tangere; and
➢ Dicuss the major elements of the Noli Me Tangere as a novel.

MODULE CONTENT

Noli me tangere has many different translations during the early 1900’s translation like an Eagle
Flight and The Social Cancer but the most specific and most known translation is Touch Me not. It is
based from the bible verse John 20:17 when Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him because
He has not yet ascended to His father.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Author: Jose Rizal

Language: Spanish
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Setzerinnenschule des lette-veriens
Publication date: 1887
Media type: Print

Writing the novel

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It all started when Jose Rizal read the book of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin which
contains the racism and discriminatory of black American. He often adopts his way in exposing the
abusive Spaniards over the Filipino people.

According to some Scholars, Rizal gathered a group of Filipino writers and they all agreed to write
the novel but as time passed by, the topic of the novel changed and became more focused on girls so
Rizal quitted and decided to pursue the writing on his own.

THE PUBLICATION OF THE NOLI

• Europe- Rizal participated in the movement of the Ilustados to utilize propaganda to campaign for
reform in the Philippines.
• Ilustrados- the enlightened ones. Release various written outputs from news bits, to feature articles,
and commentaries. Also produce creative out puts from satirical.
• January 2, 1884- Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines at the Paterno’s
residence in Madrid.
• It did not materialize because they did not write anything.
• Rizal was determined to write alone
• 1884- He finish about one half of the novel in Madrid
• 1885- After studying at Central University of Madrid he finished one half of the second half
• Germany- he finished the last fourth of the novel
• April-June, 1886- He wrote the last few chapter of Noli in Wilhelsfeld.
• February 1886- Rizal made the final revisions on the manuscript of the Noli in Berlin.
• He was depressed during this time and almost threw the novel into the fire.
• Dr. Maximo Viola- the savior of Noli. Scion of a rich family of San Miguel, Bulacan. He wrote
telegram to Rizal stating that he would come to Berline. He was shocked to find Rizal living in the
poverty. And the one who financed the printing of Noli.
• Rizal deleted passages in his manuscript, including a whole chapter, “Elias and Salome,” to save
printing expenses.
• February 21, 1887- Rizal found a printing shop named “Breliner Buchdruckrei-
ActionGesselschaft”, with the lowest rate of 300 pesos for 2,000 copies of the novel.
• March 21, 1887- Noli Me Tangere Came to the press.
• Sent the first copies of the printed novel to his intimated friends; Blumentritt, Dr. Antonio Ma.
Regidor, G. Lopez-Jaena, Mariano Ponce, and Felix R. Hidago
• March 29, 1887- Gave Viola the galley proofs of the Noli Carefully rolled with the pen that he
used in writing it.

MOTAVATIONS BEHIND WRITING THE NOLI

• The title of the novel Noli Me Tangere is a Latin phrase which means Touch Me Not
• Noli Me Tangere- are words taken from the Gospel of John (Chapter 20, Verses 13-17).
• The initial pages of Noli, the dedication title “A Mi Patria” means “To My Fatherland” clearly

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articulated Rizal’s purpose of writing the novel.

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 everyone 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 project of writing the Noli, as stated was geared towards exposing the ills of Philippine
colonial society under Spain.

Influence on Filipino nationalism

Rizal depicted nationality by focusing more on positive quantities of the Filipino. The novel was
instrumental in creating unified Filipino identity and consciousness.

The book also influenced revolution and movement against the Spaniard.

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BOOK COVER

Silhouette of a Filipina
- believed to be Maria Clara or as the "Inang Bayan" to whom Rizal dictates the novel

Cross/Crucifix
- represents the Catholic faith as it rises above Inang Bayan and Filipinos (shows dominance)
- it also symbolizes sufferings and death

Feet
- it symbolizes the power of the friars - it is placed on the base of the triangle (foundation) because
without friars, the Filipinos cannot stand on their own

Hairy Legs
- it symbolizes the Legend of the Wolf
- the wolf shape shifts just like how friars hide their true nature and character

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Helmet of a Guardia Civil

- it represents the arrogance of those in authority
Pomelo Blossoms & Laurel Leaves
- they represent faith, honor and fidelity, which are the values Rizal aspires to be embodied by
Filipinos
- pomelos are used to scent their air commonly during prayers and cleansing rituals
- laurel leaves are used as crowns during Greek Olympics for honoring the best

Burning Torch
- refers to the Olympic torch
- pertains to the awakening of Filipino consciousness
- it also sheds light to the text of the manuscript

Sunflower
- it symbolizes a new beginning
- it is compared to the happiness of which appears to be always bowing down

Chain
- it symbolizes slavery and imprisonment

Bamboo Stalks
- it represents Filipino resiliency
- despite the sufferings, Filipinos can still stand tall and firm

Rizal's Signature
- it shows that Rizal experienced and witnessed the ills and abuses that happened during his time

Whip
- it represents the abuses and cruelties done by the Spaniards and friars as depicted in the novel

SUMMARY

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino who, after studying for seven years in Europe, returns
to his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner, has died in prison as the result of a
quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre Damaso. Ibarra is engaged to a beautiful
and accomplished girl, Maria Clara, the supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don Santiago de
los Santos, commonly known as “Capitan Tiago.”

Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people. To show his
good intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public school in his native town. He meets
with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s successor, a young and gloomy Franciscan
named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread.

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At the laying of the cornerstone for the new schoolhouse, a suspicious accident, apparently aimed
at Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly
insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and
is about to kill the friar, who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.

Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is forced to break
the engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a young and inoffensive Spaniard
provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her reputed father’s command and influenced by her
mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara consents to this arrangement, but becomes seriously ill,
only to be saved by medicines sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl friend.

Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can explain matters, an
uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about through agents of Padre Salvi, and the
leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned by a mysterious friend, an outlaw called
Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but desiring first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make
his escape, and when the outbreak page occurs, he is arrested as the instigator of it and thrown into
prison in Manila.

On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate his supposed
daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and succeeds in seeing Maria Clara alone.
He begins to reproach her because it is a letter written to her before he went to Europe which forms
the basis of the charge against him, but she clears herself of treachery to him. The letter had been
secured from her by false representations and in exchange for two others written by her mother just
before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real father. These letters had been accidentally
discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who made use of them to intimidate the girl and get
possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he forged others to incriminate the young man. She tells him
that she will marry the young Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name and Capitan
Tiago’s honor and to prevent a public scandal, but that she will always remain true to him.

Ibarra’s escape had been affected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the Pasig o the Lake,
where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps into the water and draws the pursuers
away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.

On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and
dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who had been
driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, her younger son
having page disappeared some time before in the convento, where he was a sacristan. Basilio, who is
ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the madwoman’s
are to be burned.

Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria Clara becomes
disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put her in a nunnery. Unconscious of

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her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks down and confesses that all the trouble he has
stirred up with the Ibarras has been to prevent her from marrying a native, which would condemn her
and her children to the oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties and she enters
the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon assigned in a ministerial capacity.

CHARACTERS

CRISOSTOMO IBARRA (Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin)

• A Filipino who studied in Europe for 7 years,
• The love interest of Maria Clara.
• Son of the deceased Don Rafael Ibarra
• Very patient and serious man but when he provoked, he becomes very violent and impulsive. •
Represented the affluent and liberal European-educated Filipino. Civic minded, liberty-minded and
patriotic! He desired the education of his people.
• Because Rizal uses him to voice ideas regarding colonialism and the nature of power in the
Philippines.

Captain Tiago (Don Santiago de los Santos)

• A Filipino socialite and well-respected member of the country’s wealthy elite
• Father of Maria Clara
• Friend of the Spanish government
• He is very biased and is only obedient to those who are higher in rank than him.
• He symbolizes the rich Filipinos who oppress their fellow countrymen in exchange for the
influence and the riches that they might gain from their powerful associations.

Alférez (The Captain General)

• Chief of the Guardia Civil
• Mortal enemy of the priests for the power in San Diego.
• Civil Guard members, townspeople, and friars alike deeply respect him and defer to his judgment,
each set of people volleying for his favor.
• Not an enthusiastic supporter of the church and its over-inflated power.

Doña Victorina (Victorina de los Reyes de De Espadaña)

• A Filipina woman married to Don Tiburcio.
• Ambitious Filipina who classifies herself as a Spanish and mimics Spanish ladies by putting on
heavy make-up.
• Symbolizes those who have distorted view of their identity.
• She was used by Rizal to symbolize colonial mentality among Filipinos during his time.

Maria Clara
• Daughter of Kapitan Tiyago and Doña Pia Alba, but biologically, her father is Padre Damaso.
• Sweetheart of Ibarra

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• When she feels intense remorse at having sold Ibarra out. When the newspapers eventually falsely
report his death, she calls off her marriage with Linares, instead deciding to enter a convent because
she can’t stand to exist in a world that doesn’t contain Ibarra.
• She symbolizes the purity and innocence of a sheltered native woman during the time of Spanish
occupation.
• Represented Filipino womanhood trained in a convent and immersed in education basically
religious in orientation.

Elias
• Ibarra's mysterious friend, a master boater, also a fugitive.
• He was referred to at one point as the pilot. He wants to revolutionize his country.
• Represented the Filipino masses in the novel, as the symbol of the common people; he did
everything to vindicate them from the injustices suffered from the Spaniards.

Don Anastasio (Pilosopo Tasyo)

• A man who used to study philosophy and who prefers secular knowledge to Catholicism
• An older man who Ibarra seeks advice from.
• He is often the pessimist and is untrusting of human altruism. He also does not believe in the
religious fanaticism that was in vogue during his time.
• He is an extreme representation of what it is to live without caring what other people think.

Padre Damaso (Dámaso Verdolagas)

• Franciscan friar and María Clara's biological father.
• An arrogant and pedantic priest
• A notorious character that speaks with harsh words and has been a cruel priest.
• He symbolizes the Spanish friars of Rizal's time and is a comment on the Spanish control of the
Philippines.

Crispin
• Younger son of Sisa
• Caretaker of the church
• He is a sacristan who had been accused of stealing two gold pieces by the senior sacristan.
• He died from the punishment from the soldiers from the false accusation of stealing an amount of
money.
• Crispin represents the innocents who have been wrongly accused of the crime they did not commit.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Banned in China Being labeled as subversive, the book was banned in the colonial Philippines. The
Corrupt Church at that time did everything in their power to suppress its publication and distribution.
It is no longer the case in recent times.

Missing Chapter Chapter 25 of the novel (entitled Elias and Salome) was discarded by Rizal for
being deemed irrelevant to the story. In it, Elias talks with his Star-Crossed Love Interest who only
appears in that chapter. The manuscript was later found, and it is now being included in more recent
editions of the novel, like in Philippine National Artist Virgilio S. Almario's Filipino-language
translation.

School Study Media The book and its sequel are required reading for High School students, and a
course about the Author's life and works is a prerequisite in College Streisand Effect Naturally, the
ban made more Filipinos much more interested about the book.

Write Who You Know Most major characters in Noli Me Tangere (as well as El Filibusterismo) are
based on people Rizal knew. Maria Clara was based on his fiancee Leonor Rivera, and Father
Florentino was based on Father Leoncio Lopez, the parish priest of his hometown.

SUMMARY

This module discussed Noli Me Tángere, tracing its publication and Rizal's motivation behind its
writing. Noli Me Tangere was part of a publication agenda conceived by Rizal in the hopes of
awakening his countrymen and the world about the colonial conditions in the Philippines. On the pages
of the Noli, Rizal's genius shone through as he assembled and harnessed his intellect to paint a picture
of nineteenth century Philippines. The plot provided a story of hope and struggle against the backdrop
of an elaborate setting filled with equally complex characters. Through the novel's characters, varied
points of view were gleaned from colonial life and through its plot, an allegory of colonial society was
created. The next chapter will continue discussing the novel by examining its impact and continuing
relevance.

ACTIVITY 1

The Setting

I. Answer these questions pertaining to the setting of the novel

1. Is the novel set in a particular time period?

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___________________________________________________________________________
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2. Where do the events take place? Are there multiple locations?

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ACTIVITY 2

II. After reading the novel, complete the table to describe the setting of the novel. Cite the
chapters where the descriptions appear

Aspects Description

The town of San Diego

The House of Captian

Tiago

Manila

Pasig River

The Towns people

The Church and the

Clergy

ACTIVITY 3

III. Complete the table below by identifying what the major characters in Noli Me Tangere
symbolize in relation to colonial Philippine History.

Character Symbolism

Crisostomo Ibarra

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Maria Clara

Capitan Tiago

Padre Damaso

Sisa

Pilosopo Tasio

Doña Victorina

Basilio

REFERENCES

Acibo, L. & Adanza, E. (2006). Jose P. Rizal: His Life Works, and Role in the Philippine
Revolution.
Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Store. Inc.

A Philippine Institution 10 Experience with the Philippines and Dr. Jose Rizal: A brief history. P.
Jacinto Blog. Retrieved from

Estrallado, J. (2019). Rizal’s Life, Works and Writing. Retrieved from www.scribd.com

M. Casupanan (2018). 10 reasons why you should study Rizal. The Ugly Writers. Retrieved from
https://uglywriters.com/2018/03/12/10-reasons-why-you-should-study-rizal-hugot-version/

Philippines in the 19th Century. Dimasalang Laong Laan. Retrieved from

https://dimasalanglaonglaan.wordpress.com/philippines-in-the-19th-century/

Republic Act 1425. Official Gazette, Vol. 52, No. 6, p. 2971. Retrieved from
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1956/06/12/republic-act-no-1425/

Rizal and His Times (19th Century). The Ven Ballano Blog. Retrieved from
http://vballano.blogspot.com/2009/06/rizal-and-his-times-19th-century.html

Rizal in Focus: Early Childhood (2004). Retrieved from www.joserizal.ph Rizal Law. Wikipedia.
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Law

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