NOLI ME

TANGERE
Lovely C. Caiga
 NOLI ME TANGERE

From Latin phrase took from the Bible,

meaning “Touch Me Not”
Rizal finished the novel on December
1886.
It was eventually printed in Berlin,
Germany.
 NOLI ME TANGERE

Colonialism religion, and Power Jose

Rizal’s political novel Noli Me Tangere
examines how Spain’s colonization of the
Philippines allowed the Catholic church to
dominated and rule the region.
 NOLI ME TANGERE

To my Fathers when writing this (this

work I have been) continually thinking
about (you who) have instilled the (first
thoughts) and the first ideas; I dedicate to
(you) this manuscript of me(youth with)
proof of love. Berlin, (February 21,1887)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is a son of Filipino

businessman, Don Rafael
Ibarra, he studied in Europe
for Seven years. Ibarra is
also Maria Clara’s fiance.
He symbolizes the
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y idealism of privileged
Magsalin
youth.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is Ibarra’s mysterious

friend.
He is a master boater who
helps Ibarra to escape; he is
also a fugitive.

Elias
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

She is Ibarra’s sweetheart

and the beautiful daughter
of Capitan Tiago.
She is the illegitimate
daughter of Father Damaso
and Pia Alba.
Maria Clara (Maria Clara
de los Santos y Alba)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

The Franciscan friar and

Maria Clara’s biological
father.
He symbolizes the
Spanish friars of Rizal’s
Time.
Padre Damaso (Damaso
Verdolagas)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is a close relative of

Ibarra, and a Filibuster.

Don Filipo
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is a nephew of Don

Tiburcio de Espadana.
He is the would-be fiancé
of Maria Clara.
Alfonso Linares
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is the most powerful

official in the Philippines; a
hater of secular priest and
corrupt officials; and a
Governor General friend of Ibarra.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is a rebel leader whose

family is destroyed because
of the Spaniards.

Captain Pablo
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

Tarcilo and Bruno Alasigan

They are brothers, whose father is killed by

the Spaniards.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

The mother of Basilio and

Crispin. She becomes
insane after losing her sons.
Personified the suffering
of the motherland.
Named after Rizal’s older
Narcisa (Sisa) sister, Narcisa.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

The elder son of Sisa.

Their family represented the
innocent who aere wrongly
accused of crime they did not
commit.
Their story was based on the
true tale of Crisostomo brother’s
Basilio of Hagonoy.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

The younger son of Sisa

who died after getting the
punishment from soldiers.
He receives false accusation
of stealing an amount of
money.
Sisa’s favorite son.
Crispin
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

A dominican friar.
He is described as short and
fair skinned.
 He instructed by an old
priest in his order to watch
Crisostomo Ibarra.
Hernado de la Sibyla
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

Filipino businessman and

the Cabeza de Barangay or
head barangay of the town of
San Diego.
He symbolizes the rich
Filipinos who oppress their
Captain Tiango (Don fellow country men.
Santiago de los Santos)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

Francisacan curate of San

Diego
He is in love with Maria
Clara.
Manipulates people to get
what he wants.
Padre Bernado Salvi
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

An older man whom Ibarra

seeks advice from. The town
thinks him mad, but in
actuality he is quite wise.
Pilosopo Tasyo( Don
Anastasio)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is the chief of the

Guardia Civil and a mortal
enemy of the priests for the
power in San Diego.
Represents the officials of
the state who frequently had
The Alferez power struggles with Church
officials.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is the Spanish husband

of Donya Victorina who is
limp and submissive to is
wife. He also pretends to be a
doctor.
Represented the ignorant
Spanish whose foolishness the
Don Tiburcio de Espadaña
other Spaniards tolerated.
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

Wife of Don Tiburcio

She symbolizes those who
have a distorted view of their

Doña Victorina (Doña identity.

Voctorina de los Reyes de
Espadaña)
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

She is the wife of the

Alferez. She is another
woman who passes herself as
a Peninsular and best
remembered for her abusive
treatment of Sisa.
Doña Consolacion
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
( N O L I M E TA N G E R E )

He is the abusive husband

of Sisa who loves
cockfighting.

Pedro
 CHAPTER EXCERPTS
FROM NOLI ME TANGERE

Chapter 1: A Social
Gathering
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
In late October, Don Santiago de los Santos, who is known as Captain Tiago
, throws a large dinner party in Manila. He is very wealthy and, as such, the
party takes place in his impressive home, to which people eagerly flock so as
not to miss an important social event. As the guests mill about, groups of
soldiers, European travelers, and priests speak to one another. An old
lieutenant in the Civil Guard engages in conversation with a quiet but
argumentatively cunning Dominican friar named Fray Sibyla, a
loudmouthed Franciscan friar named Fray Dámaso, and two civilians, one of
whom has just arrived in the Philippines for the first time. Authoritatively
speaking over the others, Fray Dámaso lectures this newcomer about the
nature of “indios,” or native Filipinos.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
Father Dámaso explains to his listeners that his first post
in the Philippines was in a small town, where he worked
for three years. He boasts that he made strong connections
with the townspeople, who he claims loved and respected
him. When he was transferred three years later to the
town of San Diego, he explains, the town was sad to see
him go.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
He then spent the next twenty years in San Diego, and
though he still doesn’t understand very much Tagalog—
the country’s native language—he believes himself a
good preacher who intimately knows the townspeople.
Because of this, he is upset that when he recently ceased
to be San Diego’s friar, only “a few old women and a few
tertiary brothers saw [him] off.”
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
Continuing his rant, Father Dámaso says that “indios are
very lazy.” The foreigner who is new to the Philippines
challenges this notion, asking, “Are these natives truly
indolent by nature, or is it, as a foreign traveler has said,
that we make excuses for our own indolence, our
backwardness, and our colonial system by
calling them indolent?” As Dámaso refutes this idea,
Father Sibyla steps in and puts him back on track,
underhandedly prodding what he intuits is a sensitive
issue by asking the boisterous priest why he left San
Diego after twenty years.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
For the first time all evening, Fray Dámaso falls silent
before slamming his fist into his chair and cryptically
shouting, “Either there is religion or there isn’t, and that’s
that, either priests are free or they aren’t! The country is
being lost…it is lost!” When Sibyla asks what he means,
Dámaso says, “The governors support the heretics against
God’s own ministers!” This seems to unnerve
the lieutenant, who begins to stand and asks Dámaso to
clarify.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
“I mean that when a priest tosses the body of a heretic out
of his cemetery, no one, not even the king himself, has the
right to interfere, and has even less right to impose
punishment,” Dámaso says without explanation. He then
references a “little general,” before trailing off, which
angers the lieutenant. The lieutenant, a member of the
government’s Civil Guard, yells his support of the
Spanish king’s representative in the Philippines, whom
Dámaso has insulted.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
As Father Dámaso and the lieutenant approach the
possibility of a fistfight, Father Sibyla intervenes with
philosophical and diplomatic reasoning. The lieutenant
dismisses this, saying that Dámaso is out of line. He
explains that the man whose body was removed from the
Catholic cemetery was a friend of his—“a very
distinguished person.”
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
“So what if he never went to confessions,” the lieutenant
says. “So what? I don’t go to confession either. But to
claim that he committed suicide is a lie, a slur. A man like
him, with a son in whom he has placed all his hopes and
affections, a man with faith in God, who understands his
responsibilities to society, an honorable and just man,
does not commit suicide.”
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
Continuing with his story, the lieutenant says that
Father Dámaso exhumed this distinguished man’s body
from the cemetery. The Captain General knew about
this, and thus transferred Dámaso from San Diego as a
punishment. Having finished the story, the lieutenant
storms off, leaving Father Sibyla to say, “I am sorry that
without knowing it I touched upon such a delicate matter.
 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
” Changing the subject, one of the civilians asks about
Captain Tiago, the host of the party. Dámaso says that
there is “no need for introductions” because Tiago is “a
good sort.” And in any case, there are rumors that he has
stepped out of the house for some reason, leaving his
guests to mingle. Just then, two people enter the room.