RIZAL and

NOLI ME
TANGERE
 Objectives:
1.Familiarize the characters, settings and plot of
the Noli Me Tangere
2.Describe the context in which Rizal wrote
Noli Me Tangere.
3.Evaluate how Noli Me Tangere contributed to
the national consciousness of the Filipinos.
Noli Me Tangere,
words was taken
from the Gospel of
St. John (20:17),
"mean touch me
not”
The book contains then, things that nobody in our country has spoken of until the present.
They are so delicate that they cannot be touched by anyone. With reference to myself, I have
attempted to do what nobody had wished to do. I have described the social condition, the life
there, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our complaints, our sorrows. I have unmasked
hypocrisy that under the cloak of religion has impoverished and brutalized us. I have
distinguished the true religion from the false, from the superstitious, from that which
capitalizes the holy word in order to extract money, in order to make us believe in absurdities
of which Catholicism would blush if it would know them. I have lifted the curtain in order to
show what is behind the deceitful and glittering words of our government. I have told our
compatriots our defects, our vices, our culpable and cowardly complacency with the miseries
over there (Philippines)
Rizal wrote a letter to Ferdinand Bluemetritt on
March 21, 1887
”It is the first impartial book on the life of the Tagalogs. The Filipinos
will find it the history of the last ten years. I hope you will note how
different my descriptions are from those other writers. The
government and the friars will probably attack the work, refuting my
arguments, but I trust in God of Truth and in the persons who have
seen our suffering at close range. Here I answer all the false concepts
which have formed against us and all the insults which have been
intended to belittle us. I hope you will understand.
Maximo Viola from San Miguel,
Bulacan arrived in Berlin and as a
friend he gladly helped Rizal with
his financial problem and loaned
him with the amount needed for
the printing of his novel. On
March 21, 1887, the printing was
done and ready for distribution.
Blumentritt described the work as ”written with the
blood of the heart, and so the heart speaks.”

Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor said that “your Noli Me

Tangere will bring you an equal glory, with your
modesty and your voracious and able appraisal, you
have dealt a mortal blow to that old tree full of
blemishes”

Jose M. Cecelio saying ”it has all the qualities of a

social novel, very brilliant description and style,
forceful dialogue and without exaggeration,
magnificent literature. He told Rizal how the novel
will be read in the Philippines and with the help of
Manuel Rodriguez Arias owner of Agencia
Editorial.
Primary school teacher and Tagalog
lexicographer Pedro Serrano Laktaw
wrote to Rizal about his Noli saying
that, “with regret I inform you that
until now the box is still in the
warehouses of the customs and I
believe will remain there for some
days until the censor deigns to
already known “Clearance.
Much has been said and speculated
over the intent of the book, as it
reached the Philippine soil. It created
unrest to people, government, and
particularly to friars. The Noli’s
existence made the dream of Philippine
independence possible, and both friars
and the civil government now, more
than ever, considered Rizal as
subversive (Augenbraum, 2006).
After years of study and fascination of foreign countries,
Rizal decided to return home in August 1887. In his letter
to Blumentritt on June 19, 1887, Rizal expressed his
desire of returning home saying: “Your advice that I live
in Madrid and continue to write from there is very
benevolent, but I cannot accept it. I cannot endure the life
in Madrid where everything is a voice in a wilderness. My
parents want to see me, and I want to see them also. All
my life I desire to live in my country by the side of my
life. Until now I am not Europeanized like the Filipinos in
Madrid; I always like to return to the country of my birth”
(“Jose Rizal: Correspondence with Blumentritt, Vol
1.”,2011)
His desire to return to the Philippines was
prompted by the following reasons:
1. To operate his mother’s eye ailment.
2. Wanted to know the effect of the Noli
Me Tangere and other writings.
3. His desire to serve his countrymen; and
4. Wanted to know why Leonor Rivera
stopped writing
Copies of the Noli Me Tangere
had arrived in the Philippines
before his arrival, Filipinos and
Spaniards in the Island were able
to read the book, particularly the
friars who were angry at the
content of the novel which
portrayed them as villains.
Rizal received a letter from Governor-General Terrero
requesting him to visit Malacañang, for the governor
wanted to know whether his novel contained subversive
ideas. During the meeting with Terrero, Rizal explained
his novel merely exposes the true picture about the
conditions in the Philippines. The governor knew that
Rizal’s enemies may endanger his life, he sent a
bodyguard named Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade to
watch over him whom Rizal described as a cultured and
educated lieutenant of the civil guard (”Jose Rizal:
Correspondence with Blumentritt, vol 1”, 2011).
Controversy surrounding the Noli and
the danger of possessing the novel
spread throughout the countryside.
Friars preached against the novel and
clamored for harsh measures against
people caught reading the novel and
its author. Priests such as Fr. Font and
Fr. Jose Rodriguez published a series
of pamphlets against Rizal’s novel.
An unexpected defense of the Noli came from a
Filipino Catholic priest-scholar, a Manila
Cathedral theologian named Fr. Vicente Garcia,
wrote the following:

1. Rizal cannot be ignorant, for he graduated from

a Spanish university;

2. The novel was an attack on the immoral and

corrupt practices of the friars and officials;

3. Since some friars and officials were reading the

novel, therefore they were also committing a
mortal sin (“Jose Rizal: Correspondence with
Fellow Reformists”, 2011).
The Story began with a
gathering at Don Santiago de
los Santos (known as Captain
Santiago), at his house on
Analogue Street as a welcome
party for the homecoming of
Crisostomo Ibarra after Seven
Years of Studies in Europe.
Crisostomo, son of wealthy
landlord was betrothed from
early youth to Maria Clara. His
presence to the gathering was
favored by many except for
Padre Damaso, who
As the young man headed toward La
Plaza de Binondo, he was approached
by Señor Guevarra. The lieutenant
told him about the sad death of his
father Don Rafael Ibarra, because of
helping a boy who was being
punished by a tax collector by
accidentally pushing the tax collector
whose head hardly hit on the stone.
Upon hearing the fate of his father,
Crisostomo was shocked and hurt, led
him to investigate and confront Padre
Salvi who cowardly told the young
man that it was all the doings of Padre
Damaso, the former parish priest of
San Diego and Maria Clara’s
Aside from the tragic events in the
coming home of Ibarra, the novel also
talked about the meeting of Crisostomo
and Don Anastasio (Pilosopo Tasio),
whose characteristics may be judged
by an ordinary person as lunatic
because of his odd ideas and the
strange manner of dealing with people.
The odd old man was a former
philosophy student, feared by his
mother to be subversive and that such
knowledge would lead his son to leave
his faith, so he was offered the choice
of becoming a priest or leaving his
philosophy studies, which he chose the
latter.
Another affecting part in the
story is the fate of Sisa, who
because of love for her
family became insane, as
hopes gone and abandoned.
She wandered the whole
town in search for her son’s
Crispin and Basilio, who
both disappeared without
comprehending what really
happened to her sons.
The novel ended with an epilogue
that talked about some misfortunes
that struck to some characters.
Maria Clara decided to enter a
convent, despite impending arrange
marriage to Linares by Padre
Damaso and one night killed
herself. Capatain Tiago fell into
depression and began to smoke
opium and cockfighting. Doña
Victorina added the habit of
wanting to drive her own coach
horses. Linares died of dysentery.
Padre Damaso was assigned to a
distant province and the following
Despite unpleasant circumstances,
Rizal managed to contribute service
towards members of his community.
He established a clinic in Calamba,
and his first patient was his mother, he
carefully treated his mother’s eye
ailment which was considered a
miracle and people flocked to his
clinic. Eventually, Rizal became a
sensation and people from
neighboring towns visited him, and
earned the name “Doctor Uliman”,
aside from the clinic, he also keep
himself busy by engaging his
townmates in sports. He built a
gymnasium, hoping to discourage