Noli me tangere

Noli me tangere

INFOGRAPHIC

JOSÉ RIZAL’S NOLI ME TANGERE

Written in Spanish and published in 1887, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere played a crucial role in the political history of the Philippines. Drawing from experience, the conventions of the nineteenth-century novel, and the ideals of European liberalism, Rizal offered up a devastating critique of a society under Spanish colonial rule.

CHARACTERS

Crisóstomo Ibarra

Elías

Padre Dámaso

Maria Clara

Doña Victorina

Sisa, Crispín, and Basilio

Kapitán Tiago

Pilósopong Tasyo

ABOUT JOSÉ RIZAL

Born on June 19, 1861, José Rizal was from an upper-class Filipino family. His mother, Teodora Alonso, a highly educated woman, exerted a powerful influence on his intellectual development. He would grow up to be a brilliant polymath, doctor, fencer, essayist, and novelist, among other things.

Noli me tangere

INFOGRAPHIC

Plot

The plot revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra, mixed-race heir of a wealthy clan, returning home after seven years in Europe and filled with ideas on how to better the lot of his countrymen. Striving for reforms, he is confronted by an abusive ecclesiastical hierarchy and a Spanish civil administration by turns indifferent and cruel. The novel suggests, through plot developments, that meaningful change in this context is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible..

The death of Ibarra’s father, Don Rafael, prior to his homecoming, and the refusal of a Catholic burial by Padre Damaso, the parish priest, provokes Ibarra into hitting the priest, for which Ibarra is excommunicated. The decree is rescinded, however, when the governor general intervenes. The friar and his successor, Padre Salvi, embody the rotten state of the clergy. Their tangled feelings—one paternal, the other carnal—for Maria Clara, Ibarra’s sweetheart and rich Capitan Tiago’s beautiful daughter, steel their determination to spoil Ibarra’s plans for a school. The town philosopher Tasio wryly notes similar past attempts have failed, and his sage commentary makes clear that all colonial masters fear that an enlightened people will throw off the yoke of oppression.

Noli me tangere

INFOGRAPHIC

Plot

Precisely how to accomplish this is the novel’s central question, and one which Ibarra debates with the mysterious Elias, with whose life his is intertwined. The privileged Ibarra favors peaceful means, while Elias, who has suffered injustice at the hands of the authorities, believes violence is the only option. Ibarra’s enemies, particularly Salvi, implicate him in a fake insurrection, though the evidence against him is weak. Then Maria Clara betrays him to protect a dark family secret, public exposure of which would be ruinous. Ibarra escapes from prison with Elias’s help and confronts her. She explains why, Ibarra forgives her, and he and Elias flee to the lake. But chased by the Guardia Civil, one dies while the other survives. Convinced Ibarra’s dead, Maria Clara enters the nunnery, refusing a marriage arranged by Padre Damaso. Her unhappy fate and that of the more memorable Sisa, driven mad by the fate of her sons, symbolize the country’s condition, at once beautiful and miserable.

Noli me tangere

INFOGRAPHIC

Plot

Using satire brilliantly, Rizal creates other memorable characters whose lives manifest the poisonous effects of religious and colonial oppression. Capitan Tiago; the social climber Doña Victorina de Espadaña and her toothless Spanish husband; the Guardia Civil head and his harridan of a wife; the sorority of devout women; the disaffected peasants forced to become outlaws: in sum, a microcosm of Philippine society. In the afflictions that plague them, Rizal paints a harrowing picture of his beloved but suffering country in a work that speaks eloquently not just to Filipinos but to all who have endured or witnessed oppression.