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Noli Me Tángere (novel)

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Noli me Tangere
Noli me Tangere, original cover
Noli me Tangere, original cover
original cover
AuthorJosé Rizal
LanguageSpanish
Genrenovel
Publication date
1887
Publication placePhilippines (first printing in Berlin)
Media typePrint
Followed byEl Filibusterismo 

Noli Me Tangere is a novel written in Spanish by Filipino writer and national hero José Rizal. It was first published in 1887 in Berlin. The novel is commonly referred to by its shortened name Noli. The English translation was originally titled The Social Cancer, although more recent translations have been published using the original Latin title.

Title

The literal translation of the title is touch me not. Rizal derived this phrase from the Bible, specifically the Gospel of St. John 20:17, where it is spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene after he has risen from the dead. In the Gospel of John, Jesus uttered this because he has not accomplished his mission (He has not yet 'ascended to the Father') and hence, cannot be touched. Sudeten German writer Ferdinand Blumentritt says that "Noli me tangere" is in fact the professional nickname used by ophthalmologists (such as Rizal himself) for cancer of the eyelids.

Lists of Characters

  • Crisostomo Ibarra
  • Elias
  • Capitan Tiyago
  • Father Damaso
  • Father Salvi
  • Maria Clara
  • Pilosopo Tasyo
  • Sisa
  • Basilio
  • Crispin
  • Alperes
  • Doña Consolacion
  • Doña Victorina
  • Dr. Tiburcio
  • Linares
  • Don Filipo
  • Nol Juan
  • Lucas
  • Sinang
  • Tarcilo
  • Bruno
  • Tiya Isabel
  • Doña Pia Alba
  • Capitana Maria
  • Capitan Tinong
  • Capitan Basilio

Plot summary

Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisostomo Ibarra comes back to his motherland after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Capitan Tiago (Don Santiago de los Santos) throws a get-together party, which is attended by Father Dámaso, Fray Sibyla, Lieutenant Guevarra, Doña Victorina, and other prominent figures. In an unfortunate incident, Father Dámaso, former curate of San Diego, belittles and slanders the young man. But the ever-gracious and diplomatic Ibarra brushes off the insult and takes no offense; he instead politely excuses himself and leaves the party because of an allegedly important task. Ibarra's sweetheart, Maria Clara, an extraordinarily beautiful lady is known as the daughter of Capitan Tiago, an affluent resident of Binondo. The day after the humbling party, Ibarra goes to see Maria Clara. Their long-standing love is clearly manifested in this meeting, and Maria Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevarra (a Guardia Civil), reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father Don Rafael. Don Rafael was a rich haciendero of the town.

According to the Lieutenant, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a filibuster--an allegation brought forth by Father Dámaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments (such as Confession and Mass). Father Dámaso's animosity against Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident. Once Don Rafael saw a tax collector and a student fighting. Out of compassion, he helped the child. The tax collector was greatly irked and picked a fight with Don Rafael. Unfortunately, the Spanish tax collector fell, hit his head against a rock, and died. The collector's death was blamed on Don Rafael, and he was arrested. Suddenly, all of those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he got sick and died in jail. Still not content with what he had done, Father Dámaso arranged for Don Rafael's corpse to be dug up and transferred from the Catholic cemetery to the Chinese cemetery, because he thought it inappropriate to allow a heretic such as Don Rafael a Catholic burial ground. Unfortunately, it was raining and because of the bothersome weight of the cadaver, the men in charge of the burial decided to throw the corpse into the river.

Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans; instead he carries through his father's plan of putting up a school, since he believes that education would pave the way to his country's liberation.

During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elias (a mysterious man who had warned Ibarra earlier of a plot to assassinate him) not saved him. Instead the hired killer met an unfortunate incident and died. The sequence of events proved to be too traumatic for Maria Clara who got seriously ill but was luckily cured by the medicine Ibarra sent her.

After the inauguration, Ibarra hosts a luncheon during which Father Dámaso again insults him. Ibarra ignores the priest's insolence, but when the latter slanders the memory of his dead father, he is no longer able to restrain himself and lunges at Father Dámaso, prepared to stab the latter for his impudence. His beloved Maria Clara stops him just in time.

As a consequence, the Archbishop excommunicates Ibarra. Father Dámaso takes this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant father of Maria Clara to forbid his daughter from marrying Ibarra. The priest wishes Maria Clara to marry a Spanish named Linares who just arrived from Spain.

With the help of the Captain General, Ibarra's excommunication is nullified and the Archbishop decides to accept him as a member of the Church once again. But, as fate would have it, some incident of which Ibarra had known nothing about is blamed on him, and he is wrongly arrested and imprisoned. But the accusation against him is overruled because during the litigation that followed, nobody could testify that he was indeed involved. Unfortunately, his letter to Maria Clara somehow gets into the hands of the jury and is manipulated such that it then becomes evidence against him.

Meanwhile, in Capitan Tiago's residence, a party is being held to announce the upcoming wedding of Maria Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elias, takes this opportunity and escapes from prison. But before leaving, Ibarra talks to Maria Clara and accuses her of betraying him, thinking that she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. Maria Clara explains to Ibarra that she will never conspire against him but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to her in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, Maria Clara, was born. The letters were from her mother, Pia Alba, to Father Dámaso alluding to their unborn child; and that she, Maria Clara, is therefore not the daughter of Capitan Tiago, but of Father Dámaso.

Afterwards, Ibarra and Elias board a boat and flee the place. Elias instructs Ibarra to lie down and the former covers the latter with grass to conceal the latter's presence. As luck would have it, they are spotted by their enemies. Elias thinks he could outsmart them and jumps into the water. The guards rain shots on the person in the water, all the while not knowing that they are aiming at the wrong man.

Maria Clara, thinking that Ibarra has been killed in the shooting incident, is greatly overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asks Father Dámaso to confine her into a nunnery. Father Dámaso reluctantly agrees when Maria Clara threatens to take her own life: the nunnery or death!

Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra is still alive and able to escape. It was Elias who has taken the shots.

It is Christmas Eve when Elias wakes up in the forest, gravely wounded and barely alive. It is in this forest that Elias finds Basilio and his lifeless mother, Sisa. Elias dies without having seen the liberation of his country.

Rizal's book persistently unmasks contemporary Spaniards in the Philippines of every kind. He exposes corruption and brutality of the civil guards which drive good men to crime and banditry. He focuses on an administration crawling with self-seekers, out to make their fortune at the expense of the Filipinos, so that the few officials who are honest and sincere are unable to overcome the treacherous workings of the system, and their efforts to help the country often end up in frustration or in self-ruin.

The Noli is Rizal's exposé of corrupt friars who have made the Catholic religion an instrument for enriching and perpetuating themselves in power by seeking to mire ignorant Filipinos in fanaticism and superstition. According to Rizal, instead of teaching Filipinos true Christianity, they control the government by opposing all progress and persecuting members of the ilustrado unless they make themselves their servile flatterers.

Rizal does not, however, spare his fellow countrymen. The superstitious and hypocritical fanaticism of many who consider themselves religious people; the ignorance, corruption, and brutality of the Filipino civil guards; the passion for gambling unchecked by the thought of duty and responsibility; the servility of the wealthy Filipino towards friars and government officials; the ridiculous efforts of Filipinos to dissociate themselves from their fellowmen or to lord it over them--all these are ridiculed and disclosed. Nevertheless, Rizal clearly implies that many of these failings are traceable to the misguided policy of the government and the questionable practices of the friars.

Rizal nevertheless balances the national portrait by highlighting the virtues and good qualities of his unspoiled countryman: the modesty and devotion of the Filipina, the unstinting hospitality of the Filipino family, the devotion of parents to their children and children to their parents, the deep sense of gratitude, and the solid common sense of the untutored peasant.

The Noli is, therefore, not merely an attack on the Spanish colonial regime; it is a charter for nationalism. It calls on the Filipino to recover his self-confidence, to appreciate his own worth, to return to the heritage of his ancestors, and to assert himself as the equal of the Spaniard. It insists on the need of education, of dedication to the country, and of absorbing aspects of foreign cultures that would enhance the native traditions.

Reaction and legacy

Noli Me Tangere was Rizal's first novel. He was 26 at its publication. This book was historically significant and was instrumental in the establishing of the Filipino's sense of national identity. The book indirectly influenced a revolution although the author, José Rizal, advocated violent means and only direct representation to the Spanish government. The novel was written in Spanish, the language of the educated at a time when Filipinos were markedly segregated by diverse native languages and regional cultures.

Rizal started writing the Noli in Madrid, Spain. Half of it was done by the time he left for Paris, and it was printed in Berlin, Germany. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, a well-known writer and political activist, volunteered his services as proofreader and consultant. He finished the novel on December 1886 and published it with the financial aid of Maximo Viola.

The novel created so much controversy that only a few days after his arrival, Governor General Terrero summoned him to the Malacañáng Palace and told him of the charges saying that the Noli was full of subversive ideas. After a discussion, the liberal Governor General was appeased; but he mentioned that he was unable to offer resistance against the pressure of the Church to take action against the book. The persecution can be discerned from Rizal's letter to Leitmeritz: "My book made a lot of noise; everywhere, I am asked about it. They wanted to anathematize me ['to excommunicate me'] because of it . . . I am considered a German spy, an agent of Bismarck, they say I am a Protestant, a freemason, a sorcerer, a damned soul and evil. It is whispered that I want to draw plans, that I have a foreign passport and that I wander through the streets by night ..."

This novel and its sequel, El filibusterismo (nicknamed Fili), were banned in the Philippines because of their portrayal of corruption and abuse by the country's Spanish government and clergy. A character which has become a classic in the Philippines is the priest "Father Dámaso" which reflects the covert fathering of illegitimate children by members of the Spanish clergy. In the story, Father Dámaso impregnates a woman. Copies were smuggled in nevertheless, and when Rizal returned to the Philippines after completing medical studies, he quickly ran afoul of the local government. First exiled to Dapitan, he was later arrested for "inciting rebellion" based largely on his writings. Rizal was executed in Manila on December 30, 1896 at the age of thirty-five.

The book was instrumental in creating a unified racial Filipino identity and consciousness, as many Filipinos previously identified with their respective regions to the advantage of the Spanish authorities. It lampooned, caricatured and exposed various elements in the colonial society.

The Noli in Australia

Rizal was not only an eye surgeon, linguist, and world traveler, but also, a famous novelist, who authored Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) and El Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed). His life and execution or martyrdom created an indellible mark in Philippines art and politics.[1] On August 21, 2007, Rizal's 480-page English translation of Noli Me Tangere (published by Penguin Books Classics) hit major Australian book shelves. The Australian edition of Noli was translated by Harold Augenbraum, the American writer, presently the executive director of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards, who first read Noli in 1992. [2]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

References

  1. ^ FPIF, Foreign Policy in Focus
  2. ^ GMA NEWS.TV, Rizal's Noli hits major Aussie book shelves
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