About Jon E. Royeca

JOSE Rizal poured most of his literary talent into the novel. He wrote two powerful novels that are now associated with his heroism and greatness: Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (Subversion).

He began writing the Noli in late 1884, when he was still studying in Madrid, Spain, and finished it on February 21, 1887, in Berlin, Germany, while in poverty amidst a harsh winter. Only 25 years old then, he had already produced a 465-page manuscript. It went into publication in March 1887 in Berlin, when its printer churned out its first 2,000 hardbound copies.

Those copies were worth around P300 in all; hence, the printing cost for each copy was 15 cents or less. Rizal sold each copy for five pesetas (one peso) and gave a ten per cent commission to his friends who acted as distributors and sellers (Rizal’s Correspondence with Fellow Reformists, Centennial Edition, Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1963, pp. 126-127).

The Noli is a social novel portraying the Philippines in the years 1882-83, part of the remaining two decades of the waning Spanish rule. It was written in the Spanish language, had 63 chapters and an epilogue, and was dedicated by Rizal to his motherland.

Taken from John 20:17 of the Bible, its title is a Latin phrase which means “touch me not.” In the novel, the one saying it was the malignant social cancer that was pestering the nation. The cancer was saying it because before the Noli, no one wanted to examine or “touch” it. Rizal was the first person to touch it and offer its remedies.

Rizal said that he wrote the Noli to awaken Filipino patriotism and to ask the Spanish authorities in the Philippines and Spain to cure that cancer through drastic reforms in the government, clergy, church, military, and education (ibid., pp. 252, 83-84).

Themes. The two major themes of the Noli are the patriotism of its heroes and the battle between good and evil in which evil prevailed in the end. The evil (wicked priests and government officials) did all their best to defeat the good (heroes).

Though it won convincingly in the end, the evil did not eclipse the other themes of the novel, such as the romances and hopes of its good-natured characters, the defects of the less educated, and the wit, humor, and laughter of its hilarious figures.

Characters. There are two heroes in the novel: Juan Crisostomo Ibarra and Elias. Ibarra was a 23-year-old son of Spanish-Filipino parentage, highly educated, and belonged to a wealthy family. Elias was a poor young man who suffered tyrannies from the Spaniards. They both loved their native land and committed their lives for her betterment.

Ibarra preferred that the Philippines remain a Spanish colony and praised its authorities for attempting to improve its rule. Elias had already lost his faith in the government, yet he still wanted peaceful means to attain reforms. But if they were no longer possible, only then would he opt for an armed resistance to win the country’s independence. Their differing beliefs did not hinder them from becoming friends.

The wealthy Captain Tiago favored the marriage of his only daughter, Maria Clara, to Ibarra. Maria Clara was Ibarra’s childhood friend. Although her parents were Filipinos, she had Spanish features (hair with an almost golden hue and skin as white as cotton), and the fat friar Father Damaso Verdolagas, a Spaniard, was her godfather. Father Damaso was the former parish priest of San Diego, Ibarra’s birthplace.

Other characters are Doña Victorina de los Reyes, a socialite Filipina who ignored her Filipino origin by espousing the Spanish ones; Father Bernardo Salvi, the successor of Father Damaso as San Diego’s parish priest; the Alferez, the Spanish commander of the civil guards in San Diego; Tasio the Philosopher, an old sage residing in San Diego; Sisa, his neighbor; Basilio and Crispin, the young sons of Sisa and sextons in the parish church of San Diego; and more.

Summary. Ibarra returned to the Philippines after his seven-year studies in Europe to fulfill his plans, which were to take over his family’s properties that he inherited from his father, to build a grade school in San Diego, and to marry Maria Clara.

On his return, he was shocked to learn that his father, Don Rafael, was persecuted on wrong charges and died in prison. Father Damaso ordered that Don Rafael’s body be dug up and transferred to the Chinese cemetery. When the gravedigger dug it one dark night, it rained, and because the coffin was so heavy, he just thrust it into the lake.

Ibarra still went ahead with his plans. But unknown to him, he had an adversary who marked him as a dangerous man and an enemy of the Church and State. This adversary devised a rebellion in San Diego in which he made Ibarra as its brains. Before that rebellion broke out, Father Salvi was able to alert the civil guards; thus, it was easily subdued. Ibarra and many others were sent to Manila as prisoners. Elias was able to secure Ibarra’s jewelry and money.

Elias also helped him escape from prison in Manila one night. As the authorities pursued them in Laguna Lake, Elias leapt into the water to divert attention. The soldiers fired at him, and saw traces of blood in the waters, leading them to conclude that Ibarra was killed and drowned. Ibarra remained hiding in the boat on his way to escape.

On December 24, the bloodied and dying Elias arrived in the Ibarra family’s forest in San Diego, where he found Basilio grieving over the dead Sisa. Ibarra also arrived there. With Basilio helping, he buried Sisa’s body and burned Elias’ corpse. Then he dug his possessions that Elias buried, gave Basilio coins, and finally fled, leaving his dear country and Maria Clara.

Friends and Foes. Like what Rizal wished, the Noli gave him fame. It was critically reviewed and praised in Europe and the Philippines, yet it also gave him enemies.

On August 30, 1887, five months after it was published, the Dominican Father Pedro Payo, the Archbishop of Manila, asked Emilio Terrero, the governor general of the Philippines, to ban it in the country. That after the three professors from the University of Santo Tomas whom he appointed to scrutinize it pronounced it “heretic, scandalous, and injurious.”

Terrero then asked Father Salvador Font of the Permanent Commission on Censorship to study the book. On December 29, 1887, Font recommended that “the importation, reproduction, and circulation of this pernicious book …be prohibited” for its severe attacks on the religion of the State, the government, Spaniards, the courts, the military, and the integrity of Spain, and because its only objective was the absolute independence of the country (ibid., pp. 736-737).

The novel was therefore banned in the country. Anyone caught possessing, selling, or reading it was putting his life in danger (The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence, Centennial Edition, Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1961, Part 1, pp. 197-198).

But the ban only excited the people. Hundreds of copies were smuggled into the country and sold secretly. Many bookstores found fortune with this book because its price skyrocketed, costing as high as P50 per copy. Rizal profited nothing from those sales (Miscellaneous Correspondence, Centennial Edition, Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1963, p. 98).

Faithfulness. The unpaved roads (dusty or muddy according to the seasons), the one-way wooden and rickety bridges, and the iron grilles that Ibarra twisted when he was a young boy and had remained not straightened were colonial settings painted with faithfulness.

Rizal was able to distinguish progress from stagnation owing to his trips abroad, where he saw that much time, planning, and money were being fueled for growth and advances. In his country, Spain was ineffective to set itself straight as a colonial master; as a result, the colony was in rough, rickety, and twisted conditions.

Despite the many trips, big cities, and beautiful women, Ibarra had not forgotten Maria Clara and had always kept in memory his countrymen and their hopes and grief. His love for her and the one he offered to the country were fused into one single love.

Enlightened citizens, who were few, called the old man Anastacio a philosopher. The ignorant, who were the majority, derided him as Tasio the Lunatic. The books he was writing were not for the people of his time, for they would burn them once they read them. His books were intended for future generations that would be advanced, understand him, and thus say: “Not all slept at the night of our ancestors.” However, his efforts wound up in futility because the pious burned all of his books and writings when he died.

The celibacy of friars was an object of suspicion. Father Damaso was very concerned with the decisions, marriage, and sudden sickness of Maria Clara, to the wonder of the maiden.

At the procession during San Diego’s fiesta, a woman with Filipino features was watching with her Hispanic-looking infant. When Father Salvi was passing them, the infant stretched his hands, joyously calling out “Papa, papa” after him amid the brief silence and malicious winks. The baby cried when his mother held tightly his mouth and brought him away.

When Maria Clara decided to enter the nunnery after learning Ibarra’s assumed death, Father Damaso fought against it because of the life and mystery hiding within the cloister walls.

That of Sisa was a very sad story. She was a mother who was “frail of disposition and had more heart than brain.” Her god was her gambling husband, who began maltreating her after draining her jewelry and, like all false gods, became more ruthless each passing day.

Her two young sons were her angels. One night, Basilio was grazed on the forehead by a bullet from civil guards. His brother Crispin, accused of stealing, was beaten to death by the priest and head sexton in the convent. Because of those incidents, Sisa lose her sanity.

At the novel’s end, Basilio found and ran after his mad mother, telling her that it was he, Basilio, her son. He caught up with her and lost his senses in her bosom. All of a sudden, there was a spark in her brain: she recovered her former self and let a loose cry after recognizing him. Later, the boy woke up to find his poor mother no longer breathing.

These characters are genuine and unforgettable. They depict real people and those real people’s virtues, defects, hopes, or failures in noble, correct, admirable, good, or not-so-good angles. They provoke warmth, excitement, laughter, suspicions, and criticisms, making readers to not forget but rather imitate them for pure fun, or utilize them while criticizing the errors in the government and society. They possess the flesh, blood, and savagism of enduring literature. They are the ones that have made the Noli a great literary work.

The greatness of the Noli Me Tangere created the greatness of Rizal. Rizal’s greatness was further heightened by El Filibusterismo and was rendered immortal and unequalled by his martyrdom on December 30, 1896.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A native of Catarman, Northern Samar, now living in Metro Manila. He graduated with an AB History degree from a college in Makati City. He writes in Filipino and English, and since 2000 has been publishing short stories, historical fiction for children, and essays in Liwayway, Junior Inquirer, Philippine Panorama, and The Modern Teacher.

Other articles by Jon E. Royeca