RIZAL AS A NOVELIST

Anatomy and Analysis of his Novels

 In 1887 Rizals literary fame began with the publication
of Noli Me Tangere.

The novels literal meaning is Touch Me Not, while in

its English translation it is entitled The Social Cancer.
 The story revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra, the son of a
wealthy Creole landlord, who is engaged to Maria Clara, the
daughter of Santiago de los Santo (Kapitan Tiago). Ibarra is
sent abroad to study.
Ibarras father was accused of being a heretic and filibuster
and died in prison.
When he returned to the country, he is very determined to
lead his people to independence through education.
 He established a school and then comes into conflict with
local authorities.
The plot becomes more complicated when Father Salvi
falls in love with Maria Clara.
Ibarra opens the school in a public ceremony, and in a
celebration, Friar Damaso insulted Ibarras father. The
latter has to be restrained to prevent him from killing the
former.
 Ibarra has been excommunicated for laying violent hands
on a priest. He is also forbidden to see Maria Clara again.
Friar Damaso arranged Maria Clara into marrying one of his
distant relative named Linares.
 Ibarra is accused of plotting a revolution. The evidence of
his insurrection comes from letters provided by Maria
Clara.
Ibarra confront Maria Clara.
Maria Clara told Ibarra that her father is Friar Damaso.
Maria Clara refuse to marry Linares and became a nun
instead.
Noli ends with a glimpse of a young nun on the roof of the
convent crying about the inequities of her life as thunder
and lightning roar in the background.
Noli Me Legere

The Spanish were furious with Rizal for his novel. They did
not allow the book to be imported in Manila.
Only a small number of copies were able to enter the
Philippines.
The Friars threatened excommunication to anyone who is
caught reading it.
Friar Jose Rodriguez wrote a small pamphlet entitled
Caingat Cayo to warn the people not to read the novel
An excerpt of the report of the permanent
commission on Censorship of the Philippines

The author nursing an ill-concealed hatred of the

mother who gave him birth and steeped in the defamatory
writings of envious foreigners who wish to discredit one of
the greatest works of generous Spain in these Islands, and
giving himself Volneyist and Voltairian airs, makes it his
principal object to discredit openly and impudently all the
institutions established by the Metropolis in these distant
Islands.
 He attacks in a violent and wicked manner some
fundamental dogmas, many truths, and pious beliefs of the
state religion, the target of his fury being the religious
communities and the Civil Guard, not so much for the habit
the former wear and the rules they follow and the latters
social mission, but for considering both institutions the
principal impediment and insuperable of the country.
 A synthesis of the result of the analytical censure
summarizes its findings into articles whose respective titles are:
1. Attacks on the integrity of Spain
2. Attacks on the administration, the Spanish employees of the
government, and the courts of justice.
3. Attacks on the Civil Guard.
Attacks on the integrity of Spain

a. The most important part of Noli Me Tangere is that which

refers to the separatist liberty and independence of the
country, the point towards which all the thoughts and
poisoned reflections of the author converge.
b. The author takes as the chief character in his work a
young man of great heart and high patriotic sentiments
who was educated abroad. The father of this youth, who is
named Ibarra, died wretchedly, persecuted by the Spanish
authorities according to the story
c. From here on Rizal represents the Philippines as a slave tied hand and
foot. The archipelago is the victim of the Civil Guards violence as well as
suffers from the fanaticism and despotic arbitrariness of the missionaries;
it is delivered over to the greed and immorality of the the courts of justice,
plundered by the constituted authorities, and forgotten and abandoned by
the Government of Spain.
d. The government! The government you say! said the philosopher,
raising his eyes to the ceiling. Howsoever desirous it may be of advancing
the country for its own benefit and for that of the Mother Country;
howsoever one or more officials may remember the generous spirit of the
Catholic kings in their hearts, the government itself will not see, hear, or
judge more than what the priest or the provincial makes them see, hear, or
judge. Compare if you dare, our governmental system with that of other
countries you have visited.
e. The people do not complain because the have no voice;
they do not move because they are under a spell of lethargy,
and still you say that they do not suffer because you have not
seen how their hearts bleed. But some day you will see and
hear! Unhappy those who allow themselves to be deceived
and work in the night thinking that everyone sleeps! When
the light of the day shines upon the deeds of the night then
shall the terrible reaction follow! Such forces repressed
during centuries; such poison distilled drop by drop and such
stifled sighs appear in the light and explode!
f. Hatred of Spain and the frenzied desire for liberty, for
independence and for revenge reach their climax in these
lines. And now I see the horrible cancer which is gnawing at
this social structure, which is acquiring a firmer grip on its
flesh and demands violent extirpation. They have opened my
eyes, have shown me the sore and have impelled me to be a
criminal! And since they wish it, I will be a filibuster, but a real
filibuster; I will call all the unfortunate ones, all who feel a
bleeding heart beating in their breast, those who sent you to
me.
g. I die without seeing the Day dawning on my
country.. You who will see it, greet itand forget not
those who fell in the Night!
Attacks on the administration, the Spanish
employees of the government, and the courts
of justice

a. We Spaniards who come to the Philippines are

unfortunately not what we should be. (I say this with
reference to one of your grandparents as well as to the
enemies of your father.) The continuous changes, the
corruption in the high positions, favoritism, the cheapness
and the shortness of the voyage are to blame for everything.
He re come the worst of the people of the Peninsula, and if a
good man comes, the country soon corrupts him.
b. Talking of Kapitan Tiago, a mestizo contractor who does business with all
government offices.
c. He tells of a governadorcillo, and refers to the supposed general immorality
in the appointments of municipal and other officials of the state thus: The
person was an unhappy man who did not command but rather (the
governadorcillo) obeyed. He did not scold anyone but was scolded; did not
control anybody but was controlled. Rather was he responsible to the alcalde
mayor for what he had been ordered, directed, and instructed to do as if
everything had originated in his brain although it should be stated to his
credit that he had not stolen or usurped this office. It actually cost him five
thousand pesos and much humiliation, and, considering what he gets out of
it, he considers the price cheap enough.
d. Telling of the ease with which in the Ministry and at Rome a miter can
be obtained (Note by Austin Craig: that is, a Friar can get promotion to
be a Bishop, then a government position as well as a Church dignitary),
he says: They give it for nothing nowadays. I know one who got it
doing less than that. He wrote a little work in chabacano, a Philippines
dialect of Spanish showing that the natives have no capacity for
anything except craftsmanshipPshawCommon old stuff!
e. The author makes the most serious charge possible, against the
honesty and integrity of the Governor General, supposing him to be
bribed by a P1,000 ring presented to by a Trozo mestiza in order that
hey family shall not be implicated in an alleged conspiracy against the
sovereignty of Spain.
f. There follows an animated discussion in which it is
sought to prove that the administrative officials and
the Government are venal and corruptible by any gift
of value and for it will sell reason and justice.
Attacks on the Civil Guard

a. According to Rizal, the meritorious Civil Guard is worse than

a gang of ruffians.
b. The civil guards are not people, they are just civil guards.
They do not listen to prayers and are used to seeing tears shed.
c. The Civil Guard is presented as back of the ruinous and
prohibited games.
d. That is all they are good for! To disturb the peace of town!
They only persecute honest men!
e. There are civil guards who are not wearing the uniform of
their reputed corps nor are they dresses as civilians. They are wearing
a disguise which is in harmony with their conduct.
 After the analytical examination, the
Commission on Censorship, through Augustinian Fr.
Salvador Font, concludes with the following words:
Most Excellent Sir, the undersigned, based on
the text, literally copied, that he has just presented to
the strict and patriotic consideration of your
excellency, is of the opinion that the importation,
reproduction, and circulation of this pernicious book
should be prohibited absolutely by your authority.
 the book is vitiated with foreign teachings and doctrines,
and its general synthesis is to instill deep and cruel hatred of
the mother country (Spain) in the minds of the submissive
and loyal sons of Spain in these distant Islands, placing her
behind foreign countries, especially German for which the
author of the Noli Me Tangere seems to have pre-eminent
predilection.
The Philippine monasticism cannot bear Rizals Noli
Me Tangere despite the favorable reception it has received in
the literary and political world of Spain and other countries in
Eurpe. In the Philippines, the censors wished the Noli Me
Tangere (touch me not) to be Noli Me Legere (Read me not).
 Despite this strong objection and condemnation, the
Noli became a very significant book because of the impact it
had upon the developing nationalistic feeling. It was an
important reflection on the illustrado political mentality. The
Noli is rich enough to build a modern nationalism.
When the hero dies in Noli Me Tangere, Rizal made a
serious nationalistic point. It was a literary device designated
to call attention to the free thinking political attitudes that
Crisostomo Ibarra possesses and how he influences the rising
state of Philippine nationalism.
 The Noli is called the bridge between the
Propaganda movement and the Revolution of 1896.
The world had known through Rizals novels the
conditions that the Filipino faced at home. The novel
inspired the indios to become more critical of the
Spanish domination in the Philippines and to create a
strong sense of a new democratic feeling.
The Predecessors of the Noli
La Loba Negra Padre Jose Burgos
Ninay Pedro Paterno
 Ninay Summary
The love of Loleng, an Antipolo girl, and Berto is frustrated by Don Juan
Silverio. Don juan Silverio, the rich landlord of Lolengs parents, wants the girl for
himself. Loleng and Berto run away, but Loleng dies in a cave. Exhausted by her
vicissitudes, by her grave Berto made friends with a rich young man, Carlos
Mabagsic. Carlos is in love with Antonina Milo, the Ninay of the title, herself an heir.
She catches the eye of Federico, Don Juans son, who takes advantage of a minor
uprising to divorce Ninays father. Don Evaristo is accused of involvement in the
revolt. To save her father, Ninay writes a letter compromising herself with Federico,
but he is killed by Berto, who is unable to keep his promise to save Ninays father
from execution. Berto also warns Carlos of his impending arrest, so the latter
escapes on a ship that got lost in the storm. Believing Carlosand her father are
dead, Ninay enters the convent. But Carlos survives and is saved by Tik, the queen
of a savage bandit. Carlos remains faithful to Ninay and when Tik dies, she eaves a
treasure to Carlos.
Was there a Parallelism between the two
novels?

Noli Ninay

Elias Berto

Crisostomo Ibarra Carlos

Kapitan Tiago Don Evaristo

Main
Characters
 Noli Ninay
Ibarra is in love with Maria Carlos is in love with
Clara. Ninay
The father of Maria Clara The father of Ninay is the
is the rich Kapitan Tiago rich Don Evaristo.
There is a revolt. Ibarra is There is a revolt. Carlos is
implicated to be arrested.
As a result of the Ninay executes a letter to
revolution, Maria Clara save her father and
has to execute a letter seemingly abandons
with his father, thus Carlos.
appearing infidel to Ibarra
Plots
 PRAISERS AND DEFENDERS OF THE NOLI
The Filipinos adored Jose Rizal for the Book Noli Me Tangere, which had reached
the Island before him and found eager buyers. People said that all the characters in
the Book were real people, as in point of fact, they were.
Those who knew Rizals home well realized that he had seen or heard of the
incidents which he had related, and that only the names were new.
CRISOSTOMO IBARRA as Rizal
- A youth who goes to Europe to study and to find out how to bless his country.
- His Father has trouble with the friars, is thrown into prison and dies. This is a
composite of Rizals father and mother.
MARIA CLARA as Leonor Rivera
- Is Ibarras sweetheart and fianc, but because he has trouble with the friars, the girls
father, Kapitan Tiago, breaks off the engagement and marries her to another man
(Linares), which break her heart and result in her death.
TASYO
- as the philosopher is Joses brother Paciano.
FR. DAMASO
- The cruel Dominican friar
- who claimed most of the land about Calamba
SISA
- a victim of the unjust system
- who does not have enough to eat and goes hungry while her boys (Crispin and Basillo) have
a little food
One of the delighted comment on Noli Me Tangere is written by his friend Regidor from
London.
If all these characters portray perfectly social life in the Archipelago, what can I say about
Ibarra whose life and misfortunes are similar to mine and my humble history. I dont know if
someone will dare question the absolute reality of this victim of despotism and colonial
corruption; but if such a thing should happen, I can point to him historical factsIf he is pure
idealization, the greater is the merit of the author, for he must be a great artist indeed who can
reproduce on one canvas the typical and salient line of three or four different faces and
succeeds to make the beholder recognize with every change of light the exact likeness of a
dear friend who died on the scaffold, in prison , in exile, or in disgrace.
 Retana says the principal conclusions of Noli Me Tangere are:

1. The enlightened liberal Filipino cannot live in the Philippines because he and the friars
are uncongenial. He is persecuted in every way, false conspiracies are invented to
implicate him, and then is imprisoned, exiled, or shot.
2. The country is not for us but for Spaniards, especially the friars.
3. The Civil Guard is so abusive that it makes more bandits(outlaws) than it captures.
4. The Spaniards in the Philippines have no high ideals, but many of them have
degenerated into ruffians.
5. The Catholic religion has been employed as an instrument of domination.
6. The pure Filipinos are condemned to perpetual ignorance
7. The woman cannot marry a Spaniard but gives herself to the friar if her
parents obligue her to do so to protect themselves.
8. With the present bad government, the Filipinos cannot remain united with
Spain, and with all courtesy we ask for the rights we deserve.
9. The chief cause of insurrection is desperation. When a man loses all he
has, he fights
 In returning the copy you sent us, we have noted with a red pencil
the statement against Spains, the Government, and its
representatives in these Islands. With a blue or black pencil other
statement, impous , heretical, scandalous or objectionable for other
reasons. All the narrative, absolutely all taken together and in its
details, the important and unimportant incidents, are against doctrine,
against the church, against the religious orders, and against the
institutions, civil military, social, and political, which the Government of
Spain has implanted in these Island...
The decree had no effect excepting to advertise the
book and to enhance the popularity of its writer.
Copies were smuggled into the Islands to be read
secretly.They were buried in fields at the approach of
officers and dug up when the officers had gone.
Not until some five months had passed, Rizal was called to Malacanang, the
Governors, now Presidential palace, for an interview with Governador
General Emilio Terrero, who told him that the Dominican Committee had
found Noli Me Tangere very dangerous. Rizal assured Terrero that the books
was innocent of the slightest slander against the government, though it did
reveal some friar injustice, and asked him to read it before passing
judgement. The Governor General agreed to read the book and was secretly
pleased at its exposure of the friars. At his next interview he was very friendly,
and being solicitous for Rizals welfare, gave him a bodyguard, Lieutenant
Jose Taviel de Andrade, a Spaniard, who became one of Rizals warmest
admirers and friends and remained so to the end of his life.
The Fili, Subversive?

Before Rizal left Europe, he had to edit and publish El

Filibusterismo, the last chapters of which he had
finished in Biarritz.

Paris being expensive, was out of the question for the printing of his
second novel; and so Rizal hurried back to Brussels, and later to Ghent,
in search of cheap printers. Rizal sailed from Marseilles on October 18,
1891. With him were 600 copies of El filibusterismo
 The Fili, Subversive?
El Fili was published 1891
Rizal continued to argue for reform. Rizal argued that the young are
aware of the need to take political action and pursue social justice. Young
people, Rizal maintained, create a strong sense of reform.
El fili is a book about revolution, posting it clearly as an alternative to
reform efforts that lead nowhere. But in making simoun, its principal
character, fai0l and die, rizal also pointed out the dangers of taking an
alternative based on hate and vengeance.
 The Fili, Subversive?
The age of filibustering took place after terror of 1872.
The Cavite mutiny of 1872 was an uprising of military personnel of Fort
San Felipe, the Spanish arsenal in Cavite, Philippines on January 20,
1872. Around 200 soldiers and laborers rose up in the belief that it would
elevate to a national uprising. The mutiny was unsuccessful, and
government soldiers executed many of the participants and began to
crack down on a burgeoning nationalist movement.

And for twenty years there was a demand for reform then the
revolutionary society, the Katipunan, was founded to further Philippine
independence.
 The Fili, Subversive?
From his vantage point, Rizal argued that the Spanish needed to rethink their
political, religious, and economic direction.
Rizal urged his people not to accept Spanish myths and look themselves for an
inner freedom and national direction.

El filibusterismo was dedicated to three friars, Don Mariano Gomez,

Don Jose Burgos, and Don Jacinto Zamora who were executed on
the scaffold at Bagumbayan on February 28, 1872.
 The Fili, Subversive?
What sets Rizals novels apart from other Philippine fiction is his
commitment to a sense of independent nationalism.
A sense pride and a celebration of Filipino values permeate his work.
There was a worldwide audience for his books as they were published in
Europe, read in United States, and debated throughout Southeast Asia.
In Madrid, Spain and Ghent, Belgium, Rizals Novels had a strong local
sales
The Filis Theme
Rizals main contribution as a novelist was to exposed the malevolent
white colonial attitudes that permeated the world in the late 19th century.
These self servicing policies, the innate prejudices, and the racial
attitudes of Spanish governmental and church enraged local filipinos.
One of Rizals subthemes is Rizal dissection of colonialism. He talks
about the civilizing mission of Spanish officials and then demonstrates
how colonial government over 300 centuries degraded the Philippine life.
The pretentious and often arrogant attitude of local Spanish leader.
 The Filis Theme
Simoun, the main character in El Filibusterismo, is an
important symbol because he argues that by
accepting the Spanish way of the life, Philippine
nationalism is in danger of being lost.

The Fili demonstrates that conflicting nationalism

cannot exist side by side, and revolution is inevitable.
 Simouns Advocacy
The arguments for a separates nationalism are put forth by simoun when
he questions the Spanish wat of life and the discretion of his own national
identity.
A people without a soul, a nation without freedom, everything
in you will be borrowed even your defects,"

You ask the parity of rights, the Spanish way of life and you
do not realize that what you are asking is death, the
destruction of your national identity, the dis appearance of your
homeland
 Simouns Advocacy
But in the conclusion of fili, simoun is visited on his deathbed by a native
priest who informs him that the revolution will fail because Filipinos are
not ready for independence. Although his plans for revolution are failed
ones, this dying patriot gives hope for the future.
His message is that revolution and subsequent independence provide the
future political direction.
 The Fili, Dedicated to the Three Martyrs
El Filibusterismo was dedicated to GomBurza, who had been martyred in
Rizals childhood.
The Filis first page reads:
Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and
Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old), executed in Bagumbayan Field, February
28, 1872 .. I have a right to dedicate my book to you as victims expectantly
for spain some day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for
your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your
unkwon thombs, and let it be understood every one that without clear proof
attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood.
 The Fili, Dedicated to the Three Martyrs
El Filibusterismo was dedicated to GomBurza, who had been martyred in
Rizals childhood.
The Filis first page reads:
Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and
Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old), executed in Bagumbayan Field, February
28, 1872 .. I have a right to dedicate my book to you as victims expectantly
for spain some day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for
your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your
unkwon thombs, and let it be understood every one that without clear proof
attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood.
In Praise of the Fili
Like a new Moses, with your immortal books you have given to the
Philippines the Decalogue of her political redemption and her honor
before mankind. If she knew hot to obey the commands, precepts,
and counsels so beautifully written in your novel, then, instead of a
country in abject slavery, she would soon become great, free
prosperous and master her destiny
Like the Noli this new book drew every character from real life. Manuel camus wrote from
Singapore:
I want to thank you for the exactness of the type of Capitan Tino of the steamship.
He was my uncle!
In Praise of the Fili
Men are able to realize that in that last chapter are the noblest words he ever wrote.
Indeed is is that infinitely sad closing that is most often quoted. The book was a
tremendous, if painful, sermon to those Rizals own countrymen who believed they
could defraud their fellow countrymen, lived double-faced lives, and still expected
that good would come.
Love alone realizes wonderful acheivements, virtue alone can save! Pure and
spotless must the victim be.