Philippine Literature on Jose Rizal's Novels
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
Rizal's Autobiography
Name: Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Realonda Alonzo
Born: June 19, 1861 at Calamba,Laguna
Mother: Teodora Alonzo
Father: Francisco Mercado
Siblings: Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olympia, Lucia, Maria, Concepcion (Concha), Josefa, Trinidad and Soledad.
Educational Background: Ateneo de Manila University (1872-1877)
-Bachelor of Arts with Honors
Writings and Poems Rizal wrote during his years at the Ateneo Municipal (Ateneo University)
*Felicitacion (Felicitation)
*El Embarque: Himno a la Flota de Magellan (The Departure: Hymn to Magellan's Fleet)
*Y Es Espanol: Elcano, el Primero en dar la Vuelta al Mundo
(And He is Spanish: Elcano, the First to Circumnavigate the World)
*El Combate: Urbiztondo, Terror de Jolo (The Battle: Urbiztondo, Terror of Jolo)
*Un Recuerdo de Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)
*Alianza Intima Entre la Religion y la Buena Educacion
(Intimate Alliance Between Religion and Good Education)
*Por la Educacion Recibe Lustre la Patria
(Through Education the Motherland Receives Enlightenment)
*El Cautiverio y el Triunfo: Batalla de Lucena y Prision de Boabdil
(The Captivity and Triumph: Battle of Lucena and the Imprisonment of Boabdil)
*La Entra Triunfal de los Reyes Catolices en Granada
(The Triumphal Entry of the Catholic Monarchs into Granada)
*El Heroismo de Colon (The Heroism of Colombus)
*Colon y Juan II (Columbus and John II)
*Gran Consuelo en la Mayor Desdicha (Great Solace in Great Misfortune)
*Un Dialogo Alusivo a la Despedida de los Colegiales (A Farewell Dialogue to my College Students)
University of Santo Tomas (1877-1882)
Rizal's Prize winning poem "A La Juventud Filipina (To The Filipino Youth)"
Universidad Central de Madrid (Central University of Madrid) in Spain
-Medicine and Philosophy & Letters
+ Rizal's First Novel: Noli Me Tangere +
Jose Rizal finished his 1st Novel titled "Noli Me Tangere" on February 21, 1887 in Berlin.
The Title "Noli Me Tangere" is a Latin phrase which means "Touch Me Not", words which were taken from the Gospel of Saint John - Chapter 20, Verses 13-17. According to St. John on the First Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene visited the Holy Sepulcher and to her Our Lord Jesus, who just risen from the dead said: "Touch Me Not for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them i ascended unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God."
On March 21, 1887 - Noli Me Tangere was officially released.
Summary of Noli Me Tangere
Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin came back to the Philippines after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Don Santiago de los Santos "Captain Tiago" a family friend, threw a welcome home party, attended by friars and other prominent figures. One of the guests, former San Diego curate Fray Dámaso Vardolagas, belittled and slandered Ibarra.
The next day, Ibarra visits María Clara, his betrothed, the beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago and affluent resident of Binondo. Their long-standing love was clearly manifested in this meeting, and María Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevara, a Civil Guard, reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a rich hacendero of the town.
According to Guevara, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a subversive — an allegation brought forth by Dámaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such as Confession and Mass. Fr. Dámaso's animosity towards Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out in a fight between a tax collector and a child, with the former's death being blamed on him, although it was not deliberate. Suddenly, all those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he died of sickness in jail.
Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans, instead he carried through his father's plan of putting up a school, since he believed education would pave the way to his country's progress (all throughout the novel, the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries but part of the same nation or family, with Spain seen as the mother and the Philippines as the daughter). During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elías — 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.
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosted a luncheon during which Fr. Dámaso, gate-crashing the luncheon, again insulted him. Ibarra ignored the priest's insolence, but when the latter slandered the memory of his dead father, he was no longer able to restrain himself and he lunged at Dámaso, prepared to stab him for his impudence. Consequently, Dámasoexcommunicated Ibarra, taking this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant Tiago to forbid his daughter from marrying Ibarra. The friar wanted María Clara to marry Linares, aPeninsular who just arrived from Spain.
With the help of the Governor-General, Ibarra's excommunication was nullified and the Archbishop decided to accept him as a member of the Church once again.
Soon, a revolt happened and the Spanish officials and friars implicated Ibarra as its mastermind. Thus, he was arrested and detained. As a result, he was disdained by those who became his friends.
Meanwhile, in Capitán Tiago's residence, a party was being held to announce the upcoming wedding of María Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elías, took this opportunity to escape from prison. Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to María Clara and accused her of betraying him, thinking she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. María Clara explained that she would never conspire against him, but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to Father Salvi, in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, María Clara, was born.
María Clara, thinking Ibarra had been killed in the shooting incident, was greatly overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asked Dámaso to confine her to a nunnery. Dámaso reluctantly agreed when she threatened to take her own life, demanding, "the nunnery or death!"[2] Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra was still alive and able to escape. It was Elías who had taken the shots.
It was Christmas Eve when Elías woke up in the forest fatally wounded. It is here where he instructed Ibarra to meet him. Instead, Elías found the altar boy Basilio cradling his already-dead mother, Sisa. The latter lost her mind when she learned that her two sons, Crispín and Basilio, were chased out of the convent by the sacristan mayor on suspicions of stealing sacred objects.
Elías, convinced he would die soon, instructs Basilio to build a funeral pyre and burn his and Sisa's bodies to ashes. He tells Basilio that, if nobody reaches the place, he was to return later and dig as he would find gold. Elías further tells Basilio to take the gold he finds and go to school. In his dying breath, he instructed Basilio to continue dreaming about freedom for his motherland with the words:
“ I shall die without seeing the dawn break upon my homeland. You, who shall see it, salute it! Do not forget those who have fallen during the night. ”
Elías died thereafter.
In the epilogue, it was explained that Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the opium house in Binondo to satiate his addiction. María Clara became a nun when Salví, who had lusted after her from the beginning of the novel, regularly used her to fulfill his lust. One stormy evening, a beautiful insane woman was seen at the top of the convent crying and cursing the heavens for the fate it had handed her. While the woman was never identified, it is insinuated that the said woman was María Clara.
Characters: Crisostomo Ibarra, Maria Clara, Padre Damaso, Padre Salvi, Elias, Kapitan Tiago, Pilosopong Tacio, Dona Victorina, Don Rafael Ibarra, Dona Pia Alba, Narcisa or Sisa, Crispin and Basilio.
+Rizal's Second Novel: El Filibusterismo +
Jose Rizal's 2nd Novel entitled "El Filibusterismo" was officially published and printed on September 18, 1891 in Ghent.
Summary of El Filibusterismo
Thirteen years after leaving the Philippines, Crisostomo Ibarra returns as Simoun, a rich jeweler sporting a beard and blue-tinted glasses, and a confidant of the Captain-General. Abandoning his idealism, he becomes a cynical saboteur, seeking revenge against the Spanish Philippine system responsible for his misfortunes by plotting a revolution. Simoun insinuates himself into Manila high society and influences every decision of the Captain-General to mismanage the country’s affairs so that a revolution will break out. He cynically sides with the upper classes, encouraging them to commit abuses against the masses to encourage the latter to revolt against the oppressive Spanish colonial regime. This time, he does not attempt to fight the authorities through legal means, but through violent revolution using the masses. His two reasons for instigating a revolution are at first, to rescue María Clara from the convent and second, to get rid of ills and evils of Philippine society. His true identity is discovered by a now grown-up Basilio while visiting the grave of his mother, Sisa, as Simoun was digging near the grave site for his buried treasures. Simoun spares Basilio’s life and asks him to join in his planned revolution against the government, egging him on by bringing up the tragic misfortunes of the latter's family. Basilio declines the offer as he still hopes that the country’s condition will improve.
Basilio, at this point, is a graduating medical student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. After the death of his mother, Sisa, and the disappearance of his younger brother, Crispín, Basilio heeded the advice of the dying boatman, Elías, and traveled to Manila to study. Basilio was adopted by Captain Tiago after María Clara entered the convent. With the help of the Ibarra's riches and Captain Tiago, Basilio was able to go to Colegio de San Juan de Letrán where, at first, he is frowned upon by his peers and teachers because of his skin color and his shabby appearance. Captain Tiago’s confessor, Father Irene is making Captain Tiago’s health worse by giving him opium even as Basilio tries hard to prevent Captain Tiago from smoking it. He and other students want to establish a Spanish language academy so that they can learn to speak and write Spanish despite the opposition from the Dominican friars of theUniversidad de Santo Tomás. With the help of a reluctant Father Irene as their mediator and Don Custodio’s decision, the academy is established but this turns bad as they will serve, not as the teachers but as caretakers of the school. Dejected and defeated, they hold a mock celebration at a pancitería while a spy for the friars disguised as a poor man witnesses the proceedings. Basilio, however, was not with them during the event.
Simoun, for his part, keeps in close contact with the bandit group of Kabesang Tales, a former cabeza de barangay who suffered misfortunes at the hands of the friars. Once a farmer owning a prosperous sugarcane plantation and a cabeza de barangay (barangay head), he was forced to give everything he had owned to the greedy, unscrupulous Spanish friars and the Church. His son, Tano, who became a civil guard was captured by bandits, his daughter Julî had to work as a maid to get enough ransom money for his freedom, and his father, Tandang Selo, suffered a stroke and became mute. Before joining the bandits, Tales took Simoun’s revolver while Simoun was staying at his house for the night. As payment, Tales leaves a locket that once belonged to María Clara. To further strengthen the revolution, Simoun has Quiroga, a Chinese man hoping to be appointed consul to the Philippines, smuggle weapons into the country using Quiroga’s bazaar as a front. Simoun wishes to attack during a stage play with all of his enemies in attendance. He, however, abruptly aborts the attack when he learns from Basilio that María Clara had died earlier that day in the convent.
A few days after the mock celebration by the students, the people are agitated when disturbing posters are found displayed around the city. The authorities accuse the students present at the pancitería of agitation and disturbing peace and has them arrested. Basilio, although not present at the mock celebration, is also arrested. Captain Tiago dies after learning of the incident. But before he dies he signs a will, unknown to him it was forged by Father Irene. His will originally states that Basilio should inherit all his property but due to this forgery his property is given in parts, one to Santa Clara, one for the archbishop, one for the Pope, and one for the religious orders leaving nothing for Basilio to be inherited. Basilio is left in prison as the other students are released. A high official tries to intervene for the release of Basilio but the Captain-General, bearing grudges against the high official, coerces him to tender his resignation. Julî, Basilio’s girlfriend and the daughter of Kabesang Tales, tries to ask Father Camorra’s help upon the advice of Hermana Bali. The two travel to the convent but things suddenly turn horrible as Camorra tries to rape Juli, due to his long-hidden desires for young women. Julî, rather than submit to the will of the friar, jumps over the balcony to her death. Basilio is soon released with the help of Simoun.
Basilio, now a changed man, and after hearing about Julî's suicide, finally joins Simoun’s revolution. Simoun then tells Basilio his plan at the wedding of Paulita Gómez and Juanito, Basilio’s hunch-backed classmate. His plan was to conceal an explosive which contains nitroglycerin inside a pomegranate-styled Kerosene lamp that Simoun will give to the newlyweds as a gift during the wedding reception. The reception will take place at the former home of the late Captain Tiago, which was now filled with explosives planted by Simoun. According to Simoun, the lamp will stay lighted for only 20 minutes before it flickers; if someone attempts to turn the wick, it will explode and kill everyone—important members of civil society and the Church hierarchy—inside the house. Basilio has a change of heart and attempts to warn Isagani, his friend and the former boyfriend of Paulita. Simoun leaves the reception early as planned and leaves a note behind:
“ Mene Thecel Phares. ”
—Juan Crisostomo Ibarra
Initially thinking that it was simply a bad joke, Father Salví recognizes the handwriting and confirms that it was indeed Ibarra’s. As people begin to panic, the lamp flickers. Father Irene tries to turn the wick up when Isagani, due to his undying love for Paulita, bursts in the room and throws the lamp into the river, sabotaging Simoun's plans. He escapes by diving into the river as guards chase after him. He later regrets his impulsive action because he had contradicted his own belief that he loved his nation more than Paulita and that the explosion and revolution could have fulfilled his ideals for Filipino society.
Simoun, now unmasked as the perpetrator of the attempted arson and failed revolution, becomes a fugitive. Wounded and exhausted after he was shot by the pursuing Guardia Civil, he seeks shelter at the home of Father Florentino, Isagani’s uncle, and comes under the care of doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña, Doña Victorina's husband, who was also hiding at the house. Simoun takes poison in order for him not to be captured alive. Before he dies, he reveals his real identity to Florentino while they exchange thoughts about the failure of his revolution and why God forsook him, when all he wanted was to avenge the people important to him that were wronged, such as Elias, Maria Clara and his father, Don Rafael. Florentino opines that God did not forsake him and that his plans were not for the greater good but for personal gain. Simoun, finally accepting Florentino’s explanation, squeezes his hand and dies. Florentino then takes Simoun’s remaining jewels and throws them into the Pacific Ocean with the corals hoping that they would not be used by the greedy, and that when the time came that it would be used for the greater good.
Characters: Simoun, Basilio, Isagani, Don Custodio, Paulita Gomez, Kapitan Tiago, Padre Salvi, Macaraeg & Kabesang Tales.
Rizal's Martyrdom and Death
Jose Rizal died on December 30, 1896 at exactly 7:03 in the morning on the grassy fields and in the hands of the mixed Spanish and Filipino members of the firing squad in Bagumbayan.
During Jose Rizal's Death March.
His Death thru a Firing Squad.
I hope you liked the topic of my blog entry. Also hoping that you have learned many things here. May you recommend this blog entry to your friends, family, neighbors and even your classmates and teachers.
Thank You Very Much!!!
by: VongolaPrimo21
Rizal's Autobiography
*El Embarque: Himno a la Flota de Magellan (The Departure: Hymn to Magellan's Fleet)
*Y Es Espanol: Elcano, el Primero en dar la Vuelta al Mundo
(And He is Spanish: Elcano, the First to Circumnavigate the World)
*El Combate: Urbiztondo, Terror de Jolo (The Battle: Urbiztondo, Terror of Jolo)
*Un Recuerdo de Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)
*Alianza Intima Entre la Religion y la Buena Educacion
(Intimate Alliance Between Religion and Good Education)
*Por la Educacion Recibe Lustre la Patria
(Through Education the Motherland Receives Enlightenment)
*El Cautiverio y el Triunfo: Batalla de Lucena y Prision de Boabdil
(The Captivity and Triumph: Battle of Lucena and the Imprisonment of Boabdil)
*La Entra Triunfal de los Reyes Catolices en Granada
(The Triumphal Entry of the Catholic Monarchs into Granada)
*El Heroismo de Colon (The Heroism of Colombus)
*Colon y Juan II (Columbus and John II)
*Gran Consuelo en la Mayor Desdicha (Great Solace in Great Misfortune)
*Un Dialogo Alusivo a la Despedida de los Colegiales (A Farewell Dialogue to my College Students)
University of Santo Tomas (1877-1882)
Rizal's Prize winning poem "A La Juventud Filipina (To The Filipino Youth)"
Universidad Central de Madrid (Central University of Madrid) in Spain
-Medicine and Philosophy & Letters
+ Rizal's First Novel: Noli Me Tangere +
Jose Rizal finished his 1st Novel titled "Noli Me Tangere" on February 21, 1887 in Berlin.
The Title "Noli Me Tangere" is a Latin phrase which means "Touch Me Not", words which were taken from the Gospel of Saint John - Chapter 20, Verses 13-17. According to St. John on the First Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene visited the Holy Sepulcher and to her Our Lord Jesus, who just risen from the dead said: "Touch Me Not for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them i ascended unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God."
On March 21, 1887 - Noli Me Tangere was officially released.
Summary of Noli Me Tangere
Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin came back to the Philippines after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Don Santiago de los Santos "Captain Tiago" a family friend, threw a welcome home party, attended by friars and other prominent figures. One of the guests, former San Diego curate Fray Dámaso Vardolagas, belittled and slandered Ibarra.
The next day, Ibarra visits María Clara, his betrothed, the beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago and affluent resident of Binondo. Their long-standing love was clearly manifested in this meeting, and María Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevara, a Civil Guard, reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a rich hacendero of the town.
According to Guevara, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a subversive — an allegation brought forth by Dámaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such as Confession and Mass. Fr. Dámaso's animosity towards Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out in a fight between a tax collector and a child, with the former's death being blamed on him, although it was not deliberate. Suddenly, all those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he died of sickness in jail.
Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans, instead he carried through his father's plan of putting up a school, since he believed education would pave the way to his country's progress (all throughout the novel, the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries but part of the same nation or family, with Spain seen as the mother and the Philippines as the daughter). During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elías — 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.
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosted a luncheon during which Fr. Dámaso, gate-crashing the luncheon, again insulted him. Ibarra ignored the priest's insolence, but when the latter slandered the memory of his dead father, he was no longer able to restrain himself and he lunged at Dámaso, prepared to stab him for his impudence. Consequently, Dámasoexcommunicated Ibarra, taking this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant Tiago to forbid his daughter from marrying Ibarra. The friar wanted María Clara to marry Linares, aPeninsular who just arrived from Spain.
With the help of the Governor-General, Ibarra's excommunication was nullified and the Archbishop decided to accept him as a member of the Church once again.
Soon, a revolt happened and the Spanish officials and friars implicated Ibarra as its mastermind. Thus, he was arrested and detained. As a result, he was disdained by those who became his friends.
Meanwhile, in Capitán Tiago's residence, a party was being held to announce the upcoming wedding of María Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elías, took this opportunity to escape from prison. Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to María Clara and accused her of betraying him, thinking she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. María Clara explained that she would never conspire against him, but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to Father Salvi, in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, María Clara, was born.
María Clara, thinking Ibarra had been killed in the shooting incident, was greatly overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asked Dámaso to confine her to a nunnery. Dámaso reluctantly agreed when she threatened to take her own life, demanding, "the nunnery or death!"[2] Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra was still alive and able to escape. It was Elías who had taken the shots.
It was Christmas Eve when Elías woke up in the forest fatally wounded. It is here where he instructed Ibarra to meet him. Instead, Elías found the altar boy Basilio cradling his already-dead mother, Sisa. The latter lost her mind when she learned that her two sons, Crispín and Basilio, were chased out of the convent by the sacristan mayor on suspicions of stealing sacred objects.
Elías, convinced he would die soon, instructs Basilio to build a funeral pyre and burn his and Sisa's bodies to ashes. He tells Basilio that, if nobody reaches the place, he was to return later and dig as he would find gold. Elías further tells Basilio to take the gold he finds and go to school. In his dying breath, he instructed Basilio to continue dreaming about freedom for his motherland with the words:
| “ | I shall die without seeing the dawn break upon my homeland. You, who shall see it, salute it! Do not forget those who have fallen during the night. | ” |
Elías died thereafter.
In the epilogue, it was explained that Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the opium house in Binondo to satiate his addiction. María Clara became a nun when Salví, who had lusted after her from the beginning of the novel, regularly used her to fulfill his lust. One stormy evening, a beautiful insane woman was seen at the top of the convent crying and cursing the heavens for the fate it had handed her. While the woman was never identified, it is insinuated that the said woman was María Clara.
Characters: Crisostomo Ibarra, Maria Clara, Padre Damaso, Padre Salvi, Elias, Kapitan Tiago, Pilosopong Tacio, Dona Victorina, Don Rafael Ibarra, Dona Pia Alba, Narcisa or Sisa, Crispin and Basilio.
+Rizal's Second Novel: El Filibusterismo +
Jose Rizal's 2nd Novel entitled "El Filibusterismo" was officially published and printed on September 18, 1891 in Ghent.
Summary of El Filibusterismo
Thirteen years after leaving the Philippines, Crisostomo Ibarra returns as Simoun, a rich jeweler sporting a beard and blue-tinted glasses, and a confidant of the Captain-General. Abandoning his idealism, he becomes a cynical saboteur, seeking revenge against the Spanish Philippine system responsible for his misfortunes by plotting a revolution. Simoun insinuates himself into Manila high society and influences every decision of the Captain-General to mismanage the country’s affairs so that a revolution will break out. He cynically sides with the upper classes, encouraging them to commit abuses against the masses to encourage the latter to revolt against the oppressive Spanish colonial regime. This time, he does not attempt to fight the authorities through legal means, but through violent revolution using the masses. His two reasons for instigating a revolution are at first, to rescue María Clara from the convent and second, to get rid of ills and evils of Philippine society. His true identity is discovered by a now grown-up Basilio while visiting the grave of his mother, Sisa, as Simoun was digging near the grave site for his buried treasures. Simoun spares Basilio’s life and asks him to join in his planned revolution against the government, egging him on by bringing up the tragic misfortunes of the latter's family. Basilio declines the offer as he still hopes that the country’s condition will improve.
Basilio, at this point, is a graduating medical student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. After the death of his mother, Sisa, and the disappearance of his younger brother, Crispín, Basilio heeded the advice of the dying boatman, Elías, and traveled to Manila to study. Basilio was adopted by Captain Tiago after María Clara entered the convent. With the help of the Ibarra's riches and Captain Tiago, Basilio was able to go to Colegio de San Juan de Letrán where, at first, he is frowned upon by his peers and teachers because of his skin color and his shabby appearance. Captain Tiago’s confessor, Father Irene is making Captain Tiago’s health worse by giving him opium even as Basilio tries hard to prevent Captain Tiago from smoking it. He and other students want to establish a Spanish language academy so that they can learn to speak and write Spanish despite the opposition from the Dominican friars of theUniversidad de Santo Tomás. With the help of a reluctant Father Irene as their mediator and Don Custodio’s decision, the academy is established but this turns bad as they will serve, not as the teachers but as caretakers of the school. Dejected and defeated, they hold a mock celebration at a pancitería while a spy for the friars disguised as a poor man witnesses the proceedings. Basilio, however, was not with them during the event.
Simoun, for his part, keeps in close contact with the bandit group of Kabesang Tales, a former cabeza de barangay who suffered misfortunes at the hands of the friars. Once a farmer owning a prosperous sugarcane plantation and a cabeza de barangay (barangay head), he was forced to give everything he had owned to the greedy, unscrupulous Spanish friars and the Church. His son, Tano, who became a civil guard was captured by bandits, his daughter Julî had to work as a maid to get enough ransom money for his freedom, and his father, Tandang Selo, suffered a stroke and became mute. Before joining the bandits, Tales took Simoun’s revolver while Simoun was staying at his house for the night. As payment, Tales leaves a locket that once belonged to María Clara. To further strengthen the revolution, Simoun has Quiroga, a Chinese man hoping to be appointed consul to the Philippines, smuggle weapons into the country using Quiroga’s bazaar as a front. Simoun wishes to attack during a stage play with all of his enemies in attendance. He, however, abruptly aborts the attack when he learns from Basilio that María Clara had died earlier that day in the convent.
A few days after the mock celebration by the students, the people are agitated when disturbing posters are found displayed around the city. The authorities accuse the students present at the pancitería of agitation and disturbing peace and has them arrested. Basilio, although not present at the mock celebration, is also arrested. Captain Tiago dies after learning of the incident. But before he dies he signs a will, unknown to him it was forged by Father Irene. His will originally states that Basilio should inherit all his property but due to this forgery his property is given in parts, one to Santa Clara, one for the archbishop, one for the Pope, and one for the religious orders leaving nothing for Basilio to be inherited. Basilio is left in prison as the other students are released. A high official tries to intervene for the release of Basilio but the Captain-General, bearing grudges against the high official, coerces him to tender his resignation. Julî, Basilio’s girlfriend and the daughter of Kabesang Tales, tries to ask Father Camorra’s help upon the advice of Hermana Bali. The two travel to the convent but things suddenly turn horrible as Camorra tries to rape Juli, due to his long-hidden desires for young women. Julî, rather than submit to the will of the friar, jumps over the balcony to her death. Basilio is soon released with the help of Simoun.
Basilio, now a changed man, and after hearing about Julî's suicide, finally joins Simoun’s revolution. Simoun then tells Basilio his plan at the wedding of Paulita Gómez and Juanito, Basilio’s hunch-backed classmate. His plan was to conceal an explosive which contains nitroglycerin inside a pomegranate-styled Kerosene lamp that Simoun will give to the newlyweds as a gift during the wedding reception. The reception will take place at the former home of the late Captain Tiago, which was now filled with explosives planted by Simoun. According to Simoun, the lamp will stay lighted for only 20 minutes before it flickers; if someone attempts to turn the wick, it will explode and kill everyone—important members of civil society and the Church hierarchy—inside the house. Basilio has a change of heart and attempts to warn Isagani, his friend and the former boyfriend of Paulita. Simoun leaves the reception early as planned and leaves a note behind:
| “ | Mene Thecel Phares. | ” |
—Juan Crisostomo Ibarra
| ||
Initially thinking that it was simply a bad joke, Father Salví recognizes the handwriting and confirms that it was indeed Ibarra’s. As people begin to panic, the lamp flickers. Father Irene tries to turn the wick up when Isagani, due to his undying love for Paulita, bursts in the room and throws the lamp into the river, sabotaging Simoun's plans. He escapes by diving into the river as guards chase after him. He later regrets his impulsive action because he had contradicted his own belief that he loved his nation more than Paulita and that the explosion and revolution could have fulfilled his ideals for Filipino society.
Simoun, now unmasked as the perpetrator of the attempted arson and failed revolution, becomes a fugitive. Wounded and exhausted after he was shot by the pursuing Guardia Civil, he seeks shelter at the home of Father Florentino, Isagani’s uncle, and comes under the care of doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña, Doña Victorina's husband, who was also hiding at the house. Simoun takes poison in order for him not to be captured alive. Before he dies, he reveals his real identity to Florentino while they exchange thoughts about the failure of his revolution and why God forsook him, when all he wanted was to avenge the people important to him that were wronged, such as Elias, Maria Clara and his father, Don Rafael. Florentino opines that God did not forsake him and that his plans were not for the greater good but for personal gain. Simoun, finally accepting Florentino’s explanation, squeezes his hand and dies. Florentino then takes Simoun’s remaining jewels and throws them into the Pacific Ocean with the corals hoping that they would not be used by the greedy, and that when the time came that it would be used for the greater good.
Characters: Simoun, Basilio, Isagani, Don Custodio, Paulita Gomez, Kapitan Tiago, Padre Salvi, Macaraeg & Kabesang Tales.
Rizal's Martyrdom and Death
Jose Rizal died on December 30, 1896 at exactly 7:03 in the morning on the grassy fields and in the hands of the mixed Spanish and Filipino members of the firing squad in Bagumbayan.
During Jose Rizal's Death March.
His Death thru a Firing Squad.
I hope you liked the topic of my blog entry. Also hoping that you have learned many things here. May you recommend this blog entry to your friends, family, neighbors and even your classmates and teachers.
Thank You Very Much!!!
by: VongolaPrimo21
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