Rizal

KRIZIA DYAN R. TAMAYO BSCS
GROUP II MRS. MARICAR SORIANO

Chapter 8

NOLI ME TANGERE Published in Berlin (1887)

“The novel is the first impartial and bold account of the life of the Tagalogs. The Filipinos will find in it the history of the last 10 years”
-Jose Rizal on Noli Me Tangere

NOLI ME TANGERE Published in Berlin (1887)

• bleak winter of 1886 was memorable in the life of rizal

o first, painful – hungry, sick and despondent in a strange city

o second – brought him great joy, after enduring so much sufferings, his first novel came of the press

• Noli Me Tangere came off the press in March, 1887

• Dr. Maximo Viola, his friend from Bulacan, arrived in Berlin at the height o9f his despondency and loaned him the needed funds to publish the novel.

1. Idea of writing a novel on the Philippines

a. Reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe that portrays the brutalities of American slave-owners and the pathetic conditions of the unfortunate Negro slaves, inspired Rizal to prepare a novel that would depict the miseries of his people under the lash of the Spanish tyrants (student at the Central University of Madrid)

b. January 2, 1884, Filipino reunion in Paterno residence in Madrid, Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines by a group of Filipinos.

c. Proposal approved unanimously by: The Paternos (Pedro, Maximo and Antonio)

i. Graciano Lopez Jaena

ii. Evaristo Aguirre

iii. Eduardo de Lete

iv. Julio Llorente

v. Melecio Figueroa

vi. Valentin Ventura

d. Unfortunately, his project did not materialize, those who were expected to collaborate on the novel did not write anything.

i. Novel designed to cover all phases of Philippine Life

ii. Everybody wanted to write on women – Rizal was disgusted by this

iii. Rizal determined to write the novel – alone

2. The Writing of the Noli

a. Toward the end of 1884, Rizal began writing the novel in Madrid and finished about one-half of it

b. Paris, 1885, completed studies in Central University of Madrid – continued writing the novel – finished one-half of the second-half

c. Finished the last fourth of the novel in Germany

d. Wrote the last few chapters of Noli in Wilhelmsfeld in April-June, 1886

e. February 1886, winter in Berlin – final revisions of manuscript of Noli was made

f. Sick and penniless – he was hopeless in being able to publish it

g. Because of desperation, he almost burned the novel

h. Years later, Rizal told his friend and former classmate, Fernando Canon:

i. “I did not believe that Noli Me Tangere would ever be published when I was in Berlin, broken-hearted, weakened and discouraged from hunger and deprivation. I was on the point of throwing my work in the fire as a thing accursed and fit only to die.”

3. Viola, Savior of Noli

a. In the midst of despondency and misery, Rizal received a telegram from Dr. Maximo Viola (friend of Rizal, scion rich family of San Miguel, Bulacan) who was coming to Berlin. (Christmas 1887)

b. Shocked to see Rizal living in poverty, Viola agreed to finance the printing cost of the Noli.

c. Viola loaned Rizal some cash money for living expenses also

d. After Christmas, Rizal put finishing touches on novel

i. To save printing expenses, he deleted some passages :

1. Whole chapter of “Elias and Salome”

e. February 21, 1887, the Noli was finally finished and ready for printing

f. Printing shop – Berliner Buchdruckrei-Action-Gesselschaft

i. Charged the lowest rate (300 pesos for 2,000 copies of the novel)

4. Rizal suspected as a French spy

a. Passport conflict

5. Printing of the Noli Finished

a. March 21, 1887 – Noli Me Tangere came off the press

b. Rizal sent the first copies to his intimate friends:

i. Blumentritt

ii. Dr. Antonio ma. Regidor

iii. G. lopez-jaena

iv. Mariano ponce

v. Felix r. hidalgo

c. Rizal said to his friends:

i. “I am sending you a book. It is my first book, though I have already written much before it and received some prizes in literary competitions. It is the first impartial and bold book on the life of the tagalogs…..etc….

d. March 29, 1887 – rizal gave viola, in token of his appreciation and gratitude, the galley proofs of the Noli carefully rolled around the pen that he used in writing it and a complimentary copy with the following inscriptions:

i. “To my dear friend, Maximo Viola, the first to read and appreciate my work – Jose Rizal”

6. The title of the novel

a. Noli Me Tangere – latin phrase for “Touch Me Not”

i. Not originally conceived by Rizal, admitted taking it from the Bible.

b. March 5, 1887 – rizal wrote to felix r. hidalgo in French “Noli Me Tangere, words taken from the gospel of st. luke….. (mistake should be gospel of st. John 20 13:17)

7. The Author’s Dedication

a. Rizal dedicated his Noli Me tangere to the Philippines – “To My Fatherland”

8. Synopsis of Noli

a. 63 chapters and an epilogue

b. (summary)

9. The Noli Based on Truth

a. Noli Me Tangere, unlike many works of fictional literature, was a true story of Philippine Conditions during the last decades of Spanish Rule

i. Places, characters and situations really existed

1. “the facts I narrate there are all true and have happened, I can prove them.” – Rizal

b. Characters were drawn by rizal from persons who existed during his times

i. Maria Clara – Leonor Rivera

ii. Tasio – Paciano (elder brother)

iii. Padre Salvi – Padre Antonio Piernavieja ( hated Augustinian friar in Cavite who was killed by the patriots during the revolution)

iv. Capitan Tiago – Capitan Hilario Sunico of san Nicolas

v. Dona Victorina – dona augustina medel

vi. Basilio and Crispin – crisosotomo brothers of Hagonoy

vii. Padre Damaso – typical, domineering friar (arrogant, anti-Filipino and immoral)

10. Missing Chapter of The Noli

a. “Elias and Salome” – Chapter XXIV – “IN the Woods

i. Deleted for economic reasons – cheaper

11. Rizal’s friends praise Noli

a. Friends praised noli

b. Enemies condemned noli

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Spain, to Rizal, was a venue for realizing his dreams. He finished his studies in Madrid and this to him was the realization of the bigger part of his ambition. His vision broadened while he was in Spain to the point of awakening in him an understanding of human nature, sparking in him the realization that his people needed him. It must have been this sentiment that prompted him to pursue, during the re-organizational meeting of the Circulo-Hispano-Filipino, to be one of its activities, the publication of a book to which all the members would contribute papers on the various aspects and conditions of Philippines life.

"My proposal on the book," he wrote on January 2, 1884, "was unanimously approved. But afterwards difficulties and objections were raised which seemed to me rather odd, and a number of gentlemen stood up and refused to discuss the matter any further. In view of this I decided not to press it any longer, feeling that it was impossible to count on general support…"

"Fortunately," writes one of Rizal’s biographers, the anthology, if we may call it that, was never written. Instead, the next year, Pedro Paterno published his Ninay, a novel sub-titled Costumbres filipinas (Philippines Customs), thus partly fulfilling the original purpose of Rizal’s plan. He himself (Rizal), as we have seen, had ‘put aside his pen’ in deference to the wishes of his parents.

But the idea of writing a novel himself must have grown on him. It would be no poem to forgotten after a year, no essay in a review of scant circulation, no speech that passed in the night, but a long and serious work on which he might labor, exercising his mind and hand, without troubling his mother’s sleep. He would call it Noli Me Tangere; the Latin echo of the Spoliarium is not without significance. He seems to have told no one in his family about his grand design; it is not mentioned in his correspondence until the book is well-nigh completed. But the other expatriates knew what he was doing; later, when Pastells was blaming the Noli on the influence of German Protestants, he would call his compatriots to witness that he had written half of the novel in Madrid a fourth part in Paris, and only the remainder in Germany.

"From the first," writes Leon Ma. Guerrero, Rizal was haunted by the fear that his novel would never find its way into print, that it would remain unread. He had little enough money for his own needs, let alone the cost of the Noli’s publication… Characteristically, Rizal would not hear of asking his friends for help.He did not want to compromise them.

Viola insisted on lending him the money (P300 for 2,000 copies); Rizal at first demurred… Finally Rizal gave in and the novel went to press. The proofs were delivered daily, and one day the messenger, according to Viola, took it upon himself to warn the author that if he ever returned to the Philippines he would lose his head. Rizal was too enthralled by seeing his work in print to do more than smile.

The printing apparently took considerably less time than the original estimate of five months for Viola did not arrive in Berlin until December and by the 21st March 1887, Rizal was already sending Blumentritt a copy of "my first book."

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Rizal, himself, describing the nature of the Noli Me Tangere to his friend Blumentritt, wrote, "The Novel is the first impartial and bold account of the life of the tagalogs. The Filipinos will find in it the history of the last ten years…"

Criticism and attacks against the Noli and its author came from all quarters. An anonymous letter signed "A Friar" and sent to Rizal, dated February 15, 1888, says in part: "How ungrateful you are… If you, or for that matter all your men, think you have a grievance, then challenge us and we shall pick up the gauntlet, for we are not cowards like you, which is not to say that a hidden hand will not put an end to your life."

A special committee of the faculty of the University of Santo Tomas, at the request of the Archbishop Pedro Payo, found and condemned the novel as heretical, impious, and scandalous in its religious aspect, and unpatriotic, subversive of public order and harmful to the Spanish government and its administration of theses islands in its political aspect.

On December 28, 1887, Fray Salvador Font, the cura of Tondo and chairman of the Permanent Commission of Censorship composed of laymen and ordered that the circulation of this pernicious book" be absolutely prohibited.

Not content, Font caused the circulation of copies of the prohibition, an act which brought an effect contrary to what he desired. Instead of what he expected, the negative publicity awakened more the curiosity of the people who managed to get copies of the book.

Assisting Father Font in his aim to discredit the Noli was an Augustinian friar by the name of Jose Rodriguez. In a pamphlet entitled Caiingat Cayo (Beware). Fr. Rodriguez warned the people that in reading the book they "commit mortal sin," considering that it was full of heresy.

As far as Madrid, there was furor over the Noli, as evidenced by an article which bitterly criticized the novel published in a Madrid newspaper in January, 1890, and written by one Vicente Barrantes. In like manner, a member of the Senate in the Spanish Cortes assailed the novel as "anti-Catholic, Protestant, socialistic."

It is well to note that not detractors alone visibly reacted to the effects of the Noli. For if there were bitter critics, another group composed of staunch defenders found every reason to justify its publication and circulation to the greatest number of Filipinos. For instance, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, cleverly writing under an assumed name Dolores Manapat, successfully circulated a publication that negated the effect of Father Rodriguez’ Caiingat Cayo, Del Pilar’s piece was entitled Caiigat Cayo (Be Slippery as an Eel). Deceiving similar in format to Rodriguez’ Caiingat Cayo, the people were readily "misled" into getting not a copy o Rodriguez’ piece but Del Pillar’s.

The Noli Me Tangere found another staunch defender in the person of a Catholic theologian of the Manila Cathedral, in Father Vicente Garcia. Under the pen-name Justo Desiderio Magalang. Father Garcia wrote a very scholarly defense of the Noli, claiming among other things that Rizal cannot be an ignorant man, being the product of Spanish officials and corrupt friars; he himself who had warned the people of committing mortal sin if they read the novel had therefore committed such sin for he has read the novel.

Consequently, realizing how much the Noli had awakened his countrymen, to the point of defending his novel, Rizal said: "Now I die content."

Fittingly, Rizal found it a timely and effective gesture to dedicate his novel to the country of his people whose experiences and sufferings he wrote about, sufferings which he brought to light in an effort to awaken his countrymen to the truths that had long remained unspoken, although not totally unheard of.