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Life and Works
of Jose Rizal
Course Learning Material
No.8
[Link] John S. Espiritu
Faculty, Social Sciences Cluster
College of Arts and Sciences
National University - Laguna
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
In the end of this lesson, you are expected
to:
• Discuss the summary of El Filibusterismo
• Identify characters of the novel
• Discuss the references of writing the
novel, it’s publication, and information
about the title
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EL FILBUSTERISMO
INTRODUCTION TO JOSÉ RIZAL’S EL FILIBUSTERISMO
(By Charles Derbyshire)
El Filibusterismo, the second of José Rizal’s novels of Philippine life, is a story of the
last days of the Spanish régime in the Philippines. Under the name of The Reign of
Greed it is for the first time translated into English. Written some four or five years
after Noli Me Tangere, the book represents Rizal’s more mature judgment on political
and social conditions in the islands, and in its graver and less hopeful tone reflects the
disappointments and discouragements which he had encountered in his efforts to lead
the way to reform. Rizal’s dedication to the first edition is of special interest, as the
writing of it was one of the grounds of accusation against him when he was
condemned to death in 1896. It reads:
“To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don
José Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old).
Executed in Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872.
“The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime
that has been imputed to you; the Government, by surrounding your trials
with mystery and shadows, causes the belief that there was some error,
committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by worshiping your
memory and calling you martyrs, in no [vi]sense recognizes your
culpability. In so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite mutiny is
not clearly proved, as you may or may not have been patriots, and as you
may or may not have cherished sentiments for justice and for liberty, I
have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I
undertake to combat. And while we await expectantly upon 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
unknown tombs, and let it be understood that every one who without
clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood!”
-J. Rizal.
A brief recapitulation of the story in Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) is
essential to an understanding of such plot as there is in the present work, which the
author called a “continuation” of the first story.
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino, who, after studying for seven years in
Europe, returns to his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner, has died
in prison as the result of a quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre
Damaso. Ibarra is engaged to a beautiful and accomplished girl, Maria Clara, the
supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don Santiago de los Santos, commonly
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known as “Capitan Tiago,” a typical Filipino cacique, the predominant character
fostered by the friar régime.
Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people.
To show his good intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public school in
his native town. He meets with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s
successor, a young and gloomy Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara
confesses to an instinctive dread.
At the laying of the corner-stone for the new schoolhouse a suspicious accident,
apparently aimed at Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner,
where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly insulted over the memory of his father by Fray
Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and is about to kill the friar, who is
saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.
Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is
forced to break the engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a
young and inoffensive Spaniard provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her reputed
father’s command and influenced by her mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara
consents to this arrangement, but becomes seriously ill, only to be saved by medicines
sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl friend.
Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can
explain matters an uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about through
agents of Padre Salvi, and the leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned
by a mysterious friend, an outlaw called Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but
desiring first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make his escape, and when the
outbreak occurs he is arrested as the instigator of it and thrown into prison in Manila.
On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate
his supposed daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and
succeeds in seeing Maria Clara alone. He begins to reproach her because it is a letter
written to her before he went to Europe which forms the basis of the charge against
him, but she clears herself of treachery to him. The letter had been secured from her by
false representations and in exchange for two others written by her mother just before
her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real father. These letters had been
accidentally discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who made use of them to
intimidate the girl and get possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he forged others to
incriminate the young man. She tells him that she will marry the young Spaniard,
sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name and Capitan Tiago’s honor and to
prevent a public scandal, but that she will always remain true to him.
Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the
Pasig to the Lake, where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps
into the water and draws the pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies
concealed.
On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears,
wounded and dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother,
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a poor woman who had been driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect and abuses
on the part of the Civil Guard, her younger son having [ix]disappeared some time
before in the convento, where he was a sacristan. Basilio, who is ignorant of Elias’s
identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the madwoman’s
are to be burned.
Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria
Clara becomes disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put
her in a nunnery. Unconscious of her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks
down and confesses that all the trouble he has stirred up with the Ibarras has been to
prevent her from marrying a native, which would condemn her and her children to the
oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties and she enters the
nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon assigned in a ministerial capacity.
Summary of El Filibusterismo
On the upper deck of the steamship Tabo, presumably in 1894, the passengers
discuss its slow pace as it sails along Pasig River on the way to Laguna Lake. Meanwhile
on the lower deck, the students Basilio and Isagani discuss their plans to establish an
academy that teaches Spanish to Capitan Basilio, who expresses his doubts that their
plan will be approved by the governor-general. Back on the upper deck, the
passengers tell legends about the lake, including the tale of Crisostomo Ibarra.
The narration then shifts to the tale of Cabesang Tales; a religious order laid claim to his
land and taxed him for it, which he tried to oppose but ended up losing against. With
Tales captured by bandits, his daughter Juli borrows money from Hermana Penchang
to ransom him and works as her servant in exchange. Arriving at San Diego on
Christmas Eve, Basilio learns of Tales' abduction,[5] and makes his way to his mother's
grave. He recalls the events from thirteen years prior; it is also explained that he studied
with the help of his foster father Capitan Tiago and plans to marry his sweetheart Juli. As
Basilio is about to leave, he runs into the jeweler Simoun, who turns out to be Crisostomo
Ibarra in disguise. Simoun attempts to recruit Basilio into his plans for revolution, but
Basilio refuses.
On Christmas Day, Juli starts her work as Hermana Penchang's servant; her
grandfather Selo discovers he has become [Link] people gossip about the
misfortune of Selo and his family,Tales returns and entertains Simoun at his house as he
sells jewelry to clients. He exchanges Juli's locket, which originally belonged to Maria
Clara, for Simoun's revolver and becomes a bandit, killing the friar administrator stealing
his land as well as the new tenant and his [Link] the last day of December, the
governor-general and his advisers, as well as some friars, take a rest in Los Baños. The
governor-general asks their opinion on the students' plans for a Spanish academy; met
with disparate opinions, no decision is made.
In Manila, the student Placido Pentitente goes to school; his sycophant friend
Juanito Pelaez speaks with him on the way. In his class in physics, Placido gets in an
argument with his professor Padre Millon and walks out in anger. At the students'
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dormitory, the wealthy Makaraig announces that the decision to establish the Spanish
academy has been passed to a commission headed by Don Custodio. The students
devise plans to convince him, as well as the lawyer Señor Pasta, to approve the plan.
Isagani then approaches Señor Pasta, only for him to refuse for fear of angering
the friars. At his house, the Chinese businessman Quiroga entertains guests for dinner.
Simoun asks him to store rifles in his warehouse in exchange for absolving part of his
debt to [Link] guests then leave Quiroga's house to attend the Quiapo Fair; at the
American Mr. Leeds' show, the supposed Sphinx tells a story similar to that of Ibarra's
and calls out Padre Salvi, causing him to faint.
Later on, Placido meets with Simoun and learns of his plans to instigate a
revolution and rescue Maria Clara from the nunnery. As Don Custodio puzzles over his
decision, people of Manila go to Teatro de Variadades to watch Les Cloches de
Corneville. During the performance, the students learn of Don Custodio's decision.
At Capitan Tiago's house, Basilio is visited by Simoun; the man attempts to recruit
him once again, only to become distraught when Basilio informs him that Maria Clara
has died. In Malecon, Isagani meets with his sweetheart Paulita Gomez and tells her
about his dreams for reform; Paulita dismisses them as being idealistic and unattainable.
The students later organize a banquet to order Don Custodio's decision; Don
Custodio has decided that the academy be supervised by a Dominican order and that
the students merely collect [Link] later goes to the hospital and learns
that seditious posters have been seen, with the student organization being implicated.
As he goes to Makaraig's house to ask for a loan, he is ultimately arrested as
well. Meanwhile, Isagani and Padre Fernandez argue regarding the friars' education of
the students.
As gossip spreads regarding the students' imprisonment, Capitan Tiago dies and
his will is executed by Padre Irene, who has forged it and distributed his properties,
which were meant for Basilio, to the Sta. Clara convent and other religious corporations.
Back in San Diego, Juli learns of Basilio's imprisonment and is reluctantly convinced to
seek the help of Padre Camorra; she then kills herself when the priest assaults her.
As a high official attempts to convince the governor-general to release Basilio,
whom he believes to be innocent, the governor-general [Link] on, the students
Pecson, Tadeo, and Juanito, are freed from prison but suspended from their classes; it is
revealed that Juanito is to marry Paulita.
Basilio is released from prison, having learned of Juli's death, and joins Simoun in
his revolution, learning that the man plans to place a dynamite-laden lamp at an
important gathering as a signal for the attack. As Basilio walks along the streets later on,
he sees the wedding reception of Juanito and Paulita, surmising it to be the gathering
Simoun was referring [Link] then sees Isagani, whom he tells to leave because of the
bomb; as the guests panic over the lamp bearing a note from Ibarra, Isagani rushes into
the house and throws the lamp into the river before escaping.
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Later on, news circulates about bandits attacking a friar country house. The
bandits confess to a mestizo matching Simoun's description being the mastermind of
the attack. The day after the wedding reception, Isagani discusses the events with
several individuals; the silversmith Chichoy reveals Simoun was the one who planned
the attack.
As members of the Guardia Civil escort prisoners, they are ambushed by bandits;
one of the soldiers, Carolino, kills their leader, Cabesang Tales, and another one kills the
old man Selo. It is then revealed that Carolino is actually Tano, Tales' son and Juli's
brother. Later on, Simoun escapes to the house of Isagani's uncle Padre Florentino;
pursued by the Guardia Civil, he kills himself by taking poison in order to avoid arrest.
Afterward, Padre Florentino throws his jewel chest into the sea.
(Taken from [Link] )
Characters of Noli Me Tangere
Simoun - Crisóstomo Ibarra reincarnated Father Florentino - Isagani's
as a wealthy jeweler, bent on starting a godfather, and a secular priest; was
revolution engaged to be married, but chose
Basilio Sisa's son, now an aspiring doctor the priesthood instead, the story
Isagani - poet and Basilio's best friend;
hinting at the ambivalence of his
portrayed as emotional and reactive;
Paulita Gómez' boyfriend before being
decision as he chooses an
dumped for fellow student Juanito Peláez assignment to a remote place,
Kabesang Tales - Telesforo Juan de Dios, a living in solitude near the sea.
former cabeza de barangay (barangay Huli - Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend
head) who resurfaced as the feared Luzón of Basilio, and the youngest
bandit Matanglawin (Tagalog daughter of Kabesang Tales
for Hawkeye); his father, Old Man Selo, Ben Zayb-Abraham Ibañez is his
dies eventually after his own son Tano, real name. He is a journalist who
who became a guardia civil, unknowingly thinks he is the only one thinking in
shoots his grandfather in an encounter
the Philippines
Don Custodio - Custodio de Salazar y
Sánchez de Monteredondo, a
Placido Penitente-a student of the
famous journalist who was asked by the University of Santo Tomas who is
students about his decision for the always miserable, and therefore
Academia de Castellano. In reality, he is controls his temper
quite an ordinary fellow who married a Quiroga -a Chinese businessman
rich woman in order to be a member of who dreamt of being a consul of
Manila's high society a Consulate of China in the
Paulita Gómez - the girlfriend of Philippines. He hid Simoun's
Isagani and the niece of Doña weapons inside his house
Victorina, the old India who passes Old Man Selo
herself off as a Peninsular, who is the father of Kabesang Tales. He
wife of the quack doctor Tiburcio de raised the sick and young Basilio
Espadaña. after his mother Sisa had died
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About the title:
Rizal had to define the word filibustero to his German friend Ferdinand
Blumentritt, who did not understand his use of the word in Noli Me Tangere.
In a letter, Rizal explained: "The word filibustero is little known in the
Philippines. The masses do not know it yet. I heard it for the first time in 1872
when the tragic.
History of the Novel:
✓ Rizal took 3 years to write his second novel.• Rizal began writing El Filibusterismo
in October 1887 while he was in Calamba.
✓ In London (1888), he revised the plot and some chapters. Rizal continued to work
on his manuscript in Paris.
✓ He later moved to Brussels where the cost of living was cheaper and he would
be less likely to be distracted by social events so he could focus on finsihing the
book.
✓ He finally completed the book on March 29, 1891 in Biarritz.
✓ September 18, 1891- the novel was published in Ghent, partially funded by Rizal’s
friend Valentin [Link] immediately sent on this date two printed copies to
Hong Kong- one for Basa and other for Sixto Lopez
✓ Rizal gratefully donated the original mansuscript and an autographed printed
copy to Valentin Ventura.
✓ Rizal sent complimentary copies to Blumentritt, Mariano Ponce, Graciano Lopez
Jaena, Antonio Luna, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Juan Luna and other friends.
✓ The El Nuevo Regimen-liberal Madrid newspaper serialized the novel in its issues
of October 1891.
✓ Original manuscript of El filibusterismo in Rizal’s own handwriting is now preserved
in the Filipiniana Division of the Bureau of Public libraries in Manila.
✓ Acquired by Philippine government from Valentin Ventura for 10,000 pesos.
✓ Consists of 279 pages of long sheets paper
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Comparative Analysis of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
Make a comparison of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo using any
matrix/model of your choice ([Link] Diagram). Make sure to have at least five (5)
unique features of each novel and make sure to discuss their common features.
You will be graded as follows:
Content – 50 points
Organization – 30 points
Creativity – 20 points
Obias, R. et,al, (2018). The Life and Works of Jose
Rizal. C&E Publishing, Inc., Philippines
Ileto, R. (1998). Filipinos and Their Revolution: Event
Discourse, and Historiography, Chapter 2. AdMU
Selected
University Press, Quezon City, Phillippines from
Writings of Jose [Link]
[Link]
Rizal Pyramid/406401 •
[Link]
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[Link]
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