Noli Me Tangere - Presentation of Cast of Characters

# Noli Me Tangere ## Title Page - NOLI ME TANGERE - José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda ## Cover Illustration - The **cross** represents the sufferings. - **Pomelo blossoms** and **laurel leaves** represent honor and fidelity. - The **silhouette of a Filipina** represents Maria Clara....

# Noli Me Tangere ## Title Page - NOLI ME TANGERE - José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda ## Cover Illustration - The **cross** represents the sufferings. - **Pomelo blossoms** and **laurel leaves** represent honor and fidelity. - The **silhouette of a Filipina** represents Maria Clara. - The **burning torch** stands for rage and passion. - **Sunflowers** on the other hand represent enlightenment. - **Bamboo stalks that were cut down but grew back** means resilience. - A **man in a cassock with hairy feet** represents the priests using religion in a dirty way. - **Chains** stand for slavery. - **Whips** represent cruelties. - The **helmet of the guardia civil** stands for arrogance of those in authority. ## Inside Cover Page - Woman symbolizing constancy. - Tombstone with laurel (courage). - Flower of the pomelo symbolizing purity. ## Title Origins & Publication - From Latin phrase "Touch Me Not" - Taken from John 20:17 - Rizal finished the novel on December 1886. - It was eventually printed in Berlin, Germany. ## Novel Summary - Rizal's political novel Noli Me Tangere examines how Spain's colonization of the Philippines allowed the Catholic Church to dominate and rule the region. ## Dedication - To my Fathers: when writing this (this work I have been) continually thinking about (you who) have instilled the (first thoughts) and the first ideas; I dedicate to (you) this manuscript of me (youth with) proof of love. - Berlin, (February 21, 1887). ## Cast of Characters ### Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin - He is a son of a Filipino businessman, Don Rafael Ibarra. - He studied in Europe for seven years. - He is also Maria Clara's fiance. - He symbolizes the idealism of the privileged youth. ### Maria Clara (Maria Clara de los Santos y Alba) - She was raised by Capitán Tiago, San Diego's cabeza de barangay and is the most beautiful and widely celebrated girl in San Diego. - She symbolizes the purity and innocence of the sheltered native woman. - She is portrayed as a faithful sweetheart, a good friend and an obedient daughter. - She is related to Rizal's childhood sweetheart , Leonor Rivera. ### Capitán Tiago (Don Santiago de los Santos) - Filipino businessman and the cabeza de barangay (head of barangay) of the town of San Diego. - He is the known father of Maria Clara. - He is said to be a good Catholic, friend of the Spanish government and was considered as a Spanish by colonialists. - He symbolizes the rich Filipinos who oppress their fellow countrymen. ### Padre Dámaso (Dámaso Verdolagas) - A Franciscan friar and the former parish curate of San Diego. - He is best known as a notorious character who speaks with harsh words and has been a cruel priest during his stay in the town. - He is the real father of Maria Clara and an enemy of Crisóstomo's father, Rafael Ibarra. - He raped Doña Pia, Maria Clara's mother. - He symbolizes the Spanish friars of Rizal's time. ### Elias - Ibarra's mysterious friend and ally. - He first appeared as a pilot during a picnic of Ibarra and Maria Clara and her friends. - He wants to revolutionize the country and to be freed from Spanish oppression. - He distrusts human judgments and prefers God's judgment instead. - He is said to be the personification of Andres Bonifacio. - He represents the common Filipino. ### Filosofo Tacio (Pilosopo Tasyo) /Don Anastacio - Seeking for reforms from the government, he expresses his ideals in paper written in a cryptographic alphabet similar to hieroglyphs and Coptic figures hoping that the future generations may be able to decipher it. - He realizes the abuse and oppression done by the conquerors. - The Educated inhabitants of San Diego labeled him as Filosofo Tacio (Tacio the Sage) while others called him as Tacio el Loco (Insane Tacio) due to his exceptional talent for reasoning. - Rizal can relate to his older brother, Paciano Rizal. - He symbolizes the learned Filipino. ### Narcisa - The deranged mother of Basilio and Crispín. - She is described as beautiful and young, although she loves her children very much, she cannot protect them from the beatings of her husband, Pedro. - She personifies the suffering of the motherland. - She is named after Rizal's older sister, Narcisa. ### Crispín - Sisa's 7-year-old son. - He was unjustly accused of stealing money from the church. - He is Sisa's favorite son. - After failing to force Crispín to return the money he allegedly stole, Father Salví and the head sacristan killed him. ### Basilio - Sisa's 10-year-old son. - He is an acolyte tasked to ring the church bells for the Angelus. - He faced the dread of losing his younger brother and falling of his mother into insanity. - Their family represents the innocent who were wrongly accused of a crime they did not commit. - Their story was based on the true tale of Crisostomo's brother's of Hagonoy. ### Padre Hernando de la Sibyla - A Dominican friar, described as short with fair skin. - He was instructed by an old priest in his order to watch Crisostomo Ibarra. - He is often cool and intelligent, especially when correcting the other friar, Padre Damaso, of the latter's ostentatiousness. - He symbolizes the liberal friar but would rather stay in the background rather than incur the wrath of other priests in power. - He is aware of the injustices done to the natives but would not do anything to change it, as all he cares about is getting his congregation in power. ### Padre Bernardo Salví - Franciscan curate of San Diego, secretly harboring lust for Maria Clara. - He is described as very thin and sickly. - It is hinted that his last name, "Salvi" is the shorter form of "Salvi" meaning Salvation, or "Salvi" is short for "Salvaje" meaning bad hinting to the fact that he is willing to kill an innocent child, Crispín, just to get his money back. - There was not enough evidence that it was Crispín who has stolen his 2 onzas. - He manipulates people to get what he wants.. ### El Alférez or Alperes - Chief of the Guardia Civil. - He is a mortal enemy of the priests for power in San Diego and husband of Doña Consolacion. - He shares rivalry with priests, particularly Padre Salvi and frequently has violent fights with his wife. - He represents the officials of the state who frequently had power struggles with Church officials. ### Doña Consolación - Wife of the Alférez, nicknamed as la musa de los guardias civiles (The muse of the Civil Guards) or la Alféreza. - She was a former laundrywoman who passes herself as a Peninsular; best remembered for her abusive treatment of Sisa. - She pretends not to know Tagalog and often uses Spanish words even if she does not know the meaning of it. - She symbolizes the Filipinos in our society who are ashamed of their own race and nationality. ### Doña Victorina (Doña Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña) - Wife of Don Tiburcio. - She is an ambitious Filipina who classifies herself as a Spanish and mimics Spanish ladies by putting on heavy make-up. - She symbolizes those who have a distorted view of their identity. ### Don Tiburcio de Espadaña - Spanish Quack Doctor who is limp and submissive to his wife, Doña Victorina. - He is timid and rarely joins in a conversation. - He represents the ignorant Spanish whose foolishness the other Spaniards tolerated, often resulting in disastrous consequences. ### Teniente Guevara - A close friend of Don Rafael Ibarra. - He reveals to Crisóstomo how Don Rafael Ibarra's death came about. - Holding a deep respect for the man, he later made efforts to protect Don Rafael's son Crisóstomo after the latter came home from Europe. - He is a morally upright man of Spanish descent who holds both Crisóstomo Ibarra and the late Don Rafael in high esteem. - He is also the lieutenant of the Civil Guard. - He is one of the few who openly support the Ibarras and is vocal about his dislike of Father Dámaso's control. - He informs Crisóstomo Ibarra of the fate of his father and how Father Dámaso was involved in his death. ### Alfonso Linares - A distant nephew of Tiburcio de Espanada, the would-be fiancé of María Clara. - He presented himself as a practitioner of law, but it was later revealed that he, just like Don Tiburcio, is a fraud.. - He later died due to given medications of Don Tiburcio. - He is meek and shy,. - He represents the young Spaniards who came to the Philippines hoping for a better life than their motherland. ### Governor-General - An unnamed person in the novel. - He is the most powerful official in the Philippines. - He has great disdains against the friars and corrupt officials, and sympathizes with Ibarra. - He occupies the second most powerful rank in the colonial government, second only to the king. - He represents the typical Governor Generals of the Philippines who would often distain the power that friars had. ### Don Filipo Lino - A representative of the younger, less religiously shackled generation of movers and shakers in San Diego. - He is the Vice Mayor of the town of San Diego, and leader of the liberals. - He despises the idea of spending lavish amounts of money on the numerous feast days that mark the religious calendar, seeing it as both wasteful and burdensome to the citizens. - His words, however, fall on deaf ears as he is only deputy mayor, and the major himself is a dedicated follower of the Catholic Church and the de facto mouthpiece of the friars. ### Padre Manuel Martín - He is the linguistic curate of a nearby town. - He says the sermon during San Diego's fiesta. ### Don Rafael Ibarra - Father of Crisóstomo Ibarra. - Though he is the richest man in San Diego, he is also the most virtuous and generous. - He is a critic of the corrupt practices of the Spanish friars, and he earns the ire of the vitriolic Father Dámaso, who accuses him of sedition and heresy. - He dies in prison before his name can be cleared. - His remains are buried in the Catholic cemetery in the town of San Diego, but Father Dámaso hires a gravedigger to disinter his body to have him buried at the Chinese cemetery because of his status as a heretic. ### Doña Pía Alba - Wife of Capitan Tiago and mother of María Clara. - She died giving birth to her. - In reality, she was raped by Dámaso so she could bear a child. - She is a young, healthy and beautiful woman. - She is a very spiritual woman - By nature, a very merry woman but she became melancholic when she became pregnant. - She represents the women who had been abused by the clergy and have been silenced by their shame.