Noli Me Tangere Characters and Summary PDF

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Applying the Elements of Fiction in Noli Me Tangere Title: Noli Me Tangere Author: Jose Rizal Characters with descriptions (atleast 15 Major Characters) Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y Magsalin , commonly called Ibarra, is Filipino-Spanish and the only descendant of the wealthy Spaniard Don Rafael Ibarra. He was born and grew up in the Philippines, but during his adolescence, spent seven years studying in Europe. María Clara de los Santos y Alba, is the most dominant yet weakest representation of women in the setting. When thinking of Noli, the name of María Clara can be seen predominantly as the image of the ideal Filipino woman. María Clara is the primary female character in the novel. She is the daughter of Capitán Tiago and Doña Pía Alba. Doña Pía died while delivering Maria Clara. The poor child grew under the guidance and supervision of Tíya Isabél, Capitán Tiago's cousin. Dámaso Verdolagas (commonly known as Padre Dámaso/Padre Damaso or Father Damaso), of Franciscan order, was the former curate of the parish church of San Diego. He was the curate for almost twenty years before he was replaced by the much younger Padre Salvi. Padre Damaso was known to be friendly with the Ibarra family, so much that Crisóstomo was surprised by what the former curate had done to Don Rafaél. Don Santíago de los Santos, commonly known as Kapitán Tiago, is the only son of a wealthy trader in Malabon. Due to his mother's cruelty, Kapitán Tiago did not attain any formal education. He became a servant of a Dominican priest. When the priest and his father died, Kapitán Tiago decided to assist in the family business of trading before he met his wife Doña Pía Alba, who came from another wealthy family. Because of their consistent devotion to Santa Clara in Obando, they were blessed with a daughter who shared the same features as Padre Dámaso, named Maria Clara. Don Anastacio, commonly known as Filósofo Tacio (Philosopher Tasyo) is one of the most important characters in Noli. On the one hand, he is referred to as a philosopher/sage (hence, Pilosopo Tasyo) because his ideas were accurate with the minds of the townspeople. On the other hand, if his ideas were against the thinking of the majority, he was considered the Imbecile Tacio (or Tasyong Sintu-sinto) or Lunatic Tacio (Tasyong Baliw). Eliás came from the family which the Ibarra clan had oppressed for generations. He grew up in a wealthy family until he discovered something that changed his life forever. Despite that Ibarra's family subjugated his family, he is entirely indebted towards him. Furthermore, Ibarra, who in turn, saved Elías' life when they tried to kill a crocodile. Elias helped him again before Ibarra got arrested by burning his house. Elias and Ibarra continued supporting each other until Elias sacrificed himself to help him one last time. He was shot by the guards (mistakenly took as Ibarra trying to dive down the river and escape) and slowly died. Doña Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña is the one who pretended to be a meztisa (a Spaniard born in the Philippines) and always dreamed of finding a Spanish husband, in which she married Don Tiburcio. She was feared by everyone in the town because of her odd appearance, her ruthless personality, and her fierce rivalry against Donya Consolacion.

It actually came to pass that she did not like Don Tiburcio. She merely forced herself to marry him despite having fallen in love with Kapitan Tiago. Narcisa is married to the man named Pedro and the mother of Basilio and Crispín. She depicts how Filipino mothers love their children unquestionably. Doña Consolacíon, la musa de los guardias civiles y esposa del Alférez once a laundry woman who worked for the town Alferez. She became wealthy after marrying a Spanish husband. Despite that they are rivals with Donya Victorina, they are somewhat common. Tiya Isabel - Helped Kapitan Tiyago take care of Maria Clara as she grew up Idáy, Sinang, Victoria and Neneng - Friends of Maria Clara in San Diego. Idáy is beautiful and plays the harp. Sinang is cheerful and naughty and Maria Clara's closest friend, Victoria is Sinang's strict elder cousin, Neneng is quiet and shy. Andeng - Foster sister of Maria Clara who cooks well. She is the caretaker of Kapitan Tiago's house in San Diego. Doña Pía Alba - Mother of María Clara and husband of Kapitán Tiago. Died after giving childbirth to María Clara. Kapitana Ticâ and Kapitan Basilio - Mother and father of Sinang (Kapitan Basilio is not the same as Basilio) Albino - ex-seminarian who became disillusioned with the Catholic church. Admirer of Victoria. Crispin and Basilio - children of Sisa and were the sacristan and server of San Diego Church Padre Salvi - He replaced Padre Damaso Padre Sibyla - A Dominican priest and former teacher. He was also a teacher of Ibarra and very helpful to Padre Damaso in times of anomalies ahead; And wears golden glasses. Pedro - Father of Crispin and Basilio and the husband of Sisa. He is an irresponsible husband

Settings: Manila, Philippines Summary of the 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 known as Capitan Tiago. 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 cornerstone 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 page 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, 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 page 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.

Lesson: The moral lesson of this novel is seeking justice should be placed on the hands of the authorities and not on the hands of the one seeking it. Though there is always a connotation that justice is not easily obtained especially by those who lack influence and money to or the so called poor. However, there is also a belief that justice might not be served in this life but God is not idle and He will give men the things they deserve whether it be for good or the results of the wrongs they have done....