Rizal entitled this novel as such drawing inspiration from "Touch Me Not" — the technical name of a

particularly painful type of cancer(back in his time, it is unknown what is the modern name of said
disease). He proposed to probe all the cancers of Filipino society that everyone else felt too painful to
touch. [1]

Early English translations of the novel used titles like An Eagle Flight (1900) and The Social
Cancer (1912), disregarding the symbolism of the title, but the more recent translations were published
using the original Latin title. It has also been noted[citation needed]by the Austro-Hungarian writer Ferdinand
Blumentritt that "Noli Me Tángere" was a name used by ophthalmologists for cancer of the eyelids; that
as an ophthalmologist himself Rizal was influenced by this fact is suggested in the novel's dedication, "To
My household".

Background[edit]

José Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and medical doctor, conceived the idea of writing a novel that would
expose the ills of Philippine society after reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. He
preferred that the prospective novel express the way Filipino culture was perceived to be backward,
anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. He was
then a student of medicine in the Universidad Central de Madrid.

In a reunion of Filipinos at the house of his friend Pedro A. Paterno in Madrid on 2 January 1884, Rizal
proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines written by a group of Filipinos. His proposal was
unanimously approved by the Filipinos present at the time, among whom were Pedro, Maximino Viola
and Antonio Paterno, Graciano López Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Julio Llorente and
Valentin Ventura. However, this project did not materialize. The people who agreed to help Rizal with
the novel did not write anything. Initially, the novel was planned to cover and describe all phases of
Filipino life, but almost everybody wanted to write about women. Rizal even saw his companions spend
more time gambling and flirting with Spanish women. Because of this, he pulled out of the plan of co-
writing with others and decided to draft the novel alone.

Plot[edit]

Crisóstomo Ibarra, the mestizo son of recently deceased Don Rafael Ibarra, is returning to San Diego
in Laguna after seven years of study in Europe. Capitan Tiago, a family friend, bids him to spend his first
night in Manila where Tiago hosts a reunion party at his riverside home on Anloague Street. Crisóstomo
obliges. At dinner he encounters old friends, Manila high society, the new curate of San Diego, and
Padre Dámaso, San Diego’s old curate at the time Ibarra left for Europe. Dámaso treats Crisóstomo with
hostility, surprising the young man who took the friar to be a friend of his father.

Crisóstomo excuses himself early and is making his way back to his hotel when Lieutenant Guevarra,
another friend of his father, catches up with him. As the two of them walk to Crisóstomo’s stop, and
away from the socialites at the party who may possibly compromise them if they heard, Guevarra
reveals to the young man the events leading up to Rafael’s death and Dámaso’s role in it. Crisóstomo,
who has been grieving from the time he learned of his father’s death, decides to forgive and not seek
revenge. Guevarra nevertheless warns the young man to be careful.

The following day Crisóstomo returns to Capitan Tiago’s home in order to meet with his childhood
sweetheart, Tiago’s daughter María Clara. The two flirt and reminisce in the azotea, a porch overlooking
the river. María reads back to Crisóstomo his farewell letter wherein he explained to her Rafael’s wish
for Crisóstomo to set out, to study in order to become a more useful citizen of the country. Seeing
Crisóstomo agitated at the mention of his father, however, María playfully excuses herself, promising to
see him again at her family’s San Diego home during the town fiesta.

As the days progress Crisóstomo carries out his plan to serve his country as his father wanted. He
intends to use his family wealth to build a school, believing his paisanos would benefit from a more
modern education than what is offered in the schools run by the government, whose curriculum was
heavily tempered by the teachings of the friars. Enjoying massive support, and even by the Spanish
authorities, Crisóstomo’s preparations for his school advance quickly in only a few days. He receives
counsel from Don Anastacio, a revered local philosopher, who refers him to a progressive schoolmaster
who lamented the friars’ influence on public education and wished to introduce reforms. The building
was planned to begin construction with the cornerstone to be laid in a ceremony during San Diego’s
town fiesta.

One day, taking a break, Crisóstomo, María, and their friends get on a boat and go on a picnic along the
shores of the Laguna de Bay, away from the town center. It is then discovered that a crocodile had been
lurking on the fish pens owned by the Ibarras. Elias, the boat’s pilot, jumps into the water with a bolo
knife drawn. Sensing Elias is in danger, Ibarra jumps in as well, and they subdue the animal together.
Crisóstomo mildly scolds the pilot for his rashness, while Elias proclaims himself in Crisóstomo’s debt.

On the day of the fiesta, Elias warns Crisóstomo of a plot to kill him at the cornerstone-laying. The
ceremony involved the massive stone being lowered into a trench by a wooden derrick. Crisóstomo
being the principal sponsor of the project is to lay the mortar using a trowel at the bottom of the trench.
As he prepares to do so, however, the derrick fails and the stone falls into the trench, bringing the
derrick down with it in a mighty crash. When the dust clears, a pale, dust-covered Crisóstomo stands
stiffly by the trench, having narrowly missed the stone. In his place beneath the stone is the would-be
assassin. Elias has disappeared.

The festivities continue at Crisóstomo’s insistence. Later that day, he hosts a luncheon to which Padre
Dámaso invites himself. Over the meal the old friar berates Crisóstomo, his learning, his journeys, and
the schoolbuilding project. The other guests hiss for discretion, but Dámaso ignores them and continues
in an even louder voice, insulting the memory of Rafael in front of Crisóstomo. At the mention of his
father, Crisóstomo strikes the friar unconscious and holds a dinner knife to his neck. In an impassioned
speech Crisóstomo narrates to the astonished guests everything he heard from Lieutenant Guevarra,
who was an officer of the local police, about Dámaso’s schemes that resulted in the death of Rafael. As
Crisóstomo is about to stab Dámaso, however, María Clara stays his arm and pleads for mercy.

Crisóstomo is excommunicated from the church, but has his excommunication lifted through the
intercession of the sympathetic governor general. However, upon his return to San Diego, María has
turned sickly and refuses to see him. The new curate who Crisóstomo met at Tiago’s dinner, Padre
Bernardo Salvi, is seen hovering around the house. Crisóstomo then meets the inoffensive Linares, a
fellow Spaniard who, unlike Crisóstomo, had been born in Spain. Tiago presents Linares as María’s new
suitor.

Sensing Crisóstomo’s influence with the government, Elias takes Crisóstomo into confidence and one
moonlit night, they secretly sail out into the lake. Elias tells him about a revolutionary group, poised for
open, violent clash with the government. This group has reached out to Elias in a bid for him to join
them in their imminent uprising. Elias tells Crisóstomo that he managed to delay the group’s plans by
offering to speak to Crisóstomo first, that Crisóstomo may use his influence to effect the reforms Elias
and his group wish to see.

In their conversation Elias narrates his family’s history, how his grandfather in his youth worked as a
bookkeeper in a Manila office but was accused of arson by the Spaniard owner when the office burned
down. He was prosecuted and upon release was shunned by the community as a dangerous lawbreaker.
His wife turned to prostitution to support the family but eventually they were driven into the
hinterlands.

Crisóstomo sympathizes with Elias but insists that he could do nothing, and that the only change he was
capable of was through his schoolbuilding project. Rebuffed, Elias advises Crisóstomo to avoid any
association with him in the future for his own safety.

Heartbroken and desperately needing to speak to María, Crisóstomo turns his focus more towards his
school. One evening, though, Elias returns with more information – a rogue uprising was planned for
that same night, and the instigators had used Crisóstomo’s name in vain to recruit malcontents. The
authorities know of the uprising and are prepared to spring a trap on the rebels.

In panic and ready to abandon his project, Crisóstomo enlists Elias in sorting out and destroying
documents in his study that may implicate him. Elias obliges, but comes across a name familiar to him:
Don Pedro Eibarramendia. Crisóstomo tells him that Pedro was his great-grandfather, and that they had
to shorten his long family name. Elias tells him Eibarramendia was the same Spaniard who accused his
grandfather of arson, and was thus the author of the misfortunes of Elias and his family. Frenzied, he
raises his bolo to smiteCrisóstomo, but regains his senses and leaves the house very upset.

The uprising follows through, and many of the rebels are either captured or killed. They point to
Crisóstomo as instructed and Crisóstomo is arrested. The following morning the instigators are found
dead. It is revealed that Padre Salvi ordered the senior sexton to kill them in order to prevent the chance
of them confessing that he actually took part in the plot to frame Crisóstomo. Elias, meanwhile, sneaks
back into the Ibarra mansion during the night and sorts through documents and valuables, then burns
down the house.

Some time later Capitan Tiago hosts a dinner at his riverside house in Manila to celebrate María Clara’s
engagement with Linares. Present at the party were Padre Dámaso, Padre Salvi, Lieutenant Guevarra,
and other family friends. They were discussing the events that happened in San Diego and Crisóstomo’s
fate.

Salvi, who lusted after María Clara all along, says that he has requested to be transferred to the Convent
of the Poor Clares in Manila under the pretense of recent events in San Diego being too great for him to
bear. A despondent Guevarra outlines how the court came to condemn Crisóstomo. In a signed letter he
wrote to a certain woman before leaving for Europe, Crisóstomo spoke about his father, an alleged rebel
who died in prison. Somehow this letter fell into the hands of an enemy, and Crisóstomo's handwriting
was imitated to create the bogus orders used to recruit the malcontents to the San Diego uprising.
Guevarra remarks that the penmanship on the orders was similar to Crisóstomo's penmanship seven
years before, but not at the present day. And Crisóstomo had only to deny that the signature on the
original letter was his, and the charge of sedition founded on those bogus letters would fail. But upon
seeing the letter, which was the farewell letter he wrote to María Clara, Crisóstomo apparently lost the
will to fight the charges and owned the letter as his.

Guevarra then approaches María, who had been listening to his explanation. Privately but sorrowfully,
he congratulates her for her common sense in yielding Crisóstomo’s farewell letter. Now, the old officer
tells her, she can live a life of peace. María is devastated.

Later that evening Crisóstomo, having escaped from prison with the help of Elias, climbs up the azotea
and confronts María in secret. María, distraught, does not deny giving up his farewell letter, but explains
she did so only because Salvi found Dámaso's old letters in the San Diego parsonage, letters from
María's mother who was then pregnant with María. It turns out that Dámaso was María's father.
Salvi promised not to divulge Dámaso's letters to the public in exchange for Crisóstomo’s farewell letter.
Crisóstomo forgives her, María swears her undying love, and they part with a kiss.

Crisóstomo and Elias escape on Elias's boat. They slip unnoticed through the Estero de Binondo and into
the Pasig River. Elias tells Crisóstomo that his treasures and documents are buried in the middle of the
forest owned by the Ibarras in San Diego. Wishing to make restitution, Crisóstomo offers Elias the
chance to escape with him to a foreign country, where they will live as brothers. Elias declines, stating
that his fate is with the country he wishes to see reformed and liberated.

Crisóstomo then tells him of his own desire for revenge and revolution, to lengths that even Elias was
unwilling to go. Elias tries to reason with him, but sentries catch up with them at the mouth of the Pasig
River and pursue them across Laguna de Bay. Elias orders Crisóstomo to lie down and to meet with him
in a few days at the mausoleum of Crisóstomo's grandfather in San Diego, as he jumps into the water in
an effort to distract the pursuers. Elias is shot several times.

The following day news of the chase were in the newspapers. It is reported that Crisóstomo Ibarra, the
fugitive, had been killed by sentries in pursuit. At the news María remorsefully demands of Dámaso that
her wedding with Linares be called off and that she be entered into the cloister, or the grave.

Seeing her resolution, Dámaso admits the true reason he ruined the Ibarra family and her relationship
with Crisóstomo - because he was a mere mestizo and Dámaso wanted María to be as happy as she
could be, and that was possible only if she were to marry a full-blooded peninsular Spaniard. María
would not hear of it and repeated her ultimatum, the cloister or the grave. Knowing fully why Salvi had
earlier requested to be assigned as chaplain in the Convent of the Poor Clares, Dámaso pleads with
María to reconsider, but to no avail. Weeping, Dámaso consents, knowing the horrible fate that awaits
his daughter within the convent but finding it more tolerable than her suicide.

A few nights later in the forest of the Ibarras, a boy pursues his mother through the darkness. The
woman went insane with the constant beating of her husband and the loss of her other son, an altar
boy, in the hands of Padre Salvi. Basilio, the boy, catches up with Sisa, his mother, inside the Ibarra
mausoleum in the middle of the forest, but the strain had already been too great for Sisa. She dies in
Basilio's embrace.

Basilio weeps for his mother, but then looks up to see Elias staring at them. Elias was dying himself,
having lost a lot of blood and having had no food or nourishment for several days as he made his way to
the mausoleum. He instructs Basilio to burn their bodies and if no one comes, to dig inside the
mausoleum. He will find treasure, which he is to use for his own education.

As Basilio leaves to fetch the wood, Elias sinks to the ground and says that he will die without seeing the
dawn of freedom for his people, and that those who see it must welcome it and not forget them that
died in the darkness.

In the epilogue, Padre Dámaso is transferred to occupy a curacy in a remote town. Distraught, he is
found dead a day later. Capitan Tiago fell into depression and became addicted to opium and is
forgotten by the town. Padre Salvi, meanwhile, waits to be made a bishop. He is also the head priest of
the convent where María Clara currently resides. Nothing is heard of María Clara, however, on a
September night, during a typhoon, two patrolmen reported seeing a specter (implied to be María Clara)
on the roof of the Convent of the Poor Clares moaning and weeping in despair.

The next day, a representative of the authorities visited the convent to investigate last night's events
and asked to inspect all the nuns. One of the nuns had a wet and torn gown and with tears told the
representative of "tales of horror" and begged for "protection against the outrages of hypocrisy" (which
gives the implication that Padre Salvi regularly rapes her when he is present). The abbess however, said
that she was nothing more than a madwoman. A General J. also attempted to investigate the nun's case,
but by then the abbess prohibited visits to the convent. Nothing more was said again about María Clara.

Publication history