Noli Me Tangere Summary

Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin came back to the Philippines after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Don Santiago de los Santos, a family friend also known as Capitan Tiago, threw a get-together party, which was attended by friars and other prominent figures. One of the guests, former San Diego curate Father Dámaso Vardolagas belittled and slandered Ibarra. Ibarra brushed off the insults and took no offense; he instead politely excused himself and left the party because of an allegedly important task.

The next day, Ibarra visits María Clara, his betrothed, the beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago and affluent resident of Binondo, Manila. Their long-standing love was clearly manifested in this meeting, and María Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevara, a guardia civil, reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a rich hacendero of the town.

According to Guevara, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a filibuster — an allegation brought forth by Father Dámaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such as Confession and Mass. Father Dámaso's animosity against Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out on a fight between a tax collector and a child fighting, and the former's death was blamed on him, although it was not deliberate. Suddenly, all of those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he got sick and died in jail. Still not content with what he had done, Dámaso arranged for Don Rafael's corpse to be dug up from the Catholic church and brought to a Chinese cemetery, because he thought it inappropriate to allow a heretic a Catholic burial ground. Unfortunately, it was raining and because of the bothersome weight of the cadaver, the undertakers decided to throw the corpse into a nearby lake.[1]

Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans; instead he carried through his father's plan of putting up a school, since he believed that education would pave the way to his country's progress (all over the novel the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries, which form part of a same nation or family, being Spain the mother and the Philippines the daughter). During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elías — a mysterious man who had warned Ibarra earlier of a plot to assassinate him — not saved him. Instead the hired killer met an unfortunate incident and died. The sequence of events proved to be too traumatic for María Clara who got seriously ill but was luckily cured by the medicine Ibarra sent.

Meanwhile, in Capitan Tiago's residence, a party was being held to announce the upcoming wedding of María Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elías, took this opportunity to escape from prison. Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to María Clara and accused her of betraying him, thinking that she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. María Clara explained that she would never conspire against him, but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to Father Salvi, in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, María Clara, was born. The letters were from her mother, Pía Alba, to Dámaso alluding to their unborn child; and that María Clara was therefore not Captain Tiago's biological daughter, but Dámaso's.

It was Christmas Eve when Elias woke up in the forest fatally wounded, as it is here where he instructed Ibarra to meet him. Instead, Elias found the altar boy Basilio cradling his already-dead mother, Sisa. The latter lost her mind when she learned that her two sons, Crispin and Basilio, were chased out of the convent by the sacristan mayor on suspicions of stealing sacred objects. (The truth is that, it was the sacristan mayor who stole the objects and only pinned the blame on the two boys. The said sacristan mayor actually killed Crispin while interrogating him on the supposed location of the sacred objects. It was implied that the body was never found and the incident was covered-up by the parish priest, Father Salvi).

Elias helped Basilio bury his mother and while he lay dying, he instructed Basilio to continue dreaming about freedom for his motherland with the words: "I shall die without seeing the dawn break upon my homeland. You, who shall see it, salute it! Do not forget those who have fallen during the night." He died thereafter.

In the epilogue, it was explained that Kapitan Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the opium house in Binondo to satiate his addiction. Maria Clara became a nun where Father Salvi, who has lusted over Maria Clara from the beginning of the novel, regularly used her to fulfill his lust. One stormy evening, a beautiful crazy woman was seen at the top of the convent crying and cursing the heavens for the fate it has handed her. While the woman was never identified, it is is suggested that the said woman was Maria Clara.

Another Summary is...

Crisostomo Ibarra is the heir of a wealthy clan. He returns to the Philippines after studying for seven years abroad. He hears news/gossip about the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra. Don Rafael was sent to prison in connection with the death of a tax collector. Since Don Rafael stopped receiving holy communion for a long time, he was refused a Catholic/Christian burial by Padre Damaso, the parish priest of their town.

Crisostomo (let's just call him Ibarra from hereon) sees the lack of progress in his town and decides to build a school to teach and prepare his townspeople. Tandang Tacio (the old philosopher) notes that there have been many attempts to build a school in the past, but all these had failed. Padre Salvi opposes the plan because he is secretly worried that the school project will threaten the power he wields over their town.

Ibarra almost gets killed while he is laying the cornerstone of the school, but Elias saved him. Elias is the mysterious fellow who also saved Ibarra previously.

With so many powerful enemies, Ibarra eventually gets implicated in a staged revolution, and is hunted down by the guardia civil. Maria Clara, Ibarra's sweetheart, unwittingly adds to Ibarra's woes when she switches Ibarra's letter with another letter that reveals her true nature.

The guardia civil catch up with Ibarra, and drizzle him and Elias with bullets near the lake. Ibarra survives and buries Elias in the forest owned by the clan of Ibarra. The guardia civil think Ibarra drowned and died in the lake and promptly leave the scene.

Maria Clara thinks Ibarra really died, gets depressed, and enters the nunnery. She does not follow the advice of Padre Damaso to marry Linares.