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Lesson 16: Comparison of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were both written by Jose Rizal to depict conditions in the Philippines under Spanish rule, but they differ in style and tone. Noli Me Tangere is a romantic novel focusing on freshness and humor, while El Filibusterismo is a political novel with more bitterness and sorrow. El Filibusterismo was intended to be longer but ended up shorter than Noli Me Tangere. Opinions varied on whether Noli or El Filibusterismo was the superior novel, though both were instrumental in inspiring Filipino nationalism.

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4K views2 pages

Lesson 16: Comparison of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were both written by Jose Rizal to depict conditions in the Philippines under Spanish rule, but they differ in style and tone. Noli Me Tangere is a romantic novel focusing on freshness and humor, while El Filibusterismo is a political novel with more bitterness and sorrow. El Filibusterismo was intended to be longer but ended up shorter than Noli Me Tangere. Opinions varied on whether Noli or El Filibusterismo was the superior novel, though both were instrumental in inspiring Filipino nationalism.

Uploaded by

Erika Apita
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lesson 16: Comparison of Noli Me Tangere and El

Filibusterismo
         Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo vary in many aspects, although they are
written by the same author   and are supposed to be dealing with the same story and
have the same characters.

          The Noli Me Tangere is a romantic novel. It is a “work of the heart” and “a book of
feeling”. It has freshness, color, humor, lightness and wit. Whereas, El Filibusterismo is a
political novel.  It is a “work of heal” and a “book of the thought”. It contains bitterness,
hatred, pain, violence and sorrow.

          Jose Rizal’s original intention was to make the El Filibusterismo longer than the
Noli ere. However, el Filibusterismo is shorter than Noli. It contains 38 chapters whereas
64 chapters of Noli.

          They were many opinions as to which the superior novel is- the Noli or the Fili.
Rizal himself considered the Noli as the superior to the Fili as novel. Marcelo H. del Pilar
and Retana, Rizal’s first Spanish biographer, also believed that Noli is superior. However,
other including Blumentritt, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Dr. Rafael Palma against the
opinion of Rizal. They believed the Fili is the superior to the Noli. In Lopez Jaena’s letter
he said that the Fili was superior because of its exquisite, delicate, literary style, its easy
and correct dialogue, its phraseology, vigorous and elegant and its profound ideas and
sublime thoughts. However, Jaena advised Rizal to wrote another novel because he was
not satisfied with Fili as political novel.

          The issue of which is the superior novel is purely academic. Noli and El Fili are
good novels from the point of view of history. Both depict with realistic colors the actual
conditions of the Philippines and Filipinos the decadent days of Spanish role. Both are
instrumental in awakening the spirit of Filipino nationalism and are responsible in
paving the ground for Philippine Revolution that brought about the downfall of Spain.
Neither the Noli nor the Fili is superior to one another, Mariano Ponce told Rizal that Fill
was indeed excellent novel but it was marvelous like all the brilliant productions of his
pen. He also said that it was a true twin of the Noli.

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