Synopsis
Crisostomo Ibarra returns as the rich, jeweler Simoun. Abadoning his idealism, he sought revenge against the people responsible for his misfortunes, and starts a revolution.
Plot summary
After 13 years being away from the Philippines, Crisostomo Ibarra returned under the guise of Simoun, a rich jeweler and a confidant of the Captain-General. Simoun is influencing every decisions of the Captain-General to mismanage the country’s affair so that a revolution will break out. Simoun has reasons for instigating a revolution. First is to rescue Maria Clara from the convents and to get rid of the corruption and evil of the society through revolution. His true identity was discovered by a now-grown Basilio while visiting his mother’s grave, Sisa, as Simoun was digging near the grave site for his remaining treasures. Simoun spared Basilio’s life and ask him to join in his planned revolution against the government. Basilio refused the offer as he still hope that the country’s condition will improve.
Basilio, at this point, is a graduating student taking up medicine at Ateneo Municipal. Basilio was adopted by Captain Tiago after Maria Clara enters the convent. With Captian Tiago’s help, Basilio was able to go to Letran and Ateneo. Captain Tiago’s confessor, Father Irene is making Captain Tiago’s health worse by giving him opium even as Basilio made Captain Tiago stop smoking it. He and other students want to establish a Spanish language academy so that they can learn to speak and write Spanish despite the opposition from the Dominican friars of the University of Santo Tomas. With the help of a reluctant Father Irene as their mediator and Don Custodio’s decision, the academy was establish but they will only serve as caretakers of the school not as the teachers. Dejected and defeated, they had a mock celebration at a pansiteria while a spy for the friars witnesses all the proceedings of the so-called celebration.
On the other hand, Simoun kept in close contact with the bandit group of Cabesang Tales, a former Cabeza de Barangay who suffered misfortunes at the hands of the friars. Before joining the bandits, Tales took Simoun’s revolver gun while Simoun stayed at his house for the night. But as a payment, Tales gave a locket that was once belonged to Maria Clara. To further strengthen the revolution, Simoun had Quiroga, a Chinese hoping to be appointed a consul to the Philippines, smuggled weapons using Quiroga’s bazaar as a front. Simoun wishes to attack during a stage play with all of his enemies watching at the same time. But he abruptly aborted the attack when he learned from Basilio that Maria Clara died inside the convent.
Few days after the mock celebration, the city was agitated with disturbing posters posted around the city. The authorities accused the students present at the pansiteria of agitation and disturbing peace and had them arrested. Basilio, although not present in the mock celebration, was also arrested. Captain Tiago died after learning the incident and as stated in his will, forged by Father Irene, all his possessions will be given to the church while Basilio will be left with nothing. Basilio was the only one left in prison as others were released. A high official tried to intervene for the release of Basilio but the Captain-General, having grudges against the high official, had him resigned forcefully. Juli, Basilio’s girlfriend and the daughter of Cabesang Tales, tried to ask Father Camorra’s help upon the advice of an elder woman. But instead of helping Juli, Father Camorra tried to rape her as he had hidden desires with Juli. Juli, rather than submitting to the will of the friar, jumped over the balcony to her death.
Basilio was released with the help of Simoun. Basilio, now a changed man, finally joins Simoun’s revolution. Simoun then tells Basilio his plan at the wedding of of Paulita Gomez and Juanito, Basilio’s hunchbacked classmate. His plan was to conceal an explosive inside a lamp that Simoun will give to the newlywed as a gift at the wedding reception. The reception will take place at the former house of Captian Tiago, which was now laden with explosives planted by Simoun. According to Simoun, the lamp will only light for 20 minutes before it flickers and if someone will attempt to turn the wick, it will explode and will kill everyone inside the house. Basilio had a change of heart and attempted to warn the people inside, and Isagani, his friend and the former boyfriend of Paulita.
Simoun left the reception early as planned and left a note behind; "Mane, Thacel, Phares. Juan Crisostomo Ibarra". Thinking it was a bad joke by those left behind, Father Salvi recognized the handwriting and confirmed that it was Ibarra’s handwriting. As people began to panic, the lamp flickers. Father Irene tries to turn up the wick when Isagani, due to his undying love for Paulita, burst in the room and throws the lamp into the river. He escaped by diving into the river as guards chased him.
Simoun, now unmasked as the perpetrator of the attempted arson and failed revolution, became a fugitive. Wounded and exhausted, he sought shelter at the home of Father Florentino, Isagani’s uncle, and was taken care of by Doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña, the husband of Doña Victorina, who was also hiding at the house. Simoun drank poison in order for him not to be captured alive by the authorities. Before he died, he revealed his real identity to Father Florentino and had exchanged thoughts about the failure of his revolution and why God forsook him. Father Florentino guaranteed him that God did not forsake him and that his plans were not for the greater good but for personal gains. Simoun, finally accepting Father Florentino’s explanation, squeezed his hand and died. Father Florentino took Simoun’s jewelries and threw them into the sea, hoping that they wouldn't be used for greed, and if the time came that they would be used for the greater good, the sea would reveal the treasures.
Major Characters
Simoun - Crisostomo Ibarra in disguise, left for dead at the end of Noli Me Tangere, has resurfaced as the wealthy jeweler, Simoun, now sporting a beard, blue-tinted glasses, and a revolver. Fueled by his mistreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and his fury at Maria Clara's fate, he has since shed his pacifist image and become the titular "filibustero", pretending to side with the upper class and encouraging them to enslave the masses, while in reality siding with the masses and urging them to revolt against the oppressive Spanish regime. This time, he does not attempt to fight the authorities with knowledge, but by force. He concocts a plot to set off a bomb disguised as a beautiful lamp at a wedding where important members of civil society and the church hierarchy are in attendance. Unfortunately for him, his plan fails and he commits suicide by consuming poison.
Basilio - after the tragic deaths of his mother and younger brother, Basilio heeds the advice of the dying boatman, Elias, and travels to Manila to study. At first he is frowned upon by his peers and teachers not only because of the color of his skin but also because of his shabby appearance, but redeems himself in their eyes by participating in a fencing contest--and winning. He soon becomes an exceptional medical student, but his plans to graduate and become a full-time doctor are postponed by an encounter with Simoun, who, upon bringing up the deaths of his relatives, convinces him to aid him in his plots. At first, the young man is reluctant, but the death of his sweetheart Juliana drives him to fight wholeheartedly by Simoun's side. He helps Simoun smuggle in a bomb into a wedding reception, but relents later on and warns his best friend Isagani of the impending danger.
Isagani - Basilio's best friend. While Basilio is an aspiring doctor, Isagani, on the other hand, is a budding poet, and he, along with Basilio, plans to establish a school wherein indios such as themselves may learn Spanish. Unlike Basilio, he does not get along well with Simoun, and is much more emotional and reactive than his friend. Isagani experiences a rocky relationship with his rich girlfriend, Paulita Gomez, who eventually dumps him and marries Isagani's fellow student, Juanito Pelaez. Heartbroken, Isagani refuses at first to listen to Basilio when the latter warns him to get away from the would-be epicenter of the explosion. Eventually realizing that Paulita would die in the explosion, he foils Simoun's plan by racing into the reception in time to prevent the explosion from happening. He later regrets his impulsive action because he had contradicted his own belief that he loved his nation more than Paulita and that the explosion and revolution could have fulfilled his ideals for Filipino society.
Kabesang Tales - Once a farmer owning a prosperous sugarcane plantation and a Cabeza de Barangay (head of the barangay), he was forced to give everything to a bunch of unscrupulous Spanish friars. From then on, everything went downhill for Tales: his son, Tano, who became a civil guard was captured by bandits; his daughter Juliana had to work as a maid to get enough ransom money for his freedom; and his father, Tandang Selo, suffered a stroke and became mute. His personality becomes darker after all this suffering and he resorts to killing people. His father, Tandang Selo, dies eventually after his own son Tano, who became a guardia civil, accidentally shoots his grandfather in an encounter.
Don Custodio - A famous "journalist" who was asked by the students about his decision for the Academia de Castellano. In reality, he is quite an ordinary fellow who married a rich woman in order to be a member of Manila's elite society. A good debater, he hates when others also believe in what he believes in and praises the indios in public, yet denigrates them in private. He has a mistress, a dancer named Pepay.
Paulita Gomez - The girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Donya Victorina, the old Filipina, who, in Noli Me Tangere, is the wife of the quack doctor Tiburcio. In the end, she and Juanito Pelaez are wed, and she dumps Isagani, believing that she will have no future if she marries him.
Padre Florentino - Isagani's godfather, and a secular priest. He is the priest whom Simoun confides to at the end of the story. When Simoun dies, he throws the latter's treasure into the ocean. He was engaged to be married, but chose the priesthood instead. The story hints at the ambivalence of his decision when he chooses an assignment to a remote place, living in solitude near the sea. Speaking through the character of Florentino, Rizal reaffirms his condemnation of a bloody revolution and his commitment to peaceful reforms.
Significance
This novel illustrate a man's will to avenge himself and reclaim his beloved fiancée. He craftily devises a plan of revenge and retribution by a change in identity.
Scholars and historians interpret the novel as representative of Rizal's dilemma to reconcile his faltering hope for securing his country's independence with his belief in a nonviolent struggle. The style and content are said to sound closer to a dialogue between two opposing sides, rather than to a free-flowing narrative. Many agree that Simoun's death and Father Florentino's lamentations ultimately reaffirm Rizal's conviction that freedom could be achieved without the need for bloodshed. Some interpretations however, have insisted that Rizal in fact does not condemn violent revolution but instead implies a point of view that the Philippines and the Filipinos are not ready for armed uprising and must instead entrust the future to the youth and allow them proper education. This claim is strengthened by the constant emphasis on young students and their academic misfortunes at the hands of the corrupt and incompetent Spanish ruled educational system