Noli Me Tangere Summary
José Rizal

Noli Me Tangere follows Crisóstomo Ibarra, a young Filipino who returns from Europe to discover his father was falsely imprisoned and killed by corrupt Spanish friars, particularly the vengeful Father Dámaso. Attempting to honor his father through building a school and marrying his beloved María Clara, Crisóstomo instead faces assassination attempts, excommunication, and false accusations of leading a revolutionary uprising. The novel exposes the brutal oppression of Spanish colonial rule in the 1880s Philippines through interconnected tragedies: poor Sisa driven mad after her sons are killed by the church, the mysterious revolutionary Elías who saves Crisóstomo's life, and María Clara who is revealed to be Father Dámaso's illegitimate daughter. The story ends devastatingly with Crisóstomo a fugitive believed dead, María Clara trapped in a convent where she's sexually abused and goes mad, and nearly every character who represented hope or goodness destroyed by the colonial system's coordinated cruelty.