COMPARISON OF SIMILARITY

TO RIZAL’S TWO NOVELS

The Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster) should be treated
as one in order to better relate it to “The Count of Monte Cristo” which revolved around between
what the rich and the poor can do when it comes to influence and power and the revenge of
Edmund Dantes, whom Ibarra much alike.

Examples were the following: In Noli, Ibarra was helped by a friend named Elias, a strong and
silent peasant youth. He was the one, who in learning of Ibarra’s arrest burned all the papers that
might incriminate his friend and set Ibarra’s house on fire. He went to prison and helped Ibarra
escape. Before that, he was also the one who saved Ibarra’s life when the cornerstone of his pet
project schoolhouse collapsed.

This scene is likely in the film where in an old inmate named, Abbe Faria, helped Dantes out of
Chateau d’If. What’s different between Dates and Ibarra was that Ibarra was able to bid goodbye
to Maria Clara before his lost. In the tearful last scene between the two lovers, Ibarra forgave
Maria Clara for giving up his letters to Spanish authorities. Dantes wasn’t able to say anything to
Me recedes before he was brought to Chateau d’If. All he was able to tell as he was struggling
with the guards arresting him was: “I demand an explanation!”

Another similarity is when the soldiers thought, Ibarra died, when they fired the swimming Elias.
Many also thought that Dantes was gone when he left in silence. Like Elias, Abbe Faria also
died, but their continuity existed,when Elias met Basilio, and when Faria succeeded in helping
Dantes find the key treasure. The wise Pilosopo Tasio and the wise Abbe Farias, who helped the
heroes, for me, are also alike. They taught a lot to our novel heroes.
Faria’s intelligence is what helped Dantes make his transformation. He became his teacher, who
educated him to read, write, to fight in a duel, to be strong and brave and many more things like
Economics.

“If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime high
t be useful.’ To whom might your disappearance be useful?”

This quote makes it apparent to Dantes that it wasn’t just a big accident that he went to jail. In
Noli, Maria Clara remained loyal to Ibarra. Out of the memory of the man she truly loves, she
entered the Santa Clara nunnery. While Mercedes, though married with Mondego, still suffered
for her undying love to Dantes whom he thought will never come back.The Noli Me Tangere is a
liberal, realistic, and fearless view of Philippine conditions during the last decades of Spanish
rule. Itpaints an ugly, yet clear picture of the "social cancer" that deteriorates the society. It
illustrates the rotten system of governance, the illicit ways of the church and the unfavorable
trade of the privilege class. Padre Damaso was typical of domineering friar during the days of
Rizal, who was arrogant, immoral, and anti-Filipino. When Ibarra’s father defended a helpless
boy from brutality of an illiterate Spanish tax collector, he was accidentally killed. More than
that, he was accused of being a heretic. Ibarra was also excommunicated by Padre Damaso. It
shows that those who were in the way of the plans of the powerful friars, whether innocent or
not, were justified in their own hands. The treacherous friars and privilege class controlled the
people and used their elite status by hook or by crook. The weak class lost hope resulting to
unfortunate deaths (as the case Pilosopo Tasyo) and sometimes insanity (as the case of Sisa).
This is also evident with the people who framed up and betrayed Dantes. Dantes is a morally
upstanding young man who is so innocent and free of sin that he couldn’t even fathom the dark
deeds that surrounded him. After establishing Edmund's innocence, de Villefort was about to
release him but when learned of his own father's implication in the Bonapartiste plot, he changed
his mind and imprisoned Dantes in the Chateau d'If. This scene relates to education
as source of man’s liberation. He wasn’t able to know the content of the letter which was then a
plan of rebellion by Bonaparte. Also, the portrayal of de Villefort as a dastardly political animal
willing to hurt anybody to protect his own career is accurate and compelling. Another one who
betrayed him, Danglars, abandoned his wife and attempts to sell his own daughter, Eugénie, into
a loveless and miserable marriage for three million francs. Danglars’ lust for money continued to
drive all his actions in the two decades that the novel spans. Another, Caderousse, consistently
resorted to dishonorable means in order to acquire what he wanted, thieving and even murdering
in order to better his own position.Both Simoun and Dantes used another identity/changed their
whole persone to take revenge. Both acted out the needs of a person which are aggression,
defendant, autonomy and harmony. The character of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra was introduced in
Noli, an intelligent and promising young man who has high hopes of changing the course of the
country.