Rizal Analysis free essay sample

?Por Telepono or By Phone is a play written by Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal. It discusses social issues and plans for the Philippines by two Friars. It was published in 1889 as a reply to a friar named Fr. Salvador Font in connection to his discrimination about Noli Me Tangere and for initiating the banning of Noli in the fall of 1889. The first pamphlet was printed in Barcelona under the authorship of Dimas Alang. Por Telefono is a satirical comedy about Father Font, who was at Madrid speaking with a provincial priest in San Agustin Monastery using a telephone line that is spear-headed by The Trans-Oceanic Telephone Co. Por Telepono is full of symbolism. It unveils how friars lived their lives and how they give thanks for the donations given by ilustrados. Every line that has been uttered in Madrid is like an echo that fills the corners of the Philippines. We will write a custom essay sample on Rizal Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By Telephone by Dimas Alang (Jose Rizal) In this article Rizal writes as if from the future and, with satire and irony, condemns the rule of the friars in his day. Rizal sent his manuscript to Mariano Ponce and, under his direction, it was published in Barcelona in 1889. F. Salvador Font, who censored Rizals Noli Me Tangere, occasioned this ridicule In the year 1900 the Philippines was for the first time connected with the Motherland by means of a Telephone Line by an English-Catalonian firm called The Trans-Oceanic Telephone Company, well known in its time for its truly enterprising spirit. Thanks to the perfection of the instruments, there could be heard in Madrid the mystical sighs of the friars here as they prayed with great piety before the sacred images, likewise their humble talk, their words of conformity and resignation, and even their thanksgiving for the alms of rice and fish which the people gave out of compassion for their fasting and abstinence. Such was the perfection of the telephone that even the silence which prevailed in the refectories could be transmitted, and from the noise of mastication, it could be definitely known that the most gluttonous of the friars did not eat over five mouthfuls a day. How poor and virtuous these priests are! exclaimed he affected democrats in Madrid. How poor and virtuous these priests are! repeated the telephone in the Philippines, and this was circulated everywhere, in the convents, churches, and so forth. Upon learning this, the friars reduced further the quantity of their morels fearing that there might be a hungry native. They taught the youth how to read and write and forcibly also instructed them in the Spanish language, not seldom suffering insults and fist-blows from the parents of the youths for daring to open their eyes. God be praised! the friars would answer, turning the other cheek saying: All for the sake of God and Mother Spain! Thus they continued to teach just as soon as the despotic native had gone away, if the Government, impelled by the parents, would not institute action against them for teaching an offense constituting a great crime by endangering the integrity of the country. By request of the natives, the Overseas Minister, the Procurator of the Augustinian friars one day telephoned from Madrid to Manila, is offering our Order an hacienda in order that the friars might not die of hunger but live with a certain comfort. What shall I answer him? The telephone transmitted the offer to the Augustinian convent. O Jesus, my Jesus! Holy God, might Saint, immortal Saint! May God protect us from all temptation exclaimed all the friars, and on hearing this news, they dropped on their knees and covered their ears. Lord, Lord! cried the Provincial beating his breast soundly, and not as one who would only deceive the faithful to get money from them. I have ruined the little soul of Salvadorcito by sending him to Madrid as the Procurator! He was so good, so humble, so simple, so ingenuous, so silent, so chaste, and so frank when he was here! Now he is ruined! Imagine giving such proposals, such sinful ones! Alas! Alas! Domine quare deleriquiste eum? Oh, Lord, why didst thou forsake him? All the inmates of St. Augustine groaned, and all the friars were beating their breasts and scourging one another to do penance and to bring the soul of little Salvadorcito Tont to the right path. All this consternation in the convent of St. Augustine was heard in Madrid by telephone, and Salvadorcito Tont exclaimed with the simple air of a good boy: I wonder if they have imprisoned all my brothers for failing to read all the pamphlets which the natives published against them, insulting them with ecclesiastical approval! After all, this has been rightly done. Who commands to answer and counter? If they insult us in the booklets we, as imitators and ministers of Christ, should be compelled to read them all, especially if there are indulgences, and they should prohibit us from answering them and defending ourselves. That is why we have vows of haughtiness. . . . I am going immediately to see the Minister and ask him to flog any priest of my religion who through pride, will not say ‘Amen’ to everything and regard the truth; he will thus see that, although a simpleton, I do not lack love of Justice. . . Then he looked for his shoes with holes in the soles because what he had on had no soles. The good Augustinian had to go on foot to the Ministry, as he does not even have carfare, notwithstanding his vow of wealth! Salvadorcito, Salvadorcito! called the telephone. Salvadorcito recognized the voice of the Provincial and began to tremble, as he was very obedient. At your orders, Father! he answered and he knelt down by the telephone in order to be in a more respectful position, although this was forbidden by his vow of haughtiness. How did you permit yourself to be tempted by the enemy of evil into accepting for a moment the offer to give us a hacienda? My son, did you not perceive that this was only a trap laid by the enemy, inspired, no doubt, by that damned soul, Rizal, so that we may thus become rich, haughty, powerful, and licentious because that wretch from Calamba desires nothing better than that we practice our vows of wealth, haughtiness, and licentiousness which the sacrilegious founders have imposed upon us all? Don’t you dare again listen to such offers. Here we not only work and construct our churches with our hands, we not only sow and help the poor, but what little they give us, we, in turn, hand over to the rich and proud in order that they may tyrannize us more so that their greed may be increased and they may exploit and ruin us the more, put us in prison, exile us, and so forth. . . Thus we spread the law of Christ everywhere in the islands were we are exiled; then there will be more imitators. . . There is not one faithless Igorot left, not even a single non-Christian in the mountains; all have been baptized and they all exploit us as good Christians. What you should propose to the Minister in order that our doctrine may triumph, is that he emulate the Roman praetors [= a Roman magistrate [rly] and send us cruel and bloodthirsty governors to violate the laws and persecute us. Thus will the dormant one awaken, the lukewarm be strengthened, and the attention of the indifferent who are now so many be aroused. . . Remember that in order to make a cause triumph, it is necessary that it be persecuted. Let them go ahead and persecute us! Thus will the dormant one awaken, the lukewarm be strengthened and the attention of the indifferent who are now so many be aroused. . . Remember that in order to make a cause triumph, it is necessary that it be persecuted. Let them go ahead and persecute us! In the meantime, I impose as a penance upon you, who are neither vain nor insincere, to have your picture taken in several positions, but always in the attitude of meditating, or as if writing a sermon, with pen in hand, and beside a lamp, wearing eyeglasses, even though you don’t need them; do you understand? You will exhibit these photographs in public so that everyone will say, even if it is not believed, ‘What a thinker he is; what a great orator Salvadorcito Tont must be! He is always writing sermons and has to time even to have his picture taken! ’ This will make you miserable, because even if you have the vows of wealth, haughtiness and licentiousness, you pay no attention to them. . Don’t forget to have your picture taken in a pensive mood and as a comedian! God be with you! Thy will be done! sighed Salvadorcito resignedly, and his whole house resounded with laments. Salvadorcito was so humble that he was tortured by the idea of appearing in public, even if only in a photograph, and that is why, whenever he had to preach, he assumed a hollow and cavernous voice to make his hearers afraid and see if they would leave him alone. Salvadorcito, Salvadorcito! again shouted the telephone. At your orders, the good procurator answered, and this time he fell on his hands and knees so that he could listen more reverently to his Provincial. Request the Minister not to make Fr. Rodriguez a bishop. Tell him that he is very busy researching and looking for words deriving from Calamba, such as Calamban, Calambanian, Calamian, Calam, etc. Imagine what a task this is fro him! He is sweating to beat the band! He has no time to be a bishop, although he would make a good one, because he is condemned by our Father, St. Augustine, to be stupid all his life. For God’s sake, don’t let them make him a bishop! It is not the Minister who wants to make him a Bishop, but the Dominicans who wish to avoid the office, owing to the spirit of haughtiness! answered Salvadorcito. Then tell the Minister that there is nobody like the Dominicans for bishops. I know one here who is so friendly to the natives and an enemy of our faith that he does not let the Chinese take part in ceremonies, although he knows very well that as soon as they leave the country they give up Christianity. They take to Christianity for convenience. Among Chinese, the worst Christians they are the better persons they become. The Dominicans know this and even if the Chinese offer to give them money, they would not accept it. No, sir! They manage to prevent the natives from quarreling with the mestizos and the latter from quarreling with the Chinese, all against the express mandate of Jesus Christ to ‘divide in order to rule. ’ For this disobedience, they ought to be made bishops. They should be made to carry miters on their heads as symbol of pride, like the Assyrian and Persian priests who wore such ornaments. These people follow Machiavelli, that accursed Machiavelli, who said that peace and harmony should be preached. Talking about harmony, do you know, Salvadorcito, that Father Baldomero and another one went to visit the college bearing the same name, which is a school for girls, if you don’t remember well. . . Of course, they did not visit the dormitories while the girls were dressing and changing their clothes, neither did they talk with the prettiest girls, and the few words they exchanged with them were not said in the dark nor behind doors far from other people. . . Oh, but what misery they suffered! They who were so chaste, so virtuous and so pure-minded! The Sisters were so aloof, so unaccommodating and so intolerant! All the time they were there they talked only of God always assuming a penitent and solemn mood! Alas, alas! Why, what’s the matter, Salvadorcito? Please take me away from the Office of Procurator, because here I am suffering what Baldomero and the other fellow must have suffered in the girls’ College. What a lot of beautiful girls and women. . . Oh, my! I wish to go back to Manila! Madrid is doomed! Here the natives will imprison and exile you without trial! For simply writing a secret report they will. . . Never mind! You will die of hunger and will not ride a coach! I travel on foot here. I warn you that you will have to salute the natives, otherwise they will file an administrative case against you, and exile you. I don’t care! I prefer all that to living among beautiful. . . women. Remember that if you do not accommodate the gobernadorcillo, he will accuse you of being anti-Spanish. . .. I will protest and say that I love Spain. They won’t believe you, because the natives are very rich and they publish pamphlets against the friars with permission of the authorities. Then what shall I do? Oh, what shall I do? Remain there as Procurator. Oh, my! Present Chinese and Japanese gifts to the Ministers, the Delegates, and the Senators in order to promote our ends. Yes, that’s it, the Chinese! And what else? Wait until they make you a Bishop. Oh, my! And later, a Cardinal! Alas But in the meanwhile, you must have the government award crosses, estates, and offices to our enemies. And suppose they will engineer a revolt and claim that it is we who are behind it because we are ‘bistirufels’? Silence. What shall I say about ‘bistriufelism’? Silence. ‘Bistirufelism’ did you say? ’ answered a voice at last. You tell the Minister that it does not exist, but if he wants it to exist, just let him think about it and it will. Tell him that we have already suffered too much, that we suffer now and will suffer more. However, as nothing is eternal in this life, our sufferings will some day come to an end, that day when we are convinced that the Government is with our enemies. Prometheus Bound: Jose Rizal once sculpted a small sculpture â€Å"Prometheus Bound†, that depicted Prometheus who brought fire to man according to the Greek myth. By Prometheus’ very act of empowering mankind, Zeus punished him by chaining him on the Caucasus mountains. Everyday an eagle comes and eats his liver, only to be grown back again at night, so that on the next day the eagle will come again to eat it. I’d like to think that Rizal thought of the great potential of Filipinos, chained by 300 years of superstition, ignorance, and feudalism as he sculpted a similar scene depicted on this painting. If you know how the story goes, Hercules eventually kills the eagle and frees Prometheus. As to who will be Hercules of the Philippines, one who will empower every Filipino, I look forward to the future with hope. Triumph of science over death Triumph of Death Over Life by Dr. Jose Rizal â€Å"In the penetrating psycho- logical analysis of the man by Mr. Blumentritt there is mention of Rizal’s sensitivity as an artist, Mr. Blumentritt being the possessor of three terracotta statues: ‘Prometheus Bound’, ‘The Victory of Death Over Life’, and ‘The Triumph of the Intellect Over Death’†. â€Å"We are losing in Rizal not only a faithful friend of Germany and German scholarship but also the only man with sufficient knowledge and resolution to open a way for modern thought into that far-off island world. †