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22. The Performance
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in El Filibusterismo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Identity
Violence vs. Nonviolence
Education and Freedom
Hypocrisy and Colonial Oppression
Summary
Analysis
Simoun was a conspicuous absence at the theater. Boiled Shrimp and others saw him nearby, but he disappeared shortly before the performance began. Basilio also didn’t attend, instead staying home to study and take care of Captain Tiago. Tiago’s addiction is increasingly hard to treat, and he alternates between cruelty and excessive kindness to Basilio, depend on his mood and dosage of opium. Basilio observes the irony that if he enabled Tiago’s habit he would both be treated better and likely receive a larger inheritance sooner, but he resolves to help his patron anyways. Tiago only has two other visitors, Simoun and Father Irene. The evening of the operetta, Basilio is quickly reading a medical textbook banned by the government in order to return it to the friend who lent it to him. There are several revolutionary pamphlets in the textbook, too.
Unlike Isagani, Basilio is not interested in modern and foreign culture, choosing instead to absorb himself in what he sees as his primary responsibilities: his studies and his care for Captain Tiago. Basilio takes care of Tiago despite the difficulties, as much out of a sense of professional, doctorly obligation as gratitude for Tiago’s support for him and his studies. Unwilling to cut corners, Basilio is a rare honorable figure in a society that encourages the opposite. The fact that his medical textbooks are banned by the state further indicates just how backwards the colonial government is, and it is therefore no surprise that banned books are distributed alongside subversive pamphlets—in a society like this, basic facts and revolutionary slogans are equally dangerous to the status quo.
Themes
Basilio is interrupted by Simoun, who asks about Tiago’s condition. Simoun then interrupts him, informing him that the revolution is an hour away; he is offering Basilio one last chance to join him. Simoun explains that the violent uprising he has been planning is about to begin, as bandits (including Cabesang Tales) and soldiers will attack one another, throwing the city into chaos. Simoun has a task for Basilio: to lead revolutionaries to the Santa Clara convent and rescue María Clara. Basilio then reveals to Simoun that María Clara died that very afternoon—Tiago’s grief is what led him to latest enormous dose of opium. Simoun is completely distraught and leaves in a daze, leaving Basilio to pity him, reflecting on his sad, cruel fate.
Simoun’s visit to Tiago’s house is motivated both by his desire to recruit Basilio to join his revolution and by the past: hoping to rescue María Clara, Simoun still feels some sentimental attachment to her dying father despite what Tiago did to him. Simoun reveals to Basilio that Boiled Shrimp’s intuition was correct and the revolution will begin that very night, not expecting Basilio to inform him of María Clara’s death. Simoun was already hesitating about putting his plot into action, but now that the one positive aspect of his plan for violent revenge, rescuing his lost love, is no longer possible, he experiences a complete crisis of conscience.
Themes
