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25. Laughter and Weeping
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
Basilio gets up early to visit Makaraig, whom he will ask for a loan to procure his medical license, as he has already spent his savings freeing Julí from Sister Penchang. Outside, however, he encounters a group of students who tell him that the schools have been closed because of a conspiracy: someone has posted subversive broadsides outside the university. Basilio asks about Simoun, but the jeweler is sick in bed. No bandit attack materialized, either. Basilio is advised to quickly quit the student union and avoid the university.
After Cabesang Tales joined the bandits (and refused to sell Simoun the locket), Julí was left with no option but going to Basilio for help; despite her fears that he would abandon her, he remained committed to their marriage, even at the cost of going into debt. The system that requires aspiring doctors to pay for their licenses is yet another barrier to the profession to those who aren't wealthy. The exact contents of the subversive broadsides are never made clear, but the pamphlets clearly condemn the priests and the government.
Themes
Basilio goes to see Makaraig anyway, learning on the way that the students who attended the banquet will be arrested. Juanito Peláez tries to make Basilio promise to serve as a witness attesting that he had nothing to do with the conspiracy. Isagani is dismayed and urges the students to stick together, but no one listens to him. Basilio finds Makaraig being arrested, and though he agrees to loan him the money, the police detaining him arrest Basilio, too.
The united front previously kept up by the students quickly crumbles, even though they have not committed any crimes. Juanito responds in a characteristically cowardly manner, attempting to distance himself from his former comrades. Only Isagani tries to fight back against this injustice, but without a clear purpose or any organization, the students are incapable of resisting the crackdown.
Themes
