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38. Power
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
The runaway Simoun arrives at Father Florentino’s just before Don Tiburcio departs. A vague telegram warns Florentino that the authorities are coming to arrest the Spaniard in his home, but Tiburcio is convinced it refers to Doña Victorina’s pursuit of him. Florentino welcomes Simoun, who is wounded and carrying a case of his most valuable jewels. He is unsure, however, what to do when the guards come to arrest Simoun. For his part Simoun refuses to run farther or hide. He asks to speak to Florentino in the bedroom. Entering, Florentino realizes that Simoun has deliberately overdosed on medicine and will soon die, refusing to be taken alive. Before he dies, however, he wants to share his secret with Florentino.
The telegram informing Florentino that the authorities are on their way to arrest a Spaniard is misinterpreted by Tiburcio because, being ignorant of Simoun’s entire failed revolution, he assumes he is the only Spaniard nearby, and he is so afraid of his wife that he is willing to believe she has begun legal proceedings against him. Like his nephew Isagani, Florentino is committed to living honorably above all else and doesn’t hesitate to give Simoun shelter—though he also won’t hide Simoun from the authorities. Simoun no longer has any reason to live, having lost his power and influence and therefore his means of revenge. His suicide by overdose is the only the last of a long line of tragic mishaps that have characterized his life.
Themes
Simoun tells Florentino the story of his first return from Europe, his betrayal, and his faked death. He also describes his journey to Cuba and his acquaintance there with the future captain-general, who he then manipulated as part of his plan to return to the Philippines. Florentino listens silently, and afterward he tells Simoun God will forgive him—but that the failure of his plans was punishment for their wicked nature. Simoun then asks if God wants the Philippines to be oppressed. Florentino doesn’t think so, maintaining his faith in God and justice alike, but he insists that Simoun’s evil means cannot be justified by the noble ends like the anticolonial struggle. Simoun accepts this argument but asks why so many who are much more wicked than he is go unpunished. Florentino suggests that there is something godly in noble suffering and that God punishes people for their lack of faith.
Simoun narrates to Florentino the story of Noli Me Tángere and what happened after, explaining how he prepared for his revenge for years. Simoun is desperate to share his secret, the nature of which has oppressed him almost as heavily as his anger and guilt. Florentino listens and understands but does not accept Simoun’s justifications for the violence he planned to unleash. For Florentino, Simoun’s plans were not only wrong in their own right, they also would not have righted the wrongs Simoun had suffered at the hands of the priests and the government. Simoun concedes this, perhaps because of the force of Florentino’s argument, or perhaps because he can see for himself that his plans have failed. His final question to Florentino is a classic crisis of faith, one that Florentino tries to soothe by acknowledging the depth of Simoun’s pain and the strength it took to endure it, even if Simoun turned to evil in response.
Themes
Florentino delivers a rousing speech about the need for dignity and personal virtue in the struggle for freedom, imploring Simoun to maintain his faith in justice. Simoun listens silently, holding Florentino’s hand. Florentino listens to the sound of the ocean outside and wonders where and when the young people virtuous enough to lead the kind of just struggle he envisions will appear. Realizing Simoun is dead, Florentino prays for him. He then takes the case of jewels and walks down to the shore. Looking out at the waves, Florentino uses all his strength to throw the jewels into the ocean, telling himself they will do no harm down there.
Whether Florentino’s last words to Simoun are accepted by the dying man is left unclear. What Rizal does emphasize, however, is that only now in the moment of his death is Simoun truly with someone else, having been alone with his hatred and desire for revenge throughout the novel, and since the events of Noli Me Tángere. Even Basilio was only an instrument for Simoun’s plan. With Florentino, however, he is able to listen and feel a genuine human connection before he dies. Florentino pities Simoun, and he wonders about the future of the independence struggle precisely because Simoun once represented that honorable fight. Whether Rizal thinks that Florentino’s own nephew, Isagani, is the answer to Florentino’s question is not made clear. While Florentino cannot predict when and how positive change will come for the Philippines, he identifies Simoun’s jewels and the system of greed they represent as one of many obstacles to that future, and he decides to throw them into the ocean to free the world of at least a little bit of greed and cruelty.
Themes
