Basilio Character Analysis in Noli Me Tangere

Crispín’s older brother, who is also training to be a sexton. When Crispín is dragged away, Basilio tries to find him unsuccessfully. Despite the town’s curfew, he runs home to his mother and spends the night there, telling her that the next day he will seek out Ibarra and ask if he can work for him instead of training to be a sexton. This never transpires, though, because the Civil Guard comes looking for him and his brother. Basilio escapes from this mother’s house and into the forest, where he lives with a kind family until Christmas Eve, when he goes looking for Sisa. Upon finding her, he discovers that she has gone crazy with grief and is unable to recognize him. He follows her back into the woods, where she eventually dies after finally understanding that he is her son.

Basilio Character Timeline in Noli Me Tangere

The timeline below shows where the character Basilio appears in Noli Me Tangere. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Colonialism, Religion, and Power Theme Icon

Crispín and Basilio, the two young apprentice sextons that Tasio spoke with earlier, stand at the top of... (full context)

As Crispín and Basilio worry what their mother will think if the priest tells her Crispín is a thief,... (full context)

After a few moments, Basilio descends the tower and goes into the church, following his brother’s fading screams until a... (full context)

...purgatory, since “heaven is expensive” and the church won’t “save beloved souls for free”—Crispín and Basilio’s mother, Sisa, waits in the darkness for her boys. She is an impoverished and luckless... (full context)

Once Basilio comes inside, Sisa sees that he’s bleeding from the forehead. He tells her that the... (full context)

Basilio goes to sleep while his mother prays. In his dreams, he sees the chief sexton,... (full context)

Sisa wakes Basilio up and asks him why he’s crying. Basilio lies about his dream, not wanting to... (full context)

Just as Sisa is about to reach her house—hoping to find Crispín and Basilio safe inside—she sees two Civil Guard soldiers. They’re leaving her house empty-handed, having searched it... (full context)

...town is there, including his nemesis the ensign, the mayor, Don Filipo, and even Captain Basilio, who was Don Rafael’s enemy in a past lawsuit that has been left unsettled. When... (full context)

...the ensign takes this opportunity to lampoon Salví for having lost track of Crispín and Basilio, accusing him of caring more about missing money than missing children. (full context)

On Christmas Eve, the young Basilio sits outside a cottage in the woods and watches two children play. They are his... (full context)

Trailing Sisa, Basilio finds himself entering the woods. Sisa runs into a thicket and enters a wooden gate... (full context)

At that moment, a wounded man appears and drops to the ground. He asks Basilio if he’s seen anybody else at the tomb. He then asks what the boy is... (full context)