Noli Me Tangere

Noli Me Tangere

by

José Rizal

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Father Dámaso Character Analysis

A Spanish friar living in the Philippines, Father Dámaso is an arrogant and pedantic priest who, despite having lived amongst Filipinos and hearing their confessions for over twenty years, is barely able to speak or understand Tagalog, the country’s native language. A shameless loudmouth, he is unafraid of slandering nonreligious citizens who he thinks undermine his power. Ibarra learns that this is exactly what happened between his father, Don Rafael, and Dámaso—because Rafael refused to go to confession and supported secular means of empowering Filipino citizens, Dámaso jumped at the opportunity to cast Rafael as a heretic and a subversive. As such, Dámaso is Ibarra’s most evident and outspoken rival, a fact Dámaso seems to leverage by taunting the young man at a dinner party one night, making allusions to Rafael’s death and insulting Ibarra’s project to build a school. Unfortunately, Ibarra is unable to ignore these provocations, and his violent response leads to his own excommunication. To make matters worse for Ibarra, Father Dámaso is very well-connected in San Diego, and he is María Clara’s godfather, which puts him in a position of power over Ibarra’s engagement (indeed, he forbids her from marrying Ibarra). María Clara later discovers that Dámaso is her real father, a fact she hopes to keep quiet at all costs because it would disgrace her deceased mother’s honor and her father’s respectability, so Dámaso gets away with his corruption.

Father Dámaso Quotes in Noli Me Tangere

The Noli Me Tangere quotes below are all either spoken by Father Dámaso or refer to Father Dámaso. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism, Religion, and Power Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

In addition, Don Rafael was an honest man, more just than many men who go to confession. He held himself up to a rigorous moral standard and when the unpleasantness began he often said to me: “Señor Guevara, do you think God pardons a crime, a murder, for example, solely because one tells it to a priest, who is, in the end, a man, and who has the duty to keep it to himself, and who is afraid of burning in hell, which is an act of attrition, who is a coward, and certainly without shame? I have another conception of God,” he would say, “to me one does not correct one wrong by committing another, nor is one pardoned by useless weeping or by giving alms to the church.” He gave this example: “If I kill the head of a family, if I make a woman into a destitute widow and happy children into helpless orphans, will I have satisfied eternal justice if I let them hang me, or confide my secret to someone who has to keep it to himself, or give alms to the priests, who need it the least, or buy myself a papal pardon, or weep night and day? And what about the widow and children? My conscience tells me I should replace as much as possible the person I have murdered and dedicate myself completely and for my whole life to the welfare of the family whose misfortune I have created. And even then, even then, who will replace the love of a husband and father?”

Related Characters: Señor Guevara (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, Don Rafael Ibarra
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

To be a heretic anywhere is a great disgrace, especially at that time, when the mayor made a great show of his religious devotion and prayed in the church with his servants and said the rosary in a great loud voice, perhaps so that everyone could hear him and pray with him. But to be a subversive is worse than being a heretic and killing three tax collectors who know how to read, write, and sign their names. Everyone deserted him. His papers and books were confiscated. They accused him of subscribing to the Overseas Mail, of reading the Madrid newspapers, of having sent you to German Switzerland, of having been in possession of letters and a portrait of a condemned priest, and who knows what else! They found accusations in everything, even of his wearing a peninsular-style shirt. If he had been anyone other than your father, he would have been set free almost immediately, especially since a doctor had attributed the death of the unfortunate tax collector to a blockage. But because of his wealth, his confidence in justice, and his hatred of anything that was not legal or just, they ruined him.

Related Characters: Señor Guevara (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, Don Rafael Ibarra, The Mayor
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“Because sane people,” he went on with a bitter irony, “will think you are crazy, too. People believe that madness is when you don’t think as they do, which is why they take me for a madman. And I’m grateful for that, because, well, the day on which they restore my reason is the day they deprive me of the small bit of freedom I’ve purchased at the price of a reputation as a sane person. And who knows if they are right? I neither think nor live according to their laws. My principles, my ideals, are different. Among them the mayor enjoys a reputation as a sane individual, since he has not learned anything more than how to serve chocolate and suffer Father Dámaso’s ill humor.”

Related Characters: Old Tasio (Don Anastasio) (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, The Mayor
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

“But, gentlemen,” the mayor interrupted. “What can we do? What can the town do? Whatever happens, the friars are always right!”

“They are always right because we always let them be right,” Don Filipo answered with impatience, emphasizing the word “always.” “Let us be in the right for a change and then let’s talk!”

The mayor scratched his head and, looking at the ceiling, replied sourly, “Ay, the heat of blood! It seems like we don’t even know what country we’re in; we don’t even know our own countrymen. The friars are rich and united, and we are divided and poor. Sure, try to defend him and you’ll see how everyone will abandon you to your task.”

“Sure,” Don Filipo exclaimed bitterly, “it will always happen if you think that way, while fear and restraint are synonymous. Everyone pays more attention to something bad rather than to a needed good thing. Suddenly it’s all fear and lack of trust. Everyone thinks about himself, and no one about other people. That’s why we’re so weak!”

Related Characters: Don Filipo (Filipo Lino) (speaker), The Mayor (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Noli Me Tangere LitChart as a printable PDF.
Noli Me Tangere PDF

Father Dámaso Quotes in Noli Me Tangere

The Noli Me Tangere quotes below are all either spoken by Father Dámaso or refer to Father Dámaso. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism, Religion, and Power Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

In addition, Don Rafael was an honest man, more just than many men who go to confession. He held himself up to a rigorous moral standard and when the unpleasantness began he often said to me: “Señor Guevara, do you think God pardons a crime, a murder, for example, solely because one tells it to a priest, who is, in the end, a man, and who has the duty to keep it to himself, and who is afraid of burning in hell, which is an act of attrition, who is a coward, and certainly without shame? I have another conception of God,” he would say, “to me one does not correct one wrong by committing another, nor is one pardoned by useless weeping or by giving alms to the church.” He gave this example: “If I kill the head of a family, if I make a woman into a destitute widow and happy children into helpless orphans, will I have satisfied eternal justice if I let them hang me, or confide my secret to someone who has to keep it to himself, or give alms to the priests, who need it the least, or buy myself a papal pardon, or weep night and day? And what about the widow and children? My conscience tells me I should replace as much as possible the person I have murdered and dedicate myself completely and for my whole life to the welfare of the family whose misfortune I have created. And even then, even then, who will replace the love of a husband and father?”

Related Characters: Señor Guevara (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, Don Rafael Ibarra
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

To be a heretic anywhere is a great disgrace, especially at that time, when the mayor made a great show of his religious devotion and prayed in the church with his servants and said the rosary in a great loud voice, perhaps so that everyone could hear him and pray with him. But to be a subversive is worse than being a heretic and killing three tax collectors who know how to read, write, and sign their names. Everyone deserted him. His papers and books were confiscated. They accused him of subscribing to the Overseas Mail, of reading the Madrid newspapers, of having sent you to German Switzerland, of having been in possession of letters and a portrait of a condemned priest, and who knows what else! They found accusations in everything, even of his wearing a peninsular-style shirt. If he had been anyone other than your father, he would have been set free almost immediately, especially since a doctor had attributed the death of the unfortunate tax collector to a blockage. But because of his wealth, his confidence in justice, and his hatred of anything that was not legal or just, they ruined him.

Related Characters: Señor Guevara (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, Don Rafael Ibarra, The Mayor
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“Because sane people,” he went on with a bitter irony, “will think you are crazy, too. People believe that madness is when you don’t think as they do, which is why they take me for a madman. And I’m grateful for that, because, well, the day on which they restore my reason is the day they deprive me of the small bit of freedom I’ve purchased at the price of a reputation as a sane person. And who knows if they are right? I neither think nor live according to their laws. My principles, my ideals, are different. Among them the mayor enjoys a reputation as a sane individual, since he has not learned anything more than how to serve chocolate and suffer Father Dámaso’s ill humor.”

Related Characters: Old Tasio (Don Anastasio) (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso, The Mayor
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

“But, gentlemen,” the mayor interrupted. “What can we do? What can the town do? Whatever happens, the friars are always right!”

“They are always right because we always let them be right,” Don Filipo answered with impatience, emphasizing the word “always.” “Let us be in the right for a change and then let’s talk!”

The mayor scratched his head and, looking at the ceiling, replied sourly, “Ay, the heat of blood! It seems like we don’t even know what country we’re in; we don’t even know our own countrymen. The friars are rich and united, and we are divided and poor. Sure, try to defend him and you’ll see how everyone will abandon you to your task.”

“Sure,” Don Filipo exclaimed bitterly, “it will always happen if you think that way, while fear and restraint are synonymous. Everyone pays more attention to something bad rather than to a needed good thing. Suddenly it’s all fear and lack of trust. Everyone thinks about himself, and no one about other people. That’s why we’re so weak!”

Related Characters: Don Filipo (Filipo Lino) (speaker), The Mayor (speaker), Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), Father Dámaso
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis: