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Did Jose Rizal Read "Notre Dame De Paris" While Writing His Novel "Noli Me Tangere"?

Today is Rizal Day and I feel like revisiting a high school lecture. It was all about Noli Me Tangere meaning Touch Me Not. It would be interesting that, while in college, I did notice the parallelism between two books--Noli Me Tangere and Notre Dame De Paris (Our Lady of Paris) which is more popularly known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. My first exposure to the story was the Disney version (in 1996) and later some adaptive versions. The Disney version changed Frollo from a priest to a judge, in contrast to the original novel. Later, we had Noli Me Tangere where Padre Salvi lusts after Maria Clara, who unknown to him was really Padre Damaso's biological daughter. Both Frollo and Salvi are bound to celibacy by their professions. 


The term Kastila in Filipino may come from Castile or Castillian. Castile is a place in Central Spain. I bet a lot of Filipinos of Spanish descent may be of Castillan descent. Above is the song "Hellfire" by Disney in Castillian Spanish. I could imagine the one singing there isn't Frollo but Salvi himself. Salvi is bound to celibacy. Salvi is described to be very thin and sickly. Frollo was also very thin and sickly. The novel even has Frollo with balding har but he's only in his late 30s. I guess the living conditions were so bad during those times! Salvi was the town curate. Frollo is the monsigneur of Paris. Both of them had positions of power and lusted after a woman. 

The parallelism is there. Salvi and Frollo desire the forbidden fruit and are driven by jealousy. Frollo did attempt to stab Captain Phoebus (who was a villain in the novel) because of his lusting after Esmeralda. Salvi framed the main hero Ibarra so he could have Maria Clara in the convent. 

Granted, Jose Rizal (who was of Chinese descent) himself did go to Paris. I did find this interesting information that might suggest that Rizal read Notre Dame De Paris while in Europe according to the Filipinas Heritage Library: 
Disillusioned with how Filipinos in the Philippines were regarded as second-class citizens in institutions of learning and elsewhere, the National Hero Jose Rizal left the country in May 1882 to pursue further studies abroad. He enrolled in a course in medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Spain. In June 1883, he traveled to France to observe how medicine was being practiced there.

After his three-month sojourn in France, Rizal returned to Madrid and thought about publishing a book that exposed the colonial relationship of Spain and the Philippines. This idea was realized in March 1887, with the publication of the novel Noli Me Tangere in Germany.

The book Notre Dame De Paris was published in 1831. Vigor Hugo died in 1885. Did Rizal meet Hugo before the latter died? It's not exactly known. However, the parallelism between Frollo and Salvi can be so creepily similar. Did Rizal get inspired by Frollo's creepy crush on Esmeralda and create Salvi out of it? Damaso was more or less based somewhere else or Rizal's more original creation. 

The similarity doesn't end with the Catholic priests lusting after attractive women. Notre Dame De Paris has Quasimodo as the bellringer. Basilio and Crispin are both bellringers to Salvi. That means both Frollo and Salvi each have bellringers. Crispin later died of abuse. Basilio himself did survive to be part of El Filibusterismo. Maria Clara later died of sickness in a convent. Both Salvi and Frollo had their chances to molest the women they lusted after. 

Right now, I can't really be sure. I can only speculate. What's known is that Rizal went to France to observe how medicine was done there. Rizal, being the ladies' man, did once have a French girlfriend, Nellie Boustead. I do feel that at some point, Rizal may have read the novel, after all. The similarity can be seen by anybody who has at least read or studied both Noli Me Tangere and Notre Dame De Paris. 

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