The character arc of Jose Rizal
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born 19 June 1861 in Calamba, Laguna. Executed 30 December 1896 in Manila, aged thirty five. Between the two sit a mother who taught him to read at five and was imprisoned when he was ten, schooling in Manila, a secret departure for Spain in 1882, an eye specialisation at Heidelberg in 1887, two novels, four years of exile at Dapitan from 1892, an arrest in October 1896 and a court martial. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Jose Rizal?
He learned eye surgery to operate on his mother.
His mother Teodora taught him to read and write by the age of five. When he was ten she was imprisoned, accused of attempted poisoning, and was exonerated only after two and a half years of appeals. A boy watching that happen to his mother learns something about how a system can be used, and it is the earliest thing on this line that explains the rest.
He went to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1870 and graduated with honours in 1877, then to the University of Santo Tomas for philosophy and letters and then medicine. In May 1882 he left secretly for Spain to continue studying. He completed a specialisation in eye surgery under Professor Otto Becker at Heidelberg in 1887, and he did it for a reason: his mother was going blind. The same year, he published Noli Me Tangere. El Filibusterismo followed in 1891.
He came home, founded La Liga Filipina in 1892 as a reform organisation, and was arrested almost immediately and exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao for four years. Exile is normally where a line goes flat. His did the opposite: he built a school, a hospital and a water system for the town. On 6 October 1896 he was arrested again while travelling to Cuba, court-martialled for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy, and convicted on all charges. His last poem was hidden in an alcohol stove and found by his family afterwards. His line is worth reading because almost everything on it was built for other people to use.
The moments
Jose Rizal's timeline.
The 1860s
His mother taught him
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Five years old, taught at home, by her.
The 1870s
His mother was imprisoned
Setback, and it changed everything. Ten years old, and his mother in prison for two and a half years before being cleared.
Honours at the Ateneo
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Top of his year, and then medicine.
The 1880s
He left secretly for Spain
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty years old, out of the country without telling most of his family.
Eye surgery, for her
Milestone, and it changed everything. He learned the operation because his mother was going blind.
Noli Me Tangere
Milestone, and it changed everything. A novel about his own country, written in Europe, which could not be printed at home.
The 1890s
El Filibusterismo
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The second novel, harder than the first.
Stay in Europe, or go home
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go home and organise, taken, or stay abroad and write. He was exiled to Dapitan within weeks, built a school and a hospital there, and was executed four years later.
La Liga Filipina
Milestone, and it changed everything. A reform society. He was arrested almost immediately.
Exiled to Dapitan
Setback, and it changed everything. Four years, removed to the far south, with no date of release.
He built the town instead
Milestone, and it changed everything. A school, a hospital and running water, built by a man who was being punished.
Arrested on the way to Cuba
Setback, and it changed everything. Arrested in transit, tried by court martial, convicted on every count.
A poem in a stove
Milestone, and it changed everything. Written the night before, hidden in a stove, and found by the people who came for his things.
The line ends 30 Dec 1896, in Manila, at thirty five, by firing squad. What it set moving outlived the sentence: two novels a country still reads, a poem smuggled out in a stove, and a monument where his remains were finally laid.
Your turn
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His was thirty five years long and built a town inside an exile. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Jose Rizal: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What was Jose Rizal's character arc?
Why did Jose Rizal study eye surgery?
What did Jose Rizal write?
What did Jose Rizal do in exile?
Why was Jose Rizal executed?
What happened to Jose Rizal's mother?
What was La Liga Filipina, founded by Jose Rizal?
Where does this timeline of Jose Rizal's life come from?
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Sources
- Jose Rizal, English Wikipedia biography.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jose Rizal.
- Noli Me Tangere, 1887, and El Filibusterismo, 1891.