El Filibusterismo (El Fili) – Chapter 33
Chapter Title: The Final Argument
Setting: April, Simoun’s residence
Characters:
- Simoun
- Basilio
- Maria Clara (mentioned)
- Capitan General (mentioned)
- Cabesang Tales (mentioned)
- Chinaman Quiroga (mentioned)
Plot:
After Simoun has him freed from prison, Basilio decides to join Simoun’s cause.
Chapter Summary:
Simoun packs his things in the morning. His jewels are in a steel chest, though he plans to give away bracelets and brooches as gifts.
Capitan General didn’t want to stay any longer in the country because he is afraid of what people might say. Some people say Simoun does not want to stay because without Capitan General people that he has angered will get revenge on them. The next General is said to be a man of morals and might tell Simoun to return his riches. Other people say that Simoun will move on to another country because there is nothing left to exploit in the Philippines.
Simoun tells his servant that if Basilio comes, to let him enter. He locks himself in his room.
Basilio arrives. He has been in jail for two months and his appearance looks haggard. Simoun is surprised and feels sorry for him. Basilio explains that he refused to join Simoun’s plans and he was imprisoned, and was only released thanks to Simoun. Now he is ready to join Simoun.
Simoun is pleased and becomes confident. He tells Basilio that the movement failed because many left him when they saw him unsure. But now Simoun can control his emotions because he has no one to care about anymore.
Simoun tells Basilio that if he had joined earlier they would have been successful, with Simoun getting rid of the corrupt from violence and Basilio helping unite the youth. Simoun says that the educated were afraid, the rich were selfish and the youth were dishonest. Only in the mountains did he find men to join his cause.
Simoun brings Basilio to his laboratory. On a table there is a dark green box. Simoun opens it and shows Basilio a lamp shaped like a pomegranate but as large as a head. It is colored gold. Simoun opens the burner and reveals a vessel of steel inside. Simoun shows a yellow crystal flask with Nitroglycerine/dynamite inside. Basilio knows what it is and feels afraid.
Simoun calls the nitroglycerine “the final argument of the weak” and that they must fight violence with violence. Simoun tells Basilio he was unsure about using it until Basilio visited him. He says that tonight, the tyrants will blow up. Simoun assembles the bomb and puts a lamp shade on it. He explains his plan to Basilio.
The lamp will be on a table at the fiesta later tonight and will be bright enough to light the whole room. But after twenty minutes the light will become dim. If someone adjusts the wick, the capsule of fulminate of mercury will detonate and the pomegranate will explode. The dining room’s roof and floor have sacks of gunpowder in them so there will be a chain reaction.
Basilio says there is nothing he can assist with. Simoun says that at 9:00 pm the explosion will be heard in the mountains. He confesses to Basilio that he plotted with the artillerymen but the uprising failed because of “lack of direction.” The oppressed people will come out and join Cabesang Tales in Santa Mesa to invade the city.
Simoun convinced the military that Capitan General will stage an uprising so that he has reasons to stay longer in the Philippines, so they will be on guard and shoot whoever invades. The people will be scared so Basilio’s job is to lead them to Chinaman Quiroga’s warehouse where Simoun’s guns are. Cabesang Tales and Simoun will take over the city and Basilio will be in charge of the bridges, ready to help them. Basilio’s job is to kill those who fight back or refuse to join them.
Simoun argues that anyone who is not on their side is an enemy and deserves to be killed because:
- Cowardly fathers will have cowardly sons so their family lines must end.
- A helpless population should die to be replaced by a new, energetic population.
- Death is nothing compared to the suffering of the next generation.
- Death is just like going to sleep.
Because Basilio’s mind has been weakened by months of imprisonment, he does not think to counter Simoun’s arguments. But the chapter states that Basilio should have said the following:
- That the worst man is better than a plant because he has a soul and intelligence, which means he can be redeemed instead of destroying weeds to plant better things.
- Man has no right to kill one life to save another because everyone has the right to live.
- Governments are abusive if they blame criminals for crimes they weren’t aware of, just like how man should not blame others for the faults of their governments or ancestors.
- Only God can do such things because He can create and is all-powerful, unlike man.
Basilio asks what the world will think of the violence, and Simoun says that the world will cheer because it has always accepted those that are strongest. Simoun points out that people celebrated when ‘Indians’ died in America, when Portugal invaded other islands, when there were revolutions and civil wars in Europe, and when England invaded the Pacific.
Simoun says that people don’t care about the methods but only see the effects. Any crime that is executed well will be admired. Basilio agrees and says that the world does not care about the oppressed. He no longer cares about society because society doesn’t care about him.
Simoun gives Basilio a revolver and tells him to wait in front of San Sebastian church at 10:00 pm. At 9:00 pm,he should be far from Anloague street. Basilio agrees, cocks the gun and leaves.
Trivia:
- Maria Clara is not mentioned by name in this chapter but Simoun implies that because she is dead, there is no one holding him back.
Quotes:
Simoun was the Devil who did not want to detach himself from his prey.
Pessimistic People: [on Simoun] The field laid waste, the locust moves on to another part.
Basilio: I have overlooked the murder of one and the tortures of the other, and God has punished me! Now there remains in me only the will to return evil for evil, crime for crime, violence for violence!
Basilio: (to Simoun) You were right, and now I have come to tell you: arm my hands and let the revolution break out!
Simoun: Justice is on my side because my cause is that of the unfortunates…
Simoun: I was holding something in my heart, I was not the master of my emotions and I still loved… Now everything is dead within me and now there is no sacred corpse whose sleep I must respect.
Simoun: If we cannot obtain a finished statue, polished in all its details, from the rough block that we polish, those who are to come will take charge!
Simoun: It is somewhat more than nitroglycerine! It is concentrated tears, repressed hatred, injustices and wrongs. It is the final argument of the weak, force against force, violence against violence…
Simoun: This night the most dangerous tyrants will blow up, be pulverized, the irresponsible tyrants, those who hide themselves behind God and the State, and whose abuses remain unpunished because no one can prosecute them! This night the Philippines will hear the explosion which will turn into debris the shapeless monument whose corruption I have hastened!
Simoun: It is necessary to renew the race. Cowardly fathers breed only slavish sons. It would not be worth the pain to destroy and then to rebuild with rotten materials! What? You shudder? You tremble? You fear to sow death?
Simoun: A paralytic and vitiated population must die to give way to another, new, young, active, full of energy.
Simoun: What is death? Nothingness, or a dream? Can its nightmares be compared to the reality of the agonies of a whole miserable generation?
Simoun: No more vacillation, no more doubt! What is the pain of death? The sensation of a moment, perhaps confused, perhaps agreeable like the transit from wakefulness to sleep…
Basilio: What will the world say at the sight of such butchery?
Simoun: The world will applaud as usual, conceding the right to the strongest, to the most violent!
Simoun: The common people pay little notice to principle, they look only at the effect. Execute the crime well, and it will be admired, and you will win more supporters than would virtuous acts carried to the end with modesty and timidity.
Basilio: What obligations have I to keep with society when she has not kept any with me?
