The Noli is clearly anticlerical in its depiction of the friars and of the Catholic church. Padre Damaso and, to a lesser extent, Padre Salvi, personify clerical abuses—the main cause, in the novel, of the population’s discontent.

The Noli is clearly anticlerical in its depiction of the friars and of the Catholic church. Padre Damaso and, to a lesser extent, Padre Salvi, personify clerical abuses—the main cause, in the novel, of the population’s discontent. Rizal’s portraits, however, are not one-dimensional; rather, they reveal the all-too-human faults of each priest. How does the novelist individualize them? How do the failings of Damaso and Salvi propel the novel’s action? The two friars have in common their feelings for Maria Clara, yet those very feelings should divide them. Why?