Caleb Williams

This is another of my text books, and one I found almost impossible to finish. Don't get me wrong, the tale itself is exceedingly compelling. I guess I should try to explain my feelings about this book, which were powerful. Maybe it comes from being an American, and a liberal one at that, or maybe it's in my blood, as my mother says, but I have an over-developed sense of justice, or right and wrong. I cannot tolerate the idea of one person abusing their power to oppress another person. The very thing sickens me to an alarming extent. While reading about the outrageous persecution of poor Caleb, and the willful blindness of the people around him, I actually had a strong desire to punch the book, to literally punch it. I wept with frustration as I witnessed the injustices that the poor young man was made to suffer, and I almost gave up on it completely (while risking a bad grade in my English Romantic Literature class) because I felt that it was ruining my peace of mind. In terms of the basics, this book has well-developed characters, evocative settings, and the story reads at a furious pace. Many people have reacted in a similar way to this book, and I believe that is the intention of its author. Godwin wanted people to react to this book because he wanted to change the statusquo . Although this book upset me greatly, I have to allow that it did its job. I believe this book is valuable, not only as a piece of great literature, but also as a reminder of the inequalities that still exist in our society today, and of what millions of people suffered at the hands of everyday tyrants not that long ago.

In CALEB WILLIAMS, William Godwin begins a genre that will be known as the "chase" theme, one that Victor Hugo will later pick up in print and television will, much later, dramatize as Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive. All chase themes involving an innocent man necessarily involve two criteria: the one being chased must be innocent and the chaser must have a credible stake in the chase. Both are present in the book. The hero is Caleb Williams, a secretary for a sullen employer named Falkland, a man who himself was reputed to be the innocent victim of a capital crime. Caleb spends considerable time prying into the affairs of his employer, who tells Caleb, that he is indeed guilty as charged and warns Caleb to be silent. Caleb refuses and Falkland has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Caleb escapes and the chase begins. The chaser is less an individual than a collective entity. There is no Inspector Javert from Hugo or Lieutenant Gerard from "The Fugitive" who tirelessly pursues Caleb. Rather it is the unjust law itself. Godwin was disturbed over the potential of the law to torment the impoverished innocent who lacked the means to mount a proper legal defense. The ending in which Falkland admits to his crime in front of a magistrate just three days prior to his death smacks of a fabricated ending, but the message to Godwin's audience was chillingly clear. Innocence is no defense against the rich and powerful, a warning which rang just as true in Godwin's day as in ours.

This novel is a forceful combination of political / social / judicial criticism, thriller elements and a powerful investigation into the real nature of man. Politically, the author castigates the chasm between what one ought to do and reality: `We that are rich must do every thing in our power to lighten the yoke of these unfortunate people. We must not use the advantage that accident has given us with an unmerciful hand.' Nevertheless, `wealth and despotism easily know how to engage those laws as the coadjutor of their oppression, which were perhaps at first intended for the safeguards of the poor.' Justice is totally biased: `Mr. Falkland is a man of rank and fortune; he is your master. I am a poor country lad without a friend in the world. That is a ground of real difference ...but it is not a sufficient ground for the subversion of justice.' But, `law has neither eyes, nor ears, nor bowels of humanity; and it turns into marble the hearts of all those that are nursed in its principle.' Socially, the system is fundamentally corrupt, a synonym for `tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of the community against those who were less privileged than themselves.' Godwin's vision of the world is pessimistic: `Accursed world! that hates without a cause' that overwhelms innocence with calamities which ought to be spared even to guilt! Accursed world! dead to every manly sympathy; with eyes of horn, and hearts of steel!' His picture of fundamental human selfishness, of pure evil and of despotic and resentful emotions and actions is impressive. He is baffled by man's `hero'worship: `Man is surely a strange sort of creature, who never praise any one more heartily than him who has spread destruction and ruin over the face of nature.' He sees however one bright spot: freedom of the mind: `The mind is master of itself; and is endowed with powers that might enable to laugh at the tyrant's vigilance.' The novel has one minus point: its final with an ultimate reversal in the psychological warfare. It seems incredible and improbable (a destruction by suspicion). However, it is a very compelling read, a real discovery. Not to be missed.

Having never myself been the victim of a wrongful criminal accusation, imprisonment, or torture, I was ill-prepared for the experience of reading "Caleb Williams". I once thought that Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," or the fiction works of Camus, Kafka, or Sartre were more than adequate to address the problem of total alienation and isolation in the very midst of humanity. Even Richardson's "Pamela" carries its heroine through half the novel in a state of claustrophobic paranoia. In 1794, Godwin created a world and a mind no less frightening than the worst and most depraved of the 20th century. That we still toil through issues of basic human and legal rights entering the 21st century speaks to the complexity of these issues and casts a shadow of doubt over our ever finding a suitable solution. In an effort to expose the hypocrisy of a legal system under the complete influence of the "long purse" and the lack of recourse of the common man to justice, Godwin has his hero Caleb suffer increasing terrors, imprisonment, and the threat of ceaseless surveillance at the hands of the ex-thief Gines. Like Richardson's Pamela, Caleb's suicidal fantasies enable him for a short while to claim control over his mind and his situation. Unlike Pamela, Caleb fails to maintain this control, even after he forces the ruthless Falkland to admit to the murder of Tyrrel. In a scene reminsicent of ones in "1984" and Kafka's "The Trial," Caleb relinquishes what little power he has been able to garner over his torturer. Falkland, a frail, physically powerless, demoniacal 'gentleman,' through a constant and pervasive presence in Caleb's own fragile mind has unwittingly reclaimed final power over the novel's helpless hero. By internalizing the social hierarchy since childhood, Caleb is finally unable to bear the disgrace he brings upon Falkland. Ironically, while he is pursued across England and Wales as a thief, he claims innocence. Once he is exonerated of his crime, he is insistent on his guilt. "Caleb Williams" is an endlessly complex and captivating novel, frought with issues of power, levels of narrative, and takes issue with the flawed notion of human justice.