Notes on Godwin’s Caleb Williams

Consider the book’s full title.

Look carefully at first chapter:

• tyranny
• power
• narrative
• “truth”
• curiosity
• interpretation
• studying (spying)
• “surprises” Falkland
• superior order
• doubling (as if it were my own)

Victims/Tyrants

• Who are the victims in this novel?
• Who are the tyrants?
• What distinguishes one from the other?

Falkland/Tyrrel (Volume 1)

• What is chivalry? How is it defined (through Falkland)? Is Falkland a better person because he is chivalrous (i.e. better than Tyrrel)?
• What should we make of Williams’ reference to Falkland’s “loftiness” (90)?
• Who has power? How do we see it exercised? What are the consequences of this power?

Williams/Falkland I (Volume 2, chapters 1-6)

• How does knowing Falkland’s story change Williams and his attitude towards Falkland? Does it matter that Falkland doesn’t know how much Williams knows?
• What do we know about Williams’ curiosity? How is it manifest in these early chapters of the second volume? How does Williams’ characterize his relationship to Falkland? How do we see that relationship?
• What acts of surveillance do we find in the book? When Forester tells Caleb that he will “have an eye upon you,” what are the two possible meanings? How do these two meanings resonate throughout the novel?
• What does Williams mean by the “magnetical sympathy” he shares with Falkland? How are we to understand Williams’ admission that he wanted Falkland to know that he was spying on him?
• At this point (prior to the episode of the trunk), who has power? How is it exercised? What are the consequences of this power?

Falkland/Williams II (Volume 2, chapters 6-10)

• How does their relationship change after Williams learns Falkland’s secret? Who is under surveillance?
• What is Caleb’s fault or error?
• How does the entry of Forester change things? How does Falkland respond? How does Caleb respond to Falkland’s response? How does Caleb justify that response and what fundamental mistake does he make?
• Why does Williams return for his “trial”? What does this action suggest about Williams and his relationship to Falkland?

Williams/World (Volume 2, Chapters 11-14, Volume 3, Chapters 1-13)

• What of importance are we supposed to understand from the Williams’ imprisonment? What details are memorable and why?
• What of importance are we supposed to understand from Williams’ forced convalescence with the band of thieves? What details are memorable and why?
• What of importance are we supposed to understand from Williams’ forced wanderings? What details are memorable and why?
• What ties this episodic part of the novel together? What purpose do they serve in the novel? How do they develop Williams’ character and the primary ideas of the novel?
• How does Gines find Williams? What does this suggest some of these binary pairs: disguise/identity; writing/truth; crime/law?

Williams/Falkland III (Volume 3, Chapters 13-15)

• What kind of narratives have we had so far in the novel? How has narrative been characterized? Late in the novel, when Williams characterizes his narrative as a kind of revenge, how is that characterization different from these earlier views of narrative? What does vengeance suggest about Williams?
• In the final confrontation with Falkland, what turns Williams from his purpose? What does this turn suggest about a) Williams’ purpose and b) Williams’ character?
• What is the great error that Williams claims he has committed? What does Williams come to understand about himself and about the “system” in which he moves?
• What persuades Falkland to admit his crime? Is this believable? Does it matter whether it is believable or does the novel have purposes other than “realism” to satisfy?
• The novel seems to function on the level of allegory, but at moments in the novel allegory appears to be overwritten in favor of personal qualities and characteristics. Why is this distinction important? Does it matter whether we read the novel as an allegory or as a character study?
• How then are we to understand Williams’ powerful sense of guilt?

Curiosity

60: spring of action, books and novels

180-1: “alluring”; uncontrollable curiosity

188: brink of precipice; compulsion

199: Disquisition on curiosity

203: trace the maze of his thoughts

210-1: opens trunk; insanity

212: termination of curiosity

215: curiosity as diabolic deal, but sacred too

217: spying also revealed Falkland’s good

217-8: now Falkland will spy on Caleb

262: curiosity again; now in prison studying prisoners

271: sees in curiosity a mode of survival—imagination and memory

370: Caleb the object of everyone else’s curiosity

Sympathy

66: as if they were my own; linking and doubling

166: Falkland’s case worthy of sympathy

186: “magnetical sympathy” implies secret connection based on mutual knowledge

197: sees bond even in this game

199: “We were each of us a plague to one another”

212: blames trunk episode on “involuntary sympathy”

224: bemoans how he was a slave to curiosity—better to be a slave he says

242: Caleb reads letter; glowing with love of virtue he chooses to be a fool of honour and fame

310: is grateful to thieves but sees them as energy misapplied

375: mind gradually “weaning” from Falkland

426: Falkland still Falkland, but has Williams always been Williams?

427: sees Falkland; dreadful mistake in reasoning

431: Williams believes Falkland would have responded to “frank and fervent expostulation”

431: calls himself the murderer

432: Falkland response to Caleb’s sincerity

Knowledge/Power

191: wants Falkland to know he is spying

192-3: the truth will out; Falkland accuses Caleb

207: Caleb knows; he feels most alive

225: Falkland like “the power of an omniscient God”

230: Forester will “have an eye upon” Caleb

316: Raymond immediately recognizes Caleb’s trouble as being too much knowledge

346: old man is told Caleb’s name; won’t act on it

377: explains why he hasn’t told; not telling was his only power

382-3: Falkland claims to have been protecting him

433: Now he knows and so he is no longer “innocent”

Interpretation

59: my story will “appear” truthful

61: meets Falkland; everything about him open to interpretation

62: studies his master

64: surprises Falkland; given money doesn’t understand why

179: “authenticity” of narrative questioned

179: Collins’ narrative has brought real life to life

180: “What was the meaning of ...”

184: Story of Alexander; how will Falkland react

187: interprets action

194: Caleb’s elaborate reading; “what is it you know?”

202: Falkland acts guiltily

208: senses Falkland; who is spying on whom?

231: Caleb feels others see him as guilty

249ff: Caleb’s trial; Falkland spins narrative

330-331: hears different versions of his own story

363: Caleb’s writing about crime confirms his identity—we are the narratives we tell

368: Caleb’s life as a text (Most wonderful ...”

382-3: Falkland claims to have been protecting him

399: doesn’t understand why he is shunned

408: abandons his etymological work—about meaning

Reverence/Chivalry

63: Falkland of superior order

67: chivalry and romance

94: Falkland’s fault (acc to Clare) “imagined dishonor”

172: “fool of honour and fame”

198: motivated by veneration and suspicion

215: Falkland says he was “the fool of fame”

242: Caleb reads letter; love of virtue he chooses to be a fool of honour and fame

374: Caleb’s fame that of the broadsheet infamy

375: begins to question his reverence for Falkland

407: imagines vengeance on Falkland

426: Falkland still Falkland, firm in command

430: praises Falkland’s humanity (?)

Tyranny/Power

59: Book’s opening

76: Tyrrel’s arbitrary exercise of power

89: Falkland: not as master but equal

90: an example of F’s “loftiness”

112: Emily’s “paths”—vixen, whore, trull

119: female servant worse than Tyrrel

120: imprison my body, but not my mind

131: arbitrary proceedings—Hawkins

140: Black Act used to imprison Hawkins’ son

164-5: Falkland beaten; arbitrary power

235: Falkland threatens Caleb—no disobedience

238: doesn’t blame Falkland; blames system

243: things are so wrong that innocence and guilt are confounded

261: Falkland like monarchs; arbitrary, unjust

276: Caleb reads and understands the jailer’s motives

300: against “gore-dripping robes of authority”

335-6: “Did his power reach through all space, and his eye penetrate every concealment? ...”

339-40: magistrate’s arbitrary power holds Caleb

353: simple truth—“I was ignorant of the power which the institutions of society give to one man over others”

358: Gines’ mobility between crime and law

384: demands that Caleb sign over his honor to prop up Falkland’s

411: Gines now called the “eye of Omniscience”

434: what use in the “corrupt wilderness of human society”

Imprisonment

224: Caleb under surveillance feels like a prisoner

264: Godwin’s notes attest to authenticity of depiction of prison

274: mind is master; can defeat prison

300: escapes and praises liberty

420: referred to as a prisoner (of Britain)

Sexual Politics

Emily’s story of course (rescue scene)

134: Hawkins’ son (Tyrrel’s desire?)

222: Caleb’s relationship w/ Forester (like seduction)

223: Falkland’s response figured as jealousy

224-5: Caleb and Falkland like distrustful lovers

Nation

78: Tyrrel sees Falkland as foreign born (French)

116: “frenchified rascal”

131: Tyrrel worries that helping Hawkins is supporting rebellion

133: Hawkins as leading edge of insurrection

144: Falkland curses Tyrrel; loathing for institutions of the nation

241: “I am an Englishman” says Caleb

266: ironic—thank god we have no Bastile

290: liberty and freedom; “all a flam” (Things as They Are)

Revenge/Forgiveness?

81: Tyrrel resents rebellion against his authority

109: Tyrrel plots vengeance on Emily

143: Tyrrel calls Hawkins his creature

164-5: Falkland beaten; revenge baffled by murder

416: turned away by Collins after he calls him “my father”

421: narrative as revenge

430: praises Falkland’s humanity (?)

431: but it is Williams who feels guilty

431: despair was treason against the sovereignty of truth (Williams’ true crime—not believing in the power of sincerity and truth)