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Things as They Are
By William Godwin
"With an introduction by Ernest A. Baker"
Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (often abbreviated to Caleb Williams) (1794) by William Godwin is a three-volume novel written as a call to end the abuse of power by what Godwin saw as a tyrannical government. Intended as a popularisation of the ideas presented in his 1793 treatise Political Justice Godwin uses Caleb Williams to show how legal and other institutions can and do destroy individuals, even when the people the justice system touches are innocent of any crime. This reality, in Godwin's mind, was therefore a description of "things as they are." The original manuscript included a preface that was removed from publication, because its content alarmed booksellers of the time.
Caleb Williams, a poor, self-educated, orphaned young man, and the novel's first-person narrator, is recommended a job on the estate of the wealthy Ferdinando Falkland. Although Falkland is generally a reserved and quiet master, he also has sudden fits of rage. Concerned about his outbursts, Caleb asks Mr Collins, administrator of Falkland's estate, if he knows the cause of Falkland's odd temper.
Collins proceeds to tell of Falkland's past, citing Falkland's long history of stressing reason over bloodshed. Falkland's neighbour, Barnabas Tyrrel, was a tyrannical master who oppressed and manipulated his tenants. Tyrrel became the enemy and competitor of Falkland, who was loved for his brave and generous demeanor. Falkland continually righted the many wrongs Tyrrel caused members of his household and his neighbours, which only elevated the community's respect and esteem for Falkland. The conflict between the two men came to a head when, at the funeral services for Emily Melvile--Tyrrel's niece whom he had unfairly arrested out of his jealousy of her admiration for Falkland--Tyrrel physically attacked Falkland. Tyrrel himself was found murdered shortly afterward. Although immediately considered a suspect for Tyrrel's murder, Falkland defended himself on the basis of his stainless reputation. Instead, two tenants of Tyrrel were found with incriminating evidence, convicted of the murder, and both hanged. Falkland's emotional state, Mr Collins explains, has been wavering ever since.
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When Caleb William is mentioned, it is the Romantic era and the Romantic novel that come to mind. Very often, thoughts of exaggerated plots and gothic conspiracies prejudice the reader against the merits of such works. This is where Godwin's novel fits as a specimen of the Romantic novels that had revolutionized the genre, and contributed to its subsequent success and fame as the most widely spread literary form. The book is initially a novel of propaganda. Its plot focuses on the era's penal system, social injustice, and political corruption. At the same time, however, it also contains elements of crime, detection, pursuit, and punishment which were remarkably innovative back then. The novel is also considered as one of the first literary works to have given a psychological portrait of its characters. On the one hand, the narrative allows a psychological analysis of Mr. Falkland, and breaks the components of his mind to the smallest level of motivations and drives. On the other, Caleb, himself, supplies ample material for the investigation of his own character under all the hardships he had experienced. In addition to the psychological, social, and political insights provided in the book, Godwin had also tackled in it a very important existential question, namely the struggle between integrity and reputation. Given the fact that Caleb Williams was written a century before such notions in existential psychotherapy were established in psychology, the book can be said to have been quite futuristic at its time of publication.