Caleb Williams (William Godwin)

Godwin argues in another work that one of the major functions of government is "the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community" (Smith and Smith 25). This novel is a passionate indictment of the government of England for failing to fulfill that obligation to protect the individual, and for, in fact, abusing its power to expose individuals to that very injustice. However, Godwin was hardly arguing that government could or should be perfected to right its own wrongs as portrayed fictionally in this book. To the contrary, he believed that government by its very nature was corrupt. He saw government as a "great obstacle" to the development of the individual, especially the rational part of man which Godwin held in such high regard. Godwin saw government "as a necessary ins

. . .
himself, turned from a good man into a tyrant as a victim of that very machine himself, who will serve as the victimizer of the poor and weak. Tyrrel maintains his despotic stance, however, correctly assessing the law as an instrument of the rich and powerful against the poor and powerless. When Barnes protests Tyrrel's order to have the former take action leading to innocent Emily's arrest for a debt, saying that Emily has no debt, Tyrrel exclaims: "Ass! Scoundrel! I tell you she does owe me,---owes me eleven hundred pounds.---The law justifies it.---What do you think laws were made for? I do nothing but right, and right I will have" (Godwin 85). The agents of the law are shown by Godwin to have been reduced to robots carrying out orders without a will or a moral sense of their own, as when such agents come to arrest Emily at Tyrrel's orders. They are told Emily is seriously ill, and one responds: "The law says nothing about that. We have orders to take her sick or well. We will do her no harm; except so far as we must perform our office, be it how it will" (Godwin 88). This statement recalls the claims of the Nazis that they were merely following legal orders which they were bound to carry out. When Emily dies as a resul
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tyrrel Forester, Emily Tyrrel's, Caleb Williams, Godwin Hawkins, Smith Smith, Tyrrel Hawkins, Caleb Falkland, Godwin Ford, Ass Scoundrel, Falkland Falkland, rich powerful, smith smith, legal system, justice system, caleb williams, society government, accused murdering tyrrel, justice godwin, world government, falkland murderer, system justice,
Approximate Word count = 3219
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)