YMMV / Caleb Williams

• Broken Base: As noted in one scholarly article, "Most readings of Caleb Williams tend to fall into two categories: they are either political interpretations which try to reveal the arguments of [Godwin’s book on political philosophy] Political Justice (1793) in the novel…or analyses that focus on Caleb's psychology, his narrative unreliability, and his relationship to Falkland." And never shall the twain meet.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Two young men are obsessed with each other. One learns the other's a murderer, loves him anyway, and chooses to suffer in silence for ten years rather than betray him. The other pursues the first throughout the UK...but makes sure to never physically harm him, and in fact swears "I would yet have found a way to reward you" if the first stayed silent. The foe yay is inevitable.
• Mind Game Ship: Falkland sees Caleb as this. Since what Falkland fears the most is anyone discovering he’s a murderer, Caleb’s insinuations and attempts to learn the truth strike Falkland as a form of psychological torture.
  "Are my passions to be wound and unwound by an insolent domestic? Do you think I will be an instrument to be played on at your pleasure, till you have extorted all the treasures of my soul?"
  —Vol. II, Ch. 2
• Unreliable Narrator: In the novel's very first paragraph Caleb claims, "My story will, at least, appear to have that consistency which is seldom attendant but upon truth" - but in fact his story has so many inconsistencies that judging Caleb's (un)reliability as a narrator has become bait for faculty discussions in English departments across the world. Specifically, some of Caleb’s details don’t hold up under scrutiny, and Caleb – while seemingly straightforward and ingenuous – is also a confessed liar and hypocrite. Some examples:
  • The most glaring example of this is in the novel’s timeline. Falkland travels the Continent “at the age at which the grand tour is usually made” – that is, probably in his late teens or early twenties. There is no indication he stays longer than the usual two-to-four years. Hence, Falkland should be in his early-to-mid-twenties when he returns to England, and so about thirty when he meets Caleb. This makes him a believable love interest for Emily Melville, who is “exactly seventeen when Mr. Falkland returned from the Continent,” and an equal rival to Tyrrel, who is six years older than his cousin. But much later in the novel Caleb claims Laura’s father knew Falkland in Italy, some thirty years prior. This implies a much longer stay in Italy and a much older Falkland. The timelines do not match up.
  • There are other, smaller mistakes. Caleb regards Laura as a mother, “though the difference of our ages was by no means sufficient to authorize the sentiment,” when he is barely older than one of her sons – certainly a large enough gap to look to her as a mother.
  • Caleb is thoroughly searched by Mr. Raymond’s robbers, who can find nothing on him, but several pages later Caleb owns a previously unmentioned book he apparently took from prison.
  • He claims he is “without a friend in the world,” but is later assisted by Thomas (who loves Caleb “as if you had been my own brother” and Mr. Collins (whom Caleb exuberantly calls “My father!” once they’re reunited) – strong attachments for one as friendless as Caleb claims to be.
  • Caleb refuses to rob Mr. Spurrel outright, but takes a share of the thieves’ booty without compunction.
  • He proudly rejects Falkland’s help in prison, saying, “I would accept no favours from a man that held a halter about my neck,” but soon changes his mind and decides to accept Falkland’s help.
  • He bribes a man in Vol. II, thinks himself above bribery in Vol. III, and then bribes his guards five pages later.
  • He rails against being watched and analyzed when he spends the better part of two volumes doing the same to Falkland.
• The Woobie: Orphaned, falsely accused by the master he loved and admired, imprisoned, beaten, robbed, nearly murdered by a crazed woman with a cleaver, scorned and chased throughout the land, never allowed to have a friend who doesn't eventually betray him...Caleb is definitely this.