“An Outlandish, Foreign-Made Englishman”: Aristocratic Oppression and Ethnic Anomaly in Caleb Williams

In William Godwin’s novel Caleb Williams, the English Squire Falkland’s decision to construct his identity in conformity with Italian honour codes not only debases his Englishness but also drives him to persecute his secretary Caleb Williams, who possesses a damning secret that could ruin the Squire’s distinguished reputation. The embattled Caleb, who prides himself on his autonomy and English identity, is forced to disguise himself first as an Irish beggar and later as a Jewish peddler, facades that render him, like Falkland, an ethnically anomalous Englishman. The middle-class Caleb’s ethnic destabilization at Falkland’s hands suggests that Godwin, like many of his more conservative peers, is claiming that the continentally inflected malfeasance of the aristocracy corrupts the bourgeoisie in such a way that the very terms and privileges of Englishness are contested. In this way, Godwin’s ostensible purpose of promoting a liberal model of human rights ultimately comes at the cost of reifying xenophobic fears about Italians, Jews, and the Irish.