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Volume 1, Chapter 5
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Caleb Williams, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hierarchy, Tyranny, and Oppression
The Legal System
Morality and Corruption
Reason vs. Passion
Truth and Justice
Summary
Analysis
Soon, Tyrrel directs his animosity toward a new target: a man named Benjamin Hawkins, one of his tenants. Hawkins used to have a different landlord, until he refused to vote in the county elections the way his landlord demanded. In response to this disobedience, his landlord evicted him from the farm he was renting, and Hawkins sought help from Tyrrel. Tyrrel allowed him to rent a farm on his own land, and Hawkins became one of Tyrrel’s favorite dependents. Tyrrel then wanted to employ Hawkins’s 17-year-old son, Leonard, as his servant to take care of his hunting hounds. However, Hawkins refused to give up his eldest son to Tyrrel’s service. Infuriated, Tyrrel swore he would ruin Hawkins for his insolence.
In this late-18th-century English society, members of the lower classes are expected to submit to the authority of their supposed superiors. Hawkins’s previous landlord unjustly punished him for trying to act independently, and now Tyrrel turns out to be equally tyrannical. Tyrrel takes Hawkins’s mild refutation as unacceptable defiance against his authority, so Tyrrel vengefully resolves to show Hawkins how much power wealthy landowners have over common laborers.
Active
Themes
Literary Devices
Now Tyrrel does everything he can to sabotage Hawkins’s livelihood. He has a dam destroyed to flood Hawkins’s farm and kills Hawkins’s livestock. Hawkins seeks justice from the legal system, even though he’s concerned that the law might only be “a weapon of tyranny in the hands of the rich.” His fears prove to be justified as Tyrrel instructs his lawyer to drag the case out as long as possible, which drains Hawkins of nearly all his money.
Tyrrel’s abuses against Hawkins exemplify the oppression that members of the lower classes face at the hands of the aristocracy. As a tenant farmer, Hawkins has no power to defend his livelihood from the cruel whims of his landlord. Worse, the law won’t protect Hawkins from Tyrrel. Instead, it contributes to his persecution, because the legal system is designed to uphold the power of the wealthy.
Active
Themes
Next, Tyrrel blocks the private path that connects Hawkins’s house to the main road, which is a great inconvenience. Young Leonard Hawkins sneaks out in the middle of the night and tears down the blockade, but he’s arrested the following day. Leonard is charged with burglary and imprisoned in the county jail while he awaits his trial. Hawkins’s spirit breaks as he fears for his son’s life. Finally, Tyrrel seizes Hawkins’s property as payment for the rent he owes.
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Themes
At this point, Falkland and Tyrrel meet by chance on a road while they’re each out horseback riding. Falkland has been away for the past three months visiting London and his other estates, and he has recently returned and heard the story of how Tyrrel is tormenting one of his poor dependents. Now Falkland reprimands Tyrrel for mistreating his tenant so harshly. Moreover, Falkland argues that the rich shouldn’t abuse their power and make life harder for those “unfortunate people” who belong to “the lower orders of society.” Tyrrel agrees “that tyranny is a bad thing,” but he refuses to change his mind. He won’t show Hawkins mercy. Once Tyrrel decides to pursue vengeance, he’ll never deviate from that plan.
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Falkland impatiently declares that Tyrrel will be universally hated for his tyrannical behavior. Then Falkland departs and tries to visit Hawkins to offer his aid to the man and his family. But Hawkins’s house is empty. Leonard has escaped from the county jail, and the entire Hawkins family has disappeared.
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Themes
