Previous
Volume 3, Chapter 15
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
Caleb continues his narrative weeks later. He recounts that he left Harwich and returned to the county where Falkland lives. He visited a magistrate immediately, accused Falkland of murder, and convinced the magistrate to issue a summons to Falkland rather than simply dismiss Caleb’s words outright. After this, three days pass, during which Caleb nervously doubts what he’s about to do. Nevertheless, Caleb justifies his plan to himself: he wants justice, and a weak part of him desires vengeance as well.
Caleb finally does what Falkland feared all along: he wields the truth against Falkland like a weapon to fight back against his tyranny and oppression. Caleb’s subsequent self-doubt is telling. On one hand, he believes that revealing the truth of Falkland’s past crime is just and morally right. On the other hand, this action is also self-indulgent and malice-driven, which perhaps makes it unjust and morally wrong.
Active
Themes
When the time comes, Caleb arrives at court to formally accuse Falkland of Tyrrel’s murder before a judge and jury of assembled gentlemen. Then Falkland enters the courtroom. Caleb is shocked to see that Falkland looks as pallid and lifeless as a man on his deathbed. Suddenly, Caleb feels so much pity for Falkland that he wishes he never came to accuse him of any crime at all.
The novel frames Caleb’s rush of sympathy for Falkland as a restoration of his morality. His passion-induced hatred of Falkland clears, and Caleb regains his rationality. With his new perspective, he realizes that no one—not even his own persecutor—deserves cruelty. He doesn’t want to be Falkland’s oppressor any more than he wants to be oppressed by Falkland.
Active
Themes
However, Caleb’s duty is to tell the court the whole truth, so he reveals what he learned from Falkland’s confession to Tyrrel’s murder and everything that has passed between himself and Falkland since. In the end, Caleb concludes that Falkland is still a praiseworthy man, and he reprimands himself for being a foul villain. Caleb even calls himself a murderer for ruining Falkland’s reputation, and he begs for death.
Active
Themes
Falkland is so stunned by Caleb’s sincere words that he embraces Caleb. Then Falkland confesses his guilt before the entire court. He claims that everyone hereafter will view Caleb as a hero, while he himself will be remembered only as a murderer. Falkland urges the magistrates to punish him in any way they choose. He dies only three days later.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Caleb Williams LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
After Falkland’s death, Caleb feels miserable and guilty, as though he truly did murder Falkland. He considers Falkland a perfect spirit that had the misfortune of existing in a corrupt society and being poisoned by it. Caleb initially wrote down his story with the goal of “vindicating [his] own character,” but this is no longer his aim. Instead, he wants only to record the full truth of Falkland’s life for posterity.
