William Godwin's Attack on the Law
Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth!
They are spider webs for the rich and mighty,
steel chains for the poor and weak,
fishing nets in the hands of government.
- Proudhon1
On the surface, William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) is merely an entertaining murder mystery and detective story. The tale of an unfortunate servant who learns the truth of his master's past and flees for fear of his life, it has thrilled generations of readers. However, Godwin designed the work "to answer a purpose more general and important than immediately appears on the face of it."2 Written immediately after the publication of Godwin's first and most famous work, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), Caleb Williams serves as a vehicle for Godwin to introduce his philosophy to the general public. The issue he addresses in the novel is that of "things as they are... While one party pleads for reformation and change, the other extols in the warmest terms the existing constitution of society."3
There can be no mistaking Godwin's position. He uses Caleb Williams to launch a full-scale attack against things as they are and "the modes of despotism by which man destroys his own kind - principally through prisons, law, and wealth."4 The law plays a particularly important role in the novel. It affects almost every major character, always aiding the oppression of the weak by the mighty and serving as a tool of tyranny. Godwin's opinion of the law is as interesting as it is extreme. His goal is to force the reader to "conclude universally that law is an institution of the most pernicious tendency," as he argues in his Political Justice.5 In his attack on the law, he makes use of common criticisms of the law from the late eighteenth century that were more often used as a call for its reform than for its abolition. In addition to these, however, he introduces arguments that successful reform is impossible and that the law by its very nature will inevitably serve as a tool of injustice, tyranny, and oppression.
Godwin's attacks on the law occur continuously throughout Caleb Williams, as its complex plot slowly evolves. The first victim of the law is the tenant farmer Hawkins, whose pride leads him imprudently to offend his landlord, Mr. Tyrrel. When Tyrrel orders him to abandon his farm, Hawkins's pride again gets the best of him and he refuses: "I have got a lease of my farm, and I shall not quit it o'thaten.
Pearson, A. (n.d.). Year-Round School Advantages & Disadvantages. Education. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://education.seattlepi.com/yearround-school-advantages-disadvantages-2521.html
...his seemingly routine case of fornication and premarital pregnancy proved to be significant for early American legal history. The unfolding of this story and the legal changes that it brought about makes evident that by the end of the seventeenth century, The Eastern Shore had shaped a distinct legal culture. The characters involved in each case also revealed the extent the powerful players were able to shape the law to their own self-interests. The goal of the powers to be was to protect property interests, protect personal reputation and liberty, and to maintain social order.
Paul Butler says in his article, “Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No”, “If you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote ‘not guilty’…As a juror you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you will become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer.” This is in reference to jury nullification. It is an actual constitutional doctrine that is premised upon the idea that the jury (ordinary citizens), not government officials, should possess the final word on whether an individual should be punished. As Butler explains, jury nullification is for the most part a good thing. It was necessary to end prohibition, it has caused prosecutors over the years to change tactics when
8) Through analytical narration, Dana’s commentary shines light on the role of power in corrupting its hosts. Back to nineteenth century Maryland, Dana lands in the middle of a southern field, and witnesses a fight between Rufus and Isaac, the slave husband of Rufus’s childhood best friend and free woman, Alice. Evidently spurred from Rufus’s attempt to rape Alice, the two ferociously brawled it out much to the dismay of by standing Alice. As she conversed with Alice, she wondered, “If Rufus could turn so quickly on a life-long friend, how long would it take him to turn on me?” Despite Rufus’s attempt of rape, he truly loved Alice and only violated her because it was his only way to obtain her. Dana had already recognized this, but did
The objective of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to examine why Wollstonecraft felt this quest into the genre of novel for the politics which she already had discussed at length in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)? The second strand of inquiry will be into the domestic ideas of despotism which arise from gender discrimination perpetuated by the state machinery, with the legal system, in particular. This second strand will envelope the prevalent issues like the legally disadvantageous position of married as well as maternal women and how the revolutionary bodies of these mothers are confined along with infliction of mental harassment by both private and state systems. The issue of the imprisonm...
There is no end to the ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”; this essay hopes to explore this problem within the tale.
Lawyers. In today's culture, just the word alone is enough to inspire countless jokes and endless sarcastic comments. Far from being the most loved profession, lawyers have attained a very bad image despite the importance of their work and the prestige and wealth that usually accompanies it. Were lawyers seen in this fashion when Charles Dickens was writing his magnificent pieces of literature? The image of lawyers of that time may not seem so different to the people who are about to enter the twenty-first century.
In the play “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the defense faces numerous societal injustices, which is why they never had a chance to win the case. One example of the town’s bias is presented through the town’s love for Matthew Harrison Brady. A second example is the extreme conformist and pious attitude of the town’s people. The last instance is the narrow-mindedness of the judge and the jury, which resulted in an unfair trial. In conclusion, the defense suffered through many unfair circumstances throughout the drama “Inherit the Wind.”
Family vacations, pool memberships, and corn de-tasseling; these have been the experiences of traditional Midwestern summers. For centuries young American children have attended school during the winter months, during farming off seasons when their families could afford to be without them. Families have grown accustomed to a traditional school calendar that provides time for bonding throughout the year. Students have grown accustomed to an eight week break during the summer months where they are allowed to refresh their minds before returning for a new school year. Unfortunately, these traditional experiences and practices are now in jeopardy. In today’s race to improve student achievement, traditional school calendars have become a point of contention. Today more and more school districts and parents alike have begun to debate the pros and cons of an alternative school calendar.
The book “No Matter How Loud I Shout” written by Edward Humes, looks at numerous major conflicts within the juvenile court system. There is a need for the juvenile system to rehabilitate the children away from their lives of crime, but it also needs to protect the public from the most violent and dangerous of its juveniles, causing one primary conflict. Further conflict arises with how the court is able to administer proper treatment or punishment and the rights of the child too due process. The final key issue is between those that call for a complete overhaul of the system, and the others who think it should just be taken apart. On both sides there is strong reasoning that supports each of their views, causing a lot of debate about the juvenile court system. Edward Humes follows the cases of seven teenagers in juvenile court, and those surrounding them.
“The Passing of Grandison” debunks the stereotypical image of a slave in the 19th Century. The author Charles Chesnutt uses his personal background and ability to pass himself as a white man to tell a very compelling story. Grandison was more than an uneducated farm hand doing his masters bidding. “The Passing of Grandison” provides evidence that while the society of the time thought of slaves as nothing more than property to be bought and abused, slaves could be much more than what was on the surface. In Chesnutt’s “The Passing of Grandison” Grandison is a plantation slave in the early 19th Century who through his actions eventaully escapes and aquires his own freedom as well as that of several family members. Most people have been in a situation where they wish they could outsmart or outwit another. Whether it is a peer or a higher-up, many wish they had the ability or courage to get the better of others. Is it possible for a subordinate to really fool their superior and eventually gain what they really wanted in the end? This is accomplished through the actions of an trickster figure. A trickster is a character in literature who attempts to outwit and outmaneuver his or her adversaries. The trickster uses whatever means necessary to reach whatever goals they might desire. , Trudier Harris states, “tricksters achieve their objectives through indirection and mask-wearing, through playing upon the gullibility of their opponents” (Harris, 1). In “The Passing of Grandison”, Chesnutt uses a trickster figure to achieve that one-ups-man ship and plot twists while providing social commentary to present part of his own belief system as it relates to the treatment of slaves in the 19th century. Two characters in “The Passing of Grandis...
Eisinger, Chester E. "Critical Readings: Focus on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: The Wrong Dreams." Critical Insights: Death of a Salesman (2010): 93-105.
When Bleak House was written, the Victorian Court system matched the Victorian atmosphere. The robing rooms lacked resources, so the “ . . . lawyers were forced to share the scant supply of towels, combs, and water . . . [while the] ‘English Courts of Law’ talks of general rudeness toward jury members, witnesses, and clients.” (Ratner 1) Not only was everyone involved in the courts treated poorly, but “ . . . the court rarely informed these groups of the proceedings . . .. “ (Ratner 2) This idea becomes the central conflict of Bleak House; a court case entangles many generations, and nobody remembers what caused the lawsuit because of their lack of information surrounding it. Due to the typicality of this situation during the Victorian era, it is clear why Dickens chooses to critique it.
Some experts believe that our Emotional Intelligence Quotient is more important that are basic Intelligence Quotient. Some researchers believe that individuals are born with their attributes of Emotional Intelligence, yet others believe Emotional Intelligence can be learned and strengthened. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have led research efforts on the theory of Emotional Intelligence. In their article titled “The Intelligence of Emotional Intelligence,” they claim that Emotional Intelligence is “the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.” This definition has led Salovey and Mayer to propose a model identifying four different factors of Emotional Intelligence within an individual.
Through all of the changes of education, one has slowly started to take place all over the world. The education system was created with a three month break in the summer. Slowly, the idea of year round school has been planted in education. Students fear it, but should they? The idea of year round school is not what everyone thinks it is. Most year round sch...