Ownership of the Body, the Sacralization of the Person, and the Right to Bodily Integrity in William Godwin's Caleb Williams

Abstract

ABSTRACT By the end of the eighteenth century, the question of human rights was indissolubly tied to the notion of the body and its integrity. In his political novel Caleb Williams (1794), William Godwin demonstrates how the eponymous hero’s sense of self is formed and deformed by the ways in which his right to physical inviolability is systematically transgressed by those in power. Taking its cue from the treatment of Emily Melville, who is among the first victims of tyranny in the novel, this essay elaborates on how the concept of corporal integrity is both related to the idea of self-possession and connected to the gradual sacralization of the individual person. What complicates the argument, and in fact throws a critical light on the liberal human rights discourse itself, is Caleb’s own position as narrator. It is argued that Caleb, from his authorial position, equally takes possession of, instrumentalizes, and victimizes Emily, which ultimately renders him as manipulative as the tyrants he fights against.