 In his delirium, Caleb concludes that true happiness lies in being like a gravestone that reads, “Here lies what was once a man.”

The reactions to "Caleb Williams" upon its publication were extreme both in their glorification and in their denunciation.The 1790s was a time of radical political thought in Britain due to the inspiration created from the French Revolution in 1789, which inspired the questioning of the power held by King George III and the Prime Minister William Pitt.Published in 1794, William Godwin choose the date of publication as 12 May, the same day the Prime Minister had suspended habeas corpus to begin mass arrests of suspected radicals.