Caleb Williams addresses the reader, saying that his “life has for several years been a theatre of calamity” and that he “did not deserve this treatment” (59); he is only writing the memoir to distract his mind and find some sort of justice for everything that has happened to him. Caleb describes himself as being “above middle stature” and says he excelled in sports when younger; however, the thing that characterizes him the most is his curiosity (60). Caleb’s parents’ home was a residence on the property of Ferdinando Falkland, and when his father died shortly after his mother, Caleb got a job as a literary assistant to Ferdinando.

Ferdinando is a man of “small stature” and delicate appearance, with a manner that is “kind, attentive and humane,” but with a “grave and sad solemnity in his air” (60). As Caleb continues to study his master’s mannerisms, he begins to see Ferdinando as living a very solitary life, with “features hardly ever relaxed into a smile” (62). After working at the estate for around three months, Caleb enters a small apartment attached to the offices intending to clean it and walks in on Ferdinando.