AustLit

Wilding discusses Clarke's attempts to influence his Victorian readers to sympathise with Dawes and, through Dawes, with the convicts themselves. While the connections between John Rex and Rufus Dawes seem implausible, they offer a special effect in the presentation of alter-egos. The connections allow a comparison of the freedom of each, but Wilding argues that none of the characters are free. Wilding concludes that guilt is a major theme that originates in the first Oedipal killing and reverberates in other crimes committed throughout the novel.