METHODS OF STUDYING THE CRIMINAL MIND IN PETER CAREY’S JACK MAGGS: MESMERIC SÉANCE AND MAGNETISM

Abstract

Abstract

The empowering of the othered subject is achieved through a multidimensional and ambiguous process in which the physical traits of the individual play as an import role in the construction of this image as the mental strength that takes its roots from an indomitable willpower to assert his truth and a determination to claim his rights in the Motherland. The context of the narrative includes exile as a sentence to be rejected by the convict, his turn back as an empowered citizen claiming his rights, and since it is impossible to achieve this aim, he uses a substitute and becomes the benefactor of an orphan, Henry Phipps (who is the equivalent of Pip in Dickens’ Great Expectations), to raise him as a gentleman, fulfill his destiny and take his revenge in return. The complexity of this plan reveals the rigidity and strictness of the system of justice of the 19^th century, prone to export the criminals growing in number to the colonies to an unknown future, some of them never to return to their native land. The scale and impact of the punishment lies in the irreversible nature of it, which does not take any possibility of improvement into consideration. The constructive side of the native land lies in its culture and system as well as its territoriality, leaving its imprints on the sense of belonging with valuable memories of a personal history. The dramatic influence on the character Jack Maggs and his endlessly growing will to empower himself to transfer it to Henry Phipps is his definition of the only form of retribution for the seemingly unjust scale of capital punishment imposed on him.