Peter Carey's Jack Maggs is a story of intense drama and curiosity for the reader. It is essentially the story of Jack Maggs and Tobias Oates. These two characters have a storyline that is interwoven with many connections between each other. Jack Maggs is a convict from New South Wales, who is returning to London and risking his life in doing so if caught by the authorities. At the stage that we meet him in Peter Carey's novel, he is at a crucial period in his life. Through the progression of Jack Maggs the reader learns of Maggs' past and of his reasons for coming back to London. Through thrilling storytelling by Peter Carey, Jack Maggs is revealed at the start of the novel as being a character of intrigue with mysterious elements of his life in which only he knows about.
             Tobias Oates on the other hand is revealed at the start of the novel as being a character that is happy enough to attempt to play the stereotypical role of the 'English Gentleman'. He is unlike Jack Maggs in the fact the he is revealed to be happily surrounded by a family which loves him; and in which he loves back. It is displayed however that although Tobias Oates is attempting to paly the role of the rich and famous Englishman on the outside, he is struggling to play the 'bread giver' at home with very little funds being acquired through his profession of writing. He has a strange "...obsession with the criminal mind," (2001, p47) in which he aims to obtain every fragment of thought and history of the criminals he bases his novels on. To obtain the raw material he requires for his next novel, Tobias makes rather amateurish attempts to mesmerize (hypnotism) Jack Maggs. Initially, Jack Maggs is an unwilling subject due to the potential betrayal of his life-threatening secrets. Tobias manages to persuade him to undertake the procedure by promising that in exchange for his cooperation, he will help in the removal of mysterious 'phantoms' inside of him and als...