It would be fair to say that Australia's role in Great Expectations is fairly minimal. It simply functions as a plot device; a place to deposit Magwitch when he is no longer required and a place for him to return from when needed again to further the plot. With the rise in postcolonial studies, however, Australia and Magwitch's experiences there have become the focal points for new readings of the novel. Thus it is through …showed first 75 words of 891 total…

…showed last 75 words of 891 total…confirmation of him as other. Dickens at first portrays him as changed from the would-be cannibal of the marshes to a possible substitute father for Pip, muttering affectionate names for him associated previously with Joe. With his violent attack and murder of Compeyson, Dickens makes it clear that Magwitch is still other. Thus Magwitch's overwhelming desire for a place in normative metropolitan society, manifested in his foolish return to London, is doomed from the start