The home and family
The imagery that launches Dawes from his childhood into his fate and toward his death is the imagery that defines his identity, and since this imagery is broken and painful, it is an imagery that shapes his emotional life as well. We see a glimpse of home life and family in crisis. We know from inference that his mother and he are emotionally and physically abused, and the novel starts there, in that abuse, in medias res, showing the defining climax of Dawes's (AKA Richard Devine) young life: his father isn't his real father. He is expelled from his home and disinherited, and he stumbles upon the corpse of his real father. Family and identity are not as easy to stomach as he believed as a child; he changes his name.
The fall from paradise, and Cain
The expulsion from home mirrors the Fall of Man sequence from Genesis, and this imagery continues into the novel when Dawes is condemned to a life sentence in a prison where his own cousin, whose name is French for 'brother,' a man named Frere, is the jailer. He is literally ruled over by his evil brother-cousin, and the issue of murder is plain from the first story after he leaves home. Perhaps the proper name for this imagery would be "mythic imagery," because these constant Biblical allusions give this story an epic flavor. For instance, his name is literally 'Devine.'
The ocean
The waters reach up and grab Dawes in the novel. The ocean is the dominant imagery of Dawes life. The most important parts of his life, the most important changes of fate for instance, happen when he is on a boat at sea. He goes to sea in a rough patch of life, like Ishmael in Moby Dick, and then witnesses chaos and mutiny and gets hit with a life sentence for his alleged involvement. Then, he actually participates in mutiny during a transport of prisoners to Australia—on a boat again. He dies in the ocean with Sylvia's body tangled with his.
Prison and condemnation
As mentioned, there is a constant imagery of legal oppression in the novel, very similar to portions of Les Miserables. Australia is still a penal colony, and Dawes is transported there during his life sentence. His cousin, named Frere (French for brother) is the jailer. He is condemned fatefully. He knows it is fateful because his life has been defined by brushes with the law. He was almost hit with a murder charge as a young man, and then is implicated in a mutiny, and then participates in mutiny. The imagery suggests he is railing against his fate, because his life feels the way jail imagery suggests.
