Mordecai is one of four main characters, the Riders in the Chariot in the title of Patrick White’s novel. They are united by being outsiders in an unwelcoming suburban community outside Sydney; also connected by sharing the mystical experience of the chariot described in the Book of Ezekiel. Mordecai is a European Jew who survived the Holocaust and migrated to Australia.

 

Micawber is the feckless character in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, always short of money, forever waiting for ‘something to turn up’. Something did turn up finally when he was given an official position in a new settlement in Australia.