An evil man deserving of his punishment. Is this an adequate account of the events from A confession found in a prison or does Dickens challenge the expectations of his 19th Century audience?

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"An evil man deserving of his punishment." Is this an adequate account of the events from "A confession found in a prison" or does Dickens challenge the expectations of his 19th Century audience?

The story was written in the 19th Century about the 17th Century. The poem would not have shocked the readers at the time as you would have expected it to because crime rates were increasing at the time but people were becoming more unsure about the death penalty and transportation as forms of punishment.

The protagonist is the narrator in the story which could mean that there is a biased opinion, others might perceive events differently to him, they may have thought him to be mad or suffering with mental illness whereas he thinks the child is evil. This is shown when the protagonist says, "but he was his mother's image in face and spirit", this could demonstrate the instability of his mind or that he may be paranoid in thinking that the child has his mother inside him. The fact that that he feared her is displayed when the protagonist says, "I was afraid of her; she haunted; her fixed and steady look