“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 comes back upon me now, like the morning of a dark dream”. This disturbs him because it seems like she knew as much about him as he did. The protagonist thinks his sister-in-law was looking at him constantly but this may have been his paranoia alternatively she may have been looking at him because of his odd behaviour, but because the reader only gets one point of view on the matter they can only see one reason for her looking at him. The first signs awkwardness around the child come when the protagonist says, “I can scarcely fix the date when the feeling first came upon me; but I soon began to feel uneasy when this child was by”, this shows the first signs of restlessness around him, this suggests that he sees the child’s mother in him. Another quote that indicates this to the reader is “he would keep his bright eyed upon me still”, the protagonists sense of right and wrong seems to impair “but I do not think when this began I meditated to do him any wrong”. His vision of what is right seems to have been taken over. His insanity may have driven him to murdering the child or it may have been what he and his wife would inherit that pushed him to committing the crime, “I may have thought how serviceable his inheritance would have been to us, and may have wished him dead.”This could then cause the reader to think – were he and his wife in financial difficulties? – Or – was bringing up a child putting pressure on them financially? – Or – would the man put a child to death just to cure his paranoia?
