In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, he discusses some social issues from Victorian England. One of those social issues is the treatment of prisoners in the prison ships known as hulks. Dickens" discusses how the convict Magwitch escapes from a prison hulk docked near the marshes by Pip's home. The prison system of Great Expectations is actually from the early nineteenth century while Dickens actually wrote the story between the years 1860 and 1861. .
The information used in this paper about the treatment of prisoners on the prison ships known as hulks. The information gathered for thus paper from books are from Charles Dickens" Great Expectations. The websites used were the University of Michigan English department and Tulane University's web journals. The three websites from the University of Michigan focused on public executions, treatment of prisoners and prisons in Victorian England. The two websites from Tulane University were the web journals by Audrey Rodeman and Kevin Tuballes. All of these books and websites contributed to the information and quotes incorporated in this paper. .
The following passage describes who are in hulks according to Mrs. Joe and how they get how they start their criminal lives. The passage also describes what Mrs. Joe believe hulks are and how they indicate that a prisoner has escaped:.
"Mrs. Joe," said I, "I should like to know-if you wouldn't much mind-where the firing comes from." .
"Lord bless the boy!" exclaimed my sister, as if she didn't quite mean that, but rather the contrary. "From the Hulks!".
"Oh-h!" said I, looking at Joe. "Hulks!".
Joe gave a reproached cough, as much as to say, "Well, I told you so." .
"And please, what's Hulks?" and I.
"That's the way with this boy!" exclaimed my sister. "Answer him one question, and he"ll ask you a dozen directly. Hulks are prison-ships, right "cross th" meches." We always used that name for marshes in our country.
