Writing About Charles Dickens 'Sketch' on people facing death penalty

The way in which Dickens uses the noun phrase 'a handsome boy' to describe the boy. The adjective 'handsome' gives a happy and youthful view on a sad story where a young boy is now in prison for burglary. By having the image of a young soul being a prisoner and not even being fourteen among older men who are sentenced to death, brings the reader closer to the prisoners' experience. The reader will feel the fate of the young boy being scared and still having his whole life ahead of him and we would be shocked to know that being that young you are able to still go to prison.