Miguel, I will resist looking into other people's opinions about these paintings. There are all sorts of explanations I am sure. We forget that images like these are now taken for granted in horror films and comics. Computer games are more and more violent and in increasing numbers people cannot resist looking at real terrorist beheadings etc. I don't understand but then folk gathered around the guillotines in Paris etc. It seems that within all of us is a suppressed monster. These are horrible images and as well as the subjects being uncomfortable the faces in the paintings are particularly ugly and fairly unreal. It seemed a popular thing at the time in history when these were painted. The images in Charles Dickens's book illustrations were often ugly and Lewis Carrol's books were similarily treated. 
Lewis Carroll illustration by John Tenniel . . Dickens often used Boz 
and Hogarth of course was another who was an expert in these ugly images 
Hogarth would make another interesting Forum.
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