Frankenstein
Justine Moritz
The family's gentle ward
A pious young woman raised in the Frankenstein home and devoted to little William, who is wrongly accused of his murder.
Justine Moritz lives in the Frankenstein household and is treated like a daughter and a sister. She is pious, humble and gentle, and she cares for William with great tenderness. Elizabeth later says Justine nursed her aunt with devotion and loved William as her own child.
Justine is quiet but resilient. She does not push herself forward, and she trusts that the truth will protect her. That trust is what makes her story so painful. In a house where everyone loves her, she becomes the one person with no way to prove her innocence. She is the kind of person who is easy to overlook, because she never asks for anything. Her loyalty to the family is complete, and it is not returned in the way she deserves.
“I did confess, but I confessed a lie. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all other sins.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
After William is found murdered, his miniature locket turns up in Justine's pocket. The Creature put it there. At her trial, she explains herself calmly, but the evidence is too strong, and even Elizabeth's plea cannot sway the judges.
In her cell she tells Victor and Elizabeth that she confessed a lie to obtain absolution, and that the falsehood weighs on her more than all other sins. She is executed at dawn. Victor, who knows the truth and said nothing, calls himself the true murderer.
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