The Tragedy Of Justine Moritz

                                              What on earth possessed me to think about this, darlings, you might ask?
I think Justine popped into my head when I saw Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, is set to appear as Igor in something called "Untitled Frankenstein Project. Then I thought back to the REAL "Frankenstein" story, which, as defining as the 1931 Universal classic is, is not it.  That film gets the visual atmosphere of the Shelley novel, but not the narrative scope.

                                                 So, if you have never read the novel "Frankenstein," or even its rather good adaptation in Classics Illustrated Comics, you have no idea who Justine Mortiz is.  Her appearance in the story is brief; she gets less time than Fantine in "Les Miserables," and while she does not  hang over the story like that character, hers is impacting nevertheless, especially on the monster's creator, Victor Fankenstein.

                                                    Justine was the daughter of a friend of Victor Frankenstein's mother.  At some point, orphaned early, I think, she was taken in by the Frankensteins, and raised as one of their own.  She becomes almost a mother figure to the youngest household member, William, especially after his mother passes on.

                                                      Later in the story, William, older, but still a child, is murdered by the monster.  He tries to befriend the lad, but, repelled by his appearance, the child rejects him. What seals his fate is when he mentions that he is one of the Frankenstein family, a name the  creature has come to hate. So, both to keep him quiet, and out of a sense of hatred for the entire Frankenstein family, the monster murders William, in a wooded area, strangling him, taking with him, some trinkets of a personal nature the boy had on him.  While moving on, he finds Justine under a tree asleep, and calculatedly, plants the evidence on her.  When William's body is discovered, and the evidence is found on Justine, the result is inevitable--Justine is arrested and condemned to hang for murdering the child.

                                                           Justine knows she is innocent, but no one will believe her.  Nor, can she prove how the stuff got there.  Elizabeth, Victor's fiance, with the kind of loving devotion found by women in 19th Century novels, believes in Justine's innocence.  But there is one, above Justine, who knows the truth--Victor Frankenstein. He knows who the real murderer of his youngest brother is, and a word from him would save Justine--but he says nothing, out of a combination of fear that the creature would come after others he loves, (he is right there!!!!!!!!!) that nobody would believe him about this creature, and thus he would be thought mad, and remorse over not being able to tell the truth. This remorse is something he has to live with after Justine's passing.  She is hanged, and in the Classics Illustrated comic version, there is a panel showing Justine's body swinging on the gallows at sunrise, while a crying Victor calls out--"I shall never know peace again.  May the Almighty God have mercy on that poor, innocent, girls's soul."

                                                           In Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film of "Frankenstein (with Robert De Niro playing the monster) the execution of Justine is depicted most distastefully, as she is pushed from a podium high up from the jail, her body swinging across, then back and forth in the air, till it settles, rigid, above a cheering,

 bloodthirsty crowd.  Nothing could induce me to sit through that film again, and this segment is the main reason why, as it veers on being voyeuristic sadism.

                                                           Justine's tragedy is twofold--she is truly innocent, and thus a kind of sacrificial lamb, and she is a reminder to Victor evermore of what he has done.  Make no mistake about it, Victor is as much Jusitne's killer as the monster, and, as far as I am concerned, his inability to speak up, forever seals his culpability.

                                                              So his inner torment, and his pursuit of the creature, even to the reaches of the frozen Arctic, is his way of atoning for what he has done.  And when he dies on Robert Walpole's ship, it is with hope that he is finally at peace.

                                                                 Justine is not the moral and emotional center of the story, like Fantine in "Les Miserables."  But she is the catalyst in bringing Victor's obsession with science to a point of everlasting tormented anguish.

                                                                   The novel would be lost without her.

                                                                     And, darlings, if you haven't yet, get out there and read it!
Discover for yourselves how brilliant the real thing is!!!!!!!!!!!!  You will never view "Frankenstein" in the same way again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!