The monster's framing of Justine

The monster's framing of Justine Moritz is a pivotal act of calculated malice that seals the fate of an innocent young woman and deepens Victor Frankenstein's spiral of guilt and despair. After murdering William Frankenstein, the monster places a miniature portrait of Caroline Beaufort on the sleeping Justine, ensuring she is convicted and executed for a crime she did not commit.

The Murder and the Portrait

Immediately after strangling William Frankenstein in a field near Geneva, the monster notices a glittering object on the child's breast—a miniature portrait of a most lovely woman. He gazes with delight on her dark eyes and lovely lips, but his rage returns as he remembers that he is forever deprived of the delights such beautiful creatures can bestow. Leaving the spot where he committed the murder, he seeks a more secluded hiding-place and enters a barn that appears empty. There, a young woman is sleeping on some straw; she is not so beautiful as the woman in the portrait, but of an agreeable aspect and blooming in the loveliness of youth and health. The monster bends over her and whispers, "Awake, fairest, thy lover is near—he who would give his life but to obtain one look of affection from thine eyes; my beloved, awake!" The sleeper stirs, and a thrill of terror runs through him. He realizes that if she awakens and sees him, she will curse him and denounce the murderer. Stirred by the fiend within him, he decides that she shall suffer for the crime he has committed because he is forever robbed of all that she could give him. He bends over her and places the portrait securely in one of the folds of her dress, then flees as she moves again.

The Discovery and Trial

The morning after the murder, Justine is taken ill and confined to her bed for several days. During this interval, a servant examines the apparel she wore on the night of the murder and discovers in her pocket the picture of Caroline Beaufort, which had been judged to be the temptation of the murderer. The servant shows it to another, who goes to a magistrate without saying a word to the family, and upon their deposition, Justine is apprehended. When charged with the fact, the poor girl confirms the suspicion in a great measure by her extreme confusion of manner. At the trial, the picture is produced, and Elizabeth, in a faltering voice, proves that it is the same which, an hour before the child was missed, she had placed round his neck. A murmur of horror and indignation fills the court. Justine's defense—that she spent the night searching for the child and can give no account of the picture—is overwhelmed by the circumstantial evidence. Despite Elizabeth's heartfelt appeal on her character, the judges condemn her, and she is executed on the scaffold as a murderess.

Victor's Guilt and the Monster's Confession

Victor Frankenstein, who knows the monster is the true murderer, is consumed by remorse. He reflects that the deaths of William and Justine are the first hapless victims to his unhallowed arts. In his prison cell after the murder of Henry Clerval, Victor raves that he is the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval. Later, when the monster recounts his tale on the glacier, he admits to the framing: after killing William, he saw something glittering on the child's breast—a portrait of a most lovely woman—and, in a fit of rage and despair, placed it in the folds of a sleeping woman's dress. This act, he explains, was a lesson learned from the sanguinary laws of man, and it ensured that his enemy would suffer the loss of another innocent. The monster's framing of Justine is thus a deliberate, cold-blooded act of revenge, designed to multiply Victor's misery and to demonstrate the monster's power to create desolation.