Elizabeth and Justine

I believe that Mary Shelley's characters, Elizabeth Lavenza and Justine Mortiz, from Frankenstein had the same feelings. Both had been taken in by the Frankensteins, for they both had poor home lives. They were both benevolent souls that would do anything to serve others. Elizabeth was full of courage and strength. Even at the lowest of times in her life, she strove to be the comfort to others. "She inded veiled her grief, and strove to act the comforter to us all. She looked steadily on life, and assumed its duties with courage and zeal" (Shelley, 24). Elizabeth grieved terribly for the death of her adoptive mother. Caroline had shared the same story life without parents as she. Although Elizabeth was in mourning of yet another soul taken from her life, her main purpose was to be there for those she called her uncle and cousins. She even acted as a mother figure to her younger cousins William and Ernest.

Justine Mortiz was also an extremely compassionate character. As a reader, we don't get to see a whole lot of this charcter. What we do get to see is her being accused of murder. However, Elizabeth and Victor cannot believe that she would do such a thing. Elizabeth testifies, "During all that period she appeared to me the most amiable and benevolent of human creatures" (Shelley, 56). Elizabeth goes on to talk of how Justine nursed sick Caroline and her own sickly mother. What murderer would put forth so much kindness and effort into tending to the sick? I was sad to see such a kind and short lived character be killed off so quickly. I also feel as though her character might become one of more importance as the novel goes on. Justine was a Catholic who felt trapped and confessed to a sin in order that she might receive God's complete forgiveness and absolution. The mystery still remains as to how she came to be the keeper of Williams photo of his mother and of why she was acting so strangely.