Murder, Revenge & the Bride
William’s Murder: The First Victim
The Creature’s first act of deliberate violence is the murder of William Frankenstein, Victor’s youngest brother. The Creature encounters William by chance and, seeing a child, initially hopes for acceptance: “This little creature was unprejudiced and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity.” The word “unprejudiced” reveals the Creature’s desperate hope that a child might see past its appearance where adults cannot. But William screams, calls the Creature a “monster” and an “ugly wretch,” and then reveals he is a Frankenstein.
The name “Frankenstein” ignites the Creature’s rage. It strangles William and takes a miniature portrait of Caroline Frankenstein from the boy’s neck. Shelley makes the murder both horrifying and psychologically complex. The Creature does not kill randomly — it kills because even a child rejects it, and because the child belongs to the man who created and abandoned it. The murder is simultaneously an act of revenge against Victor and a reaction to yet another rejection by humanity.
The Creature’s murder of William is provoked by the child’s rejection and the Frankenstein name. The Creature hoped a child might accept it, but even William calls it a “monster.” The murder is an act of revenge against Victor: the Creature destroys what Victor loves most, just as Victor destroyed the Creature’s chance of happiness.
Justine’s Trial: Injustice and Silence
After killing William, the Creature plants Caroline’s miniature portrait on Justine Moritz, a servant in the Frankenstein household. Justine is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder. Despite Elizabeth’s passionate defence, the evidence is damning: the portrait was found in Justine’s pocket. Under pressure from her confessor, Justine makes a false confession and is executed.
The real horror of Justine’s trial is Victor’s silence. He knows the Creature killed William. He knows Justine is innocent. Yet he says nothing, because revealing the truth would mean confessing that he created the Creature. Victor prioritises his own reputation over an innocent woman’s life. He later describes himself as the “true murderer” of both William and Justine, acknowledging his guilt. But this self-awareness does not lead to action — it only deepens his self-pity.
Victor’s response to Justine’s execution is revealing. He suffers intensely — but his suffering is focused on himself, not on Justine. He calls himself “the true murderer” and describes his “remorse” and “deep and bitter agony.” Yet at no point does he consider confessing. Shelley presents Victor’s guilt as genuine but fundamentally self-centred: he feels terrible about what has happened, but he is more afraid of being exposed than of allowing an innocent woman to die. This pattern — guilt without action, self-awareness without responsibility — defines Victor throughout the novel.
Elizabeth, by contrast, speaks out in Justine’s defence at the trial. Her moral courage highlights Victor’s cowardice. Elizabeth calls Justine “the most amiable and benevolent of human creatures” and risks social embarrassment to defend her. Shelley uses Elizabeth as a moral benchmark — she does what Victor cannot.
The Creature’s Demand: A Female Companion
After the De Lacey rejection, the Creature confronts Victor on the Mer de Glace glacier and demands that he create a female companion: “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.” The Creature’s request is remarkably reasonable. It asks for basic human needs: companionship, empathy, and love. It promises that if Victor complies, it will take its companion and disappear to “the vast wilds of South America,” never to trouble humanity again.
The Creature appeals to both Victor’s emotions and his sense of justice: “I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me.” The word “associate” is painful in its simplicity — the Creature wants only basic human connection. “Deformed and horrible as myself” shows the Creature has internalised society’s view of it. Shelley makes the reader feel that Victor should agree — the request is modest, and compliance would end the killing.
The Creature demands a female companion as its only condition for peace. Victor agrees, begins the work, but then destroys the unfinished female in front of the Creature. His reasons mix legitimate concern (a “race of devils”) with selfishness (his own fear and disgust). The Creature responds: “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” This threat is a direct consequence of Victor’s broken promise.
Victor Destroys the Female Creature
Victor travels to the Orkney Islands to create the female companion, but as he works, his fears overwhelm him. He imagines the two creatures breeding, creating a “race of devils” that could threaten all humanity. He also considers that the female might reject the Creature, or that she might have a will of her own and refuse to go to South America. When Victor sees the Creature watching through the window, he tears the unfinished female to pieces.
The destruction of the female creature is one of the novel’s most morally complex moments. Victor’s fears are not entirely unreasonable — creating another sentient being raises genuine ethical questions. But Shelley also shows that Victor is motivated by control: he cannot guarantee what the female will do, so he destroys her. The Creature’s response is devastating: “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” This is no longer a plea for mercy. It is a declaration of war. Victor has broken his promise, and the Creature will now take everything Victor has left.
After Victor destroys the female, the Creature delivers one of the novel’s most chilling threats: “I shall be with you on your wedding night.” Victor, with characteristic self-absorption, interprets this as a threat against his own life. He assumes the Creature plans to kill him on his wedding night. He never considers that the Creature might target Elizabeth instead. This misreading reveals Victor’s fatal flaw: even when warned, he thinks only of himself.
The threat also carries a bitter juxtaposition: the Creature will be present at the moment Victor celebrates love and companionship — the very things Victor denied the Creature by destroying the female. Shelley ensures the reader understands the Creature’s logic: Victor destroyed the Creature’s chance at love, so the Creature will destroy Victor’s.