In Mary Shelley's novel,
Frankenstein, the creature kills Frankenstein's youngest brother
William, and frames another member of their household:
Justine.
When the creature sits with Frankenstein and tells
his story, he relates his trip to Geneva, coming by chance across young William. The
creature believes that a child not having learned to be fearful of the world, might be a
good companion for him. He tells William he will take the boy who will not see his
family again, but the boy shares his identity as a Frankenstein, threatening the
creature with his father's protection. Once the creature realizes this boy is related to
Victor he says:
Frankenstein! you belong to my enemy—to him
towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first
victim.
In order to punish
Victor, the creature kills his young brother. In doing so, he discovers and takes the
miniature portrait of his mother (Caroline) that the boy carries, away with him. Soon he
comes upon Justine, asleep in the barn. She is not as beautiful as the woman in the
portrait, but even as he thinks this, he knows that should she awake, she would reject
him in horror as others had done.
Thus she would assuredly [denounce me if she]
beheld me. The thought was madness; it stirred the fiend within me—not I, but she, shall
suffer; the murder I have committed because I am forever robbed of all that she could
give me, she shall atone. The crime had its source in her: be hers the
punishment!
Knowing something
of the law from listening to Felix, the monster plants the portrait in the folds of
Justine's dress so she will be accused of the murder of
William.
In essence, the creature kills William because he
is related to Victor, and he frames Justine with the sense of power he realizes he has
to bring havoc to the world around him: especially to her because
she represents all he cannot have.
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