Frankenstein Quote Analysis

In prison after her conviction, Justine explains to Elizabeth and Victor that she falsely confessed to the murder. Her confessor threatened her with excommunication and damnation until she gave in, but now the lie torments her more than her other sins.

Justine's chiastic structure—'I confessed a lie… that falsehood lies'—plays on the two meanings of 'lie' (deception and physical weight), turning abstract guilt into bodily sensation. The metaphor of the lie 'lying heavier' reverses expectations: normally confession lightens the conscience, but here it produces new weight, exposing how religious institutions can torture the innocent into self-incrimination, creating real guilt where none existed.

Use this to argue that Shelley indicts religious authority as harshly as legal authority—both systems claim to reveal truth but actually manufacture it, forcing Justine to perform a false narrative that then becomes materially real in her own conscience.