"I do not fear to die," she said; "that pang is past. God raises my weakness and gives me courage to endure the worst. I leave a sad and bitter world; and if you remember me and think of me as of one unjustly condemned, I am resigned to the fate awaiting me."
Chapter 8 · Justine Moritz
Context
Justine speaks to Elizabeth in prison before her execution. She has accepted her imminent death and asks only to be remembered as someone wrongly condemned.
Analysis
Justine's syntax moves from defiance ('I do not fear') to religious submission ('God raises my weakness') to bitter worldview ('sad and bitter world') to final resignation, tracing a psychological arc within one speech. The conditional 'if you remember me'—not 'when'—quietly acknowledges that even memory may fail her, asking for so little (just to be thought of as unjust) that her modesty itself indicts the world that requires such humility from the innocent.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Justine functions as the novel's moral center precisely because she is powerless—unlike Victor, who grandiosely claims responsibility but does nothing, Justine acts ethically within her constrained position, exposing how the novel values constrained integrity over expansive self-dramatization.