Mary Shelley presents Justine Moritz as a symbol of lack of justice through the use of violent verbs. In Chapter 6 of the 1818 edition. Justine's voice is described to have "suffer[ed]" by sobs and she "threw herself" at Elizabeth's presence. Suffocating is usually caused by another human so he "sobs" personified into actions portrays how vulnerable he is at the mercy of her contemporary society. Shelley may be addressing the Elizabethan roles of women as distasteful despite the Elizabeth the I agreeing with inequality between men and women (she was against women's suffrage). Her mother being what a modern audience would define as a: feminist meant Shelley was often influenced by her mother's views of equality between men and women. The injustice and criminal she is accused of being amplifies the way in which she may be seen as a victim by the audience which is ironic. The violent verbs are symbolic of the pain and suffering she receives hence the audience may see Justine as a symbol of a lack justice, but it is broken and destroyed, like how she is (from her death sentence). Thus, Mary Shelley shows how women were broken by their society and that conforming to gender roles was unnaturally felt by women.
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