“ ‘I did confess, but I confessed a lie. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins…Ever since I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was. He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments if I continued obdurate.’ ”
-p 83
This passage seems to make a bit of a political and religious message about Mary Shelley’s culture. Shelley portrays the judicial system as one rather overbearing in nature. Justine’s interrogators, who now believe they have sufficient proof of Justine’s guilt, intimidate and threaten her savagely in order to get any sort of confession. Finally, completely broken down and dispirited, Justine lies and confesses guilt, despite her full knowledge that she is in fact innocent. What perhaps is even more startling than this reflection, however, is Shelley’s observation on the Church. It is not a mere city official who fiercely questions Justine; it is a priest, a “confessor” called in to hear her confession. This representative of the Church, who is supposed to offer consolation and peace of mind to Justine, instead reduces her to tears with his accusations and threats. Shelley seems to be hinting at a veiled attack on the Church of her time; I’m a bit curious as to how her contemporary readers took this criticism.
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