• a criminal judge Although time easily becomes blurred in this novel, the reader should remember that
    it is actually less than two-and-a-half years since the miscarriage of justice that
    resulted in Justine Moritz's execution. That Victor, who on that occasion condemned
    the entire criminal magistracy of Geneva (I:7:14), should now repair to one of them
    to justify his own murderous pursuit of his Creature underscores the intellectual
    distance he has traversed in the intervening months, as well as the extremity of his
    current mental state.