pe of their victim and spared no pains to detect and punish his deliver,” (110) showing how quick the government was to destroy any threat to it’s power. For this reason, Felix, who saves an innocent man, which is not a crime, was punished.Victor is jailed because he is suspected of murdering his friend Henry Clerval. The murder occurs the previous night and there are witnesses that say they saw Victor acting suspiciously during the night. Victor was then arrested and jailed. Although Victor was released when Mr. Kirwin helps collect witnesses, arranges his defense and “…proved that I [Victor] was on the Orkney Islands at the hour the body of my friend was found…” (166), Victor was still punished, by being forcibly jailed, for a crime he did not commit. This is another example of how people’s insecurity, in this case, again, due to the fact a murderer was loose, finds someone easy to blame, so that their minds will be at ease.In conclusion, all three examples given, from the novel Frankenstein, consist of people being punished for crimes not committed by them. Justine was punished for the murder of William, Felix for assisting an innocent man escape, and Victor for the murder of his friend Henry Clerval. Although all three of these characters are punished falsely, they are punished for different reasons. One reason is that people do not like being insecure and quickly find someone to blame so that they can be more secure knowing the culprit, in their minds, is behind bars. The second reason is that anything in power does not like to give up that power, so when its power is challenged, it quickly destroys the challenger so that its power is not threatened. Both Justine and Victor were punished because of the first reason, and Felix was punished because of the second reason....
