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 (1.7.6), 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.
