Another quizzical aspect of Elizabeth's relationship to Justine involves the self centred response that Elizabeth exhibits when visiting the condemned prisoner for the last time. Instead of commiserating with her, Elizabeth speaks of her own sorrow:

Oh, Justine! said she. Why did you rob me of my last consolation? I relied on your innocence, and although I was then very wretched, I was not so miserable as I am now.

While it is obvious that Elizabeth is sorrowful about Justine and her circumstances, her focus seems to be on the fact that the young woman's death is one in a series of personal calamities. She therefore, wittingly or not, puts Justine in the position of comforter rather than the comforted.

Her attitude mirrors in subtle feminine form the egocentrism that Victor reveals when he misreads the Monster's threat to be toward himself alone on his wedding night. The suffering isolated self comes first for both.

Not unlike Mary Shelley, Elizabeth complains about the lack of response on the part of Victor. Yet her letters are chatty and full of everyday news concerning the servants, children and the gossip of Geneva. She punctuates these topics with a Swiss pride in Enlightenment principles of which she does not appear to have a terribly deep grasp . She concludes her letter with an almost grovelling appeal to Victor to write one line. She intentionally places this request at the end of the letter while congratulating Clerval for being such a loyal letter writer.

Even though Elizabeth is perpetually frustrated by Victor's postponement of her marriage and seems a little too willing to allow him to be released from his vow to her, if there were another object of his affections, she nonetheless never presses him concerning the secret that separates them. Her "disinterested affection" may have more in it than merely a selfless love. She may have been intuiting the worst. From the active pole she is manipulative yet from the passive side she placidly colludes with Victor when he requests:

This request shows how little Victor considers his marriage to Elizabeth a true partnership. Far from being a secret that shows confidence in a loved one, this secret is irresponsible. The fact that Victor even brings it up is a sign that he may very much want to reveal the danger that their marriage holds for both of them. Imagine a groom knowing that he will die on his Wedding day without either telling his finance or postponing the marriage. His secret is a self centred ridiculous game that Elizabeth chooses to ignore. But why? My hunch is that she may fear that the truth would destroy their union, a union she doesn't have as much confidence in as she indicates. Victor tells of her "more than marriage day" jitters:

Effects of Separate Sphere Philosophy

1. Power expressed through domesticity.

2. Agoraphobic homebound immaturity.

3. Acceptance of male infantilization of women.

4. Obsessed with appearance.

5. Make other women competitors for men and domestic dominance.

6. Possessiveness and jealousy.

7. Isolated self becomes narcissistic and self-centred.

8. Emotionally dependent on men.

9. Manipulative - express-repress not straight communication.

10. Refusal to heed inner wisdom and intuition.

11. Put security before truth in evaluation of relationship - collude with family secrets.