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"A cleansing fire always burns little Mandus, but it purifies and it makes anew."
Justine Florbelle requires cleanup to better fall in line with Amnesia Wiki's Manual of Style.

I bid you welcome to my Cabinet of Perturbation. It is my study of the human psyche — specifically yours.

Justine Florbelle

Mlle. Justine Florbelle is the antiheroic protagonist of Amnesia: Justine. She was a French noblewoman living outside of Calais, the daughter of a renowned psychological researcher, the object of romance for several men, and secretly a sadistic torturer and murderer. She is voiced by American actress Emily Corkery.[10]

Early life

Justine yng

Justine as a child

Justine Florbelle was born between 1827 and 1828 into an aristocratic French family. Her father, Monsieur Florbelle, was an acclaimed psychotherapist and her mother Madeleine Florbelle died in childbirth with a son when Justine was too young to remember her.[11] It is unknown what happened to her brother, as there is no mention of him elsewhere.

Justine grew up relatively isolated on her father’s estate. She only had one friend growing up, named Clarice.[5]Clarice was a girl of similar age from the servants quarters and was often scolded by the maids for merely playing with Justine, due to the imbalance in social rank.[5]

Justine would often ask questions about what her mother looked like, as it saddened her to have no memory of her.[11] Her father told Justine that her deceased mother's beauty was "blinding" and to recall any memory of her would be too much of a burden for anyone who loved her to bear.[11]

Experiments

Justine’s father posited many hypotheses and theories on the developing mind. He wished to study them for himself, and so he used his own daughter as a subject for a series of psychiatric tests.[12]

However, her father’s tests along with the relative social isolation took a toll on Justine’s psychological state. To worsen matters, as a result of the constant tests, Justine came to view the results as an important way of judging both herself and her father.[2] However, Justine started to develop an inferiority complex with her mother.[1] She found the scientific indifference with which her father conducted the tests disappointing, and she often tried to gain control of situations in regards to her father's tests, usually by upsetting the chambermaids or provoking her father simply to get a reaction out of him.[2]

This disparity, and never once pleasing her father with the results of his tests caused a huge rift to grow between them. After four years of isolation which robbed her of a healthy, natural upbringing and development, Justine had become increasingly unstable.[2] She began to show basic characteristics of narcissism and psychopathy.[2]

Her father could no longer justify his research. Writing to his old friend, Thurston Herbert, he confessed it had done nothing to help him understand Justine's mental illness.[2] He was going to abandon the tests to mend his relationship with his daughter.[2] The man never had the chance.

As before he had even finished the letter, Justine murdered him with the family's star-shaped soapstone.[13] As the sole heir, she eventually took over the Florbelle estate, though how she was never caught, or what happened for the next twenty-odd years, is all a mystery.

Adulthood

Mademoiselle Florbelle took over her father's research and study rooms underneath the estate, but instead of furthering the knowledge of the human psyche to treat mental disabilities, turned it into her own personal torture chamber, called the "Cabinet of Perturbation," for her own sadistic pleasure.[14]

Justine began to demonstrate that she, even more so than her father, was a complete monster. She reveled in the suffering she caused to others, and even subjected herself to that same cruelty by performing pre-arranged tests upon herself after short bouts of self-induced amnesia to see how well she fared without knowledge of who she was or what was happening to her.[15]

Justine hated the notion of being held accountable to the law for her actions, and was very elitist, believing the aristocracy did not need to know right from wrong, as "they are always right."[16]

The Suitors

At some point, Justine began to toy with aspiring suitors for her own amusement. She had at least three suitors at one time, the first being the young nobleman Aloïs Racine, the second was carpenter Basile Giroux, and the third was the violinist Malo de Vigny.[6] She enjoyed playing the three men off each other as they tried to court her favor.[6] All of them were sincerely in love with Justine, at one point or another, but the same could not be said for Justine herself, as she loved no one, not even herself, and was just using the men to amuse herself.[17]

Justine continued to pit the men against one another, eventually leading to their downward spiral into madness and destruction.[6] Her inferiority complex, wanting to be as attractive as her mother, only worsened as time went by; these feelings intensified to the point where she actually blinded the Suitors because she wanted to believe her beauty was quite literally "blinding."[17][18]

Aloïs was easy to control, as he already had a self-destructive fixation on her to begin with, as he self-mutilated in order to prove his love for her.[6] Malo had his career as a violinist ruined due to an alcohol-induced disaster of a performance.[4] Which was likely due to Justine’s influence.[4] Basile, however, was troublesome and no longer infatuated with her, growing quickly tired of her "games."[17] With assistance from Aloïs, she managed to drug and abacinate (blind) Basile to prevent him from leaving.[6][17]

Aloïs, Basile, and Malo then unwittingly become her newest test subjects in the Cabinet of Perturbation, where she drugged and tortured them, mutilated their bodies in various, and finally made them part of the tests on herself during her self-induced fits of amnesia.[15] The three men became the Suitors, serving as the enemies in Amnesia: Justine.

Despite all her cunning and her influence over law enforcement in Calais, after these events, Lucien Racine, Aloïs' father, had become very suspicious of Justine's actions and suspected foul play when she had lead his son astray.[3] The nobleman enlisted the help of Inspector Felix Marot of the Sûreté Nationale and Dr. Victor Fournier ― a psychiatrist and old family friend to Justine's father ― to diagnose her as a hysteric and incarcerate her.[3] She abducted these two men, along with the priest Hector David, and they become the hostages encountered in the Cabinet of Perturbation.[19]

Not even concerned that her dark machinations were nearly discovered by the public, Justine invited other members of the French aristocracy over to her mansion for a banquet. She had devised a test for herself, "the best one yet," to see if she had any trace of humanity left in her. She decided she would be unarmed and completely vulnerable to any threat. Justine also orchestrated several hostage situations to see how she would react.[20]

She moved her prisoners into the manor's torture chambers and created various obstacles throughout the rooms. Then, she prerecorded audio messages onto multiple phonographs to set the scene. Justine then released the Suitors from their cells to roam the Cabinet blindly, but not before locating a secure prison cell so she could voluntarily drug herself. As in all of her other self-tests, the fast-acting concoction she ingested resulted in her having complete, but temporary amnesia as a side effect.[15]

Events of Amnesia: Justine

The woman woke up, lost and confused. She remembered nothing, not even her own name. After freeing herself from her cell, she wandered around the dungeon-like complex, guided by the sadistic voice of a mysterious woman named Justine. The woman quickly found out she was not truly alone, as she stumbled upon three hostages calling out to her for help, and three mutilated madmen hunting her down, apparently having confused her for Justine.

Upon surviving the cabinet and its many challenges and dangers, the woman collapsed from the stress and madness of the place, or perhaps a side effect of the drug she drank. She then regained consciousness, as well as her memories and true, unsympathetic personality. The woman was none other than Justine Florbelle herself. She congratulated herself on constructing the best and most elaborate test yet.

With the final test complete, Justine bolted the door to her Cabinet shut (regardless of whether the people on the other side of the door were the Suitors threatening to kill her, or the hostages begging for help). As Justine walked back upstairs, Clarice, now her housemaid, called down from the kitchen, asking if everything is all right. Justine laughed off her concern and assured her that she was quite alright, before asking her if everything was ready for the coming banquet.

Depending on whether she has found all the letters addressed to her late father in the basement or not, Clarice either asks if Justine heard voices from downstairs, which they both write off as Clarice being "silly," or else Justine gives her servant instructions to post replies to the recovered mail, wanting them to know that she's "still alive."

Quotes

  • "This... this was the best one yet. So elaborate - it's just... too much."
  • "Father used to say, there were no right answers. Have the light guide you."
  • "Now that you have seen what you truly are, you are able to go on and face eternity without fear - without doubt."

Speculation

  • A loading screen trivia tidbit notes that Justine once overdosed herself with Lithium.[15] The wording seems to imply that the overdose is what led to her current memory loss, though the retrograde amnesia that she exhibits is not a symptom of Lithium overdose.
    • An empty bottle of Lithium can be found in Malo's prison cell (the first cell on the right when the player enters the area with the six cells). This might imply that this is where she consumed it, before making her way to the prison cell she wakes up in at the start of the game.
      • The label on bottle identifies it as Lithium Bromide. This means it is the "Bromide" that Aloïs refers to in his note to Justine.[6]
  • In the Crypt if Justine touches her father's grave, memories of Monsieur Florbelle are displayed, stating that he was able to forgive the cosmos for taking away his beloved wife, because she died while giving birth to his son.[8] This could mean that Justine has a younger brother, perhaps one that was favoured over herself.
  • The exact nature of her father’s tests is unclear, however it is implied that her father abused her during them, and justified it as part of his research.[1]

Another possibility is that her father tried to groom her as a replacement for her deceased mother.[1]

  • While Justine's exact date of birth is unknown, she notes herself as Age 11 in the Soul Journal entry she made the day she killed her father, which takes place on February 2, 1839 according to the date on her father's unsent letter to Herbert.[1]This could imply that she was either born sometime in January, or within the first two days of February. Or more likely, that she was born after 2nd of February, and would have turned 12 later in 1839.

Trivia

  • She was born between February 3rd 1827 and February 2nd 1828, making her 30-31 years old in 1858, when the game takes place.[1][3]
  • Her father's first name is never revealed, however her mother's full name was revealed to be Madeleine Florbelle in a note that was part of the Potato Sack ARG.
  • Justine's behaviour bears some resemblance to Daniel's, as both have captured and tortured people, although Daniel did it under Alexander's influence and felt heavy regret afterwards, whereas it was Justine's idea to torture people in the first place, and she enjoyed herself thoroughly.
  • It may be that the character Justine is a tribute to the monstrous Marquis de Sade, her first name Justine being based on one of his books, titled Justine, in which a virtuous woman is plunged into vice against her will.[21] Her last name, Florbelle, may come from the title of a de Sade book never published, Les Journées de Florbelle.[22]
  • Justine discovered the letter from Daniel written to her late father asking for help some nineteen years after it was received. At the end of the game, she can tell Clarice to make arrangements to send response letters back.
  • As the game warns the player from the beginning, death for Justine is final. If killed by the suitors, it's game over. Daniel, however, is repeatedly resurrected should anything befall him. Whether this is a storyline element unique specifically to Amnesia: The Dark Descent (The Shadow/The orbs) or simply a gameplay aspect of the former's expansion pack is not clear.

Gallery

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Soul Journal Entries (Justine) – "Justine, age 11 - Today father came for me in my room. I still couldn't look him in the eyes. He said I shouldn't feel ashamed and that I only tried to fill the void left by mother. When he wasn't looking I took the star stone from his collection. Today I was the one with the sword.”
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Unfinished Letter (Justine)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 A New Plan (Justine)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Newspaper Article – 19 March, 1858 (Justine)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Soul Journal Entries (Justine) – "Justine, age 8
    Today I played outside with Clarice... Clarice cried and I comforted her. The new maid heard us and came out and scolded Clarice for playing with me..."
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Billet Doux (Justine)
  7. 7.0 7.1 Note written by Monsieur Florbelle after her passing (ARG)
  8. 8.0 8.1 Crypt Memories: Gravestone (Justine)
  9. Phonograph: Dr. Fournier (Justine) – “I do hope you managed to save Monsieur Fournier. He was a friend and a colleague of my papa, you know.”
  10. 10.0 10.1 Amnesia: Justine – English credits: "Emily Corkery as Justine"
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Crypt Memories: Statue (Justine)
  12. Herbert’s Letter (Justine)
  13. Phonograph: Congratulations (Justine)
  14. Loading Screen: Dungeon – “Justine was not a person who...” (Justine)
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Loading Screen: Crypt – “Justine had overdosed...” (Justine)
  16. Phonograph: Inspector Marot (Justine) – “Laws are made for cretins. The aristocracy doesn't need to know right from wrong. We are always right.”
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Phonograph: Basile (Justine) – “My head, what is this thing, get me out. I'm not up for your games.”
  18. Loading Screen: Dungeon – “Abacinating the suitors had...” (Justine)
  19. Loading Screen: Dungeon – “They knew that they...” (Justine)
  20. Loading Screen: Crypt – “When she first imagined...” (Justine)
  21. "Justine (de Sade novel)" Accessed 7 March 2023. Last revised 25 October 2022. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Justine_(de_Sade_novel)&action=history.
  22. "Marquis de Sade bibliography" Accessed 7 March 2023. Last revised 3 September 2022. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade_bibliography.

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