what is the significance of pretorius's miniatures
Doctor Septimus Pretorius Pretorius performs experiments creating life similar to Henry's. He unveils to Henry a group of various homunculiâ€”miniature living humans which he has kept in bottles, and claims to have grown from "seed" like cultures. Each figure represents a different character: a queen, which he claims was his first experiment, a king which is madly in love with the Queen and has a resemblance to Henry VIII, an archbishop which disapproves of what the King is doing, the Devil (a man in a black suit), a ballerina dancer, a mermaid (grown from "an experiment with seaweed") which lives in water. Pretorious gleefully compares his own visage to that of the Devil: "There's a certain resemblance to me, don't you think? Or do I flatter myself?" He says sometimes he thinks life would be more interesting if they were all devils. He has been unsuccessful, however, in creating a full-sized human. He proposes to Henry that together they create a mate for his monster, with Henry building the body and Pretorius supplying an artificially-grown brain. Henry initially balks at the idea, but Pretorius reminds him that he is capable of exposing him to the authorities as the creator of the Monster who has done so much damage. Later, he meets the Monster in a crypt where he has gone to steal bodies and is dining using the top of a coffin as a picnic table. When the Monster asks him 'Friend?' he gives him the remains of his chicken. He tells the Monster of his plans to create a mate for him.