Mary Shelley's insistence on the deference of daughters to fathers might be logically
connected with her dedication of this novel to her own father; at the same time, it
is rather at odds with her mother's views, and particularly with her running argument
against Rousseau's views on female education in Book 5 of her Vindication of the Rights
of Woman. What is odd in the present case is the fact that Felix does not mirror Agatha's
reaction. His stance suggests something of the distance between son and father already
accentuated in the case of Victor and Alphonse Frankenstein.