later changes his mind, affirming his father's wisdom:

I then thought that my father would be unjust if he ascribed my neglect to vice or faultiness on my part, but I am now convinced that he was justified in conceiving that I should not be altogether free from blame. A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity.

Alphonse shows compassion when he writes to Victor to come home after William's murder, writing in chapter VII in a merciful and Christian frame of mind that differs markedly from Victor's frenzied anger toward the creature he knows is responsible for the act:

Come, Victor; not brooding thoughts of vengeance against the assassin, but with feelings of peace and gentleness, that will heal, instead of festering, the wounds of our minds. Enter the house of mourning, my friend, but with kindness and affection for those who love you, and not with hatred for your enemies.

However, the father and son have a disconnect when it comes to Victor's passion for alchemy and science. Alphonse seems unable to relate to this aspect of his son's character, as he is not driven by the same ambitions for greatness. Victor, somewhat unfairly, blames his father for not steering him away from alchemy at an early age, saying he wished his father had

taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded.

On the whole, however, the difficulties in their relationship seem primarily to stem from Victor pulling away, pursuing a dangerous path, and not paying heed to his father's wisdom or confiding in him. It could be, however, that having a father of such moral goodness meant Victor felt under pressure to excel in a different way.

Alphonse indulged Victor to a degree we might find odd, but within the context of a wealthy 18th Century European family this behavior might have been normal. One example: The Frankensteins adopted young Elizabeth, explicitly to give Victor a playmate. (In the first edition Elizabeth was actually a distant relative, but in the third edition, Alphonse just outright bought her from a poor family in Italy when they were on one of their coaching tours. This is very strange to a modern sensibility, but might have been a common practice in 1780s Europe.)

Alphonse was indulgent in some ways and distant in others. His wife Caroline is a matter of greater concern. She is barely in the book and we kind of extrapolate that Victor must have a mother, even if we don't know very much about her. Mary Shelley's marginalization of all her female characters (and they are all pretty marginal) is alarming. Mother's absence goes a long way to explaining why Victor wants to create life without a woman's participation. Victor is the character Mary Shelley identifies with and all the other characters just exist as a kind of sounding board for his internal conflicts.