In the first edition Mary Shelley laid great stress on a noncoercive educational program
practised in Alphonse Frankenstein's household (see I:1:12 and I:1:26), a tribute
to her own education under the guidance of her father William Godwin. As she rethinks
the structure of the novel, it seems apparent that she wishes to shift that emphasis
from Victor's family (whose educational program she deletes) to Waldman as the professor
who guides Victor's mature scientific studies from a similar pedagogical principle.