Fathers did not fare well in this novel, did they? They lusted after girls young enough to be their daughters, they kept secrets for years, they put their children in physical danger, one even killed his child!

And yet, I get the impression that Mathilde and her blind obedience to and forgiveness of her father are held up as the ideal, that she is the most admirable character in the novel because of it. And her reward? She dies.