Mrs. Dashwood, while a parent and doing a parent's job, caring for her children, settling disputes, chiding Marianne on occasion, very often displays other familial roles with her daughters.

She is very like a sister to Marianne, sharing a similar outlook on life and literature and romance. But she is also often mothered in turn by Elinor

"... whose advice was so effectual, possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence."