Mother, Ally, Friend or Foe? The “dependable” female author as one of the family

[I]n art and literature … woman has something specific to contribute. Under every imaginable social condition, she will necessarily have a class of sensations and emotions—the maternal ones—which must remain unknown to man; and the fact of her comparative physical weakness … introduces a distinctly feminine condition into the wondrous chemistry of the affections and sentiments, which inevitably gives rise to distinctive forms and combinations. (Eliot 1854: 37)