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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Brilliant Career, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Womanhood
Class and Poverty
Ambition, Respectability, and Pride
Love
Maturity and Suffering
Summary
Analysis
One of Sybylla’s chores, which she greatly enjoys, is to ride a few miles down the road to pick up the mail. Harold usually employs a servant to fetch his mail, but after Sybylla starts to ride for it, Harold does the same. On one of her rides, Sybylla sees laborers camping in the woods as they make their way to new employment.
Sybylla likes riding down the road, which speaks to her innate desire to explore and her love of the natural world. Harold follows her on these errands. He is a man of few words, but he communicates his affection for Sybylla by trying to be close to her. When Sybylla witnesses laborers in temporary housing, the men are mentioned in passing, and Sybylla literally passes them on her way from Caddagat. The camp is relegated to the periphery, but it is still present. This is symbolic of the way Caddagat makes Sybylla forget about the social issues she cares about, while the estate and its residents do nothing to help these issues.
Themes
The rest of Sybylla’s time is spent in leisure. The Bossiers have brought in a number of young women as guests to Caddagat to spend time with Sybylla. They go swimming together, supervised by Aunt Helen, and race home to see who can arrive at the dinner table first. The residents of Caddagat are fond of fishing, so Sybylla joins them. She has no skill at fishing, however, so she acts civilly to Frank Hawden so that he will catch a fish for her while she reads a book. She is a “creature of joy,” living a life “made up of little things.”
For the first time in her life, Sybylla is surrounded by other young women. However, they do not enter her life organically. Instead, her relatives bring them to Caddagat. This highlights the manufactured perfection of Caddagat. Sybylla does not form a meaningful relationship with any of these girls, which suggests that Caddagat cannot provide everything she needs. Her casual manipulation of Frank Hawden also reiterates her pleasant youthful selfishness. Sybylla describes herself as full of joy from a life of “little things,” which indicates a temporary break from her constant ambition. In this moment, she is fulfilled by the company of her family, her flirtation with Harold, and the privileges of Caddagat; her persistent aspirations for a brilliant career are put on hold.
Themes
Sybylla is confused Sybylla is confused about Harold’s intentions: he escorts her to pick up the mail every week, but never speaks affectionately towards her. She wonders if his kindness is simply due to chivalry. To test this, she takes a buggy instead of a horse to pick up the post, to see what Harold will say. Mrs. Bossier insists Sybylla bring Frank Hawden on the buggy. Sybylla agrees, only to drive off without Hawden while he is opening the gate.
Sybylla is again reluctant to believe that she can be loved. Though Harold seeks out her company, she is quick to look for alternate reasons for his kindness. She also provides another demonstration of her quick-thinking and impulsiveness, as she disobeys Mrs. Bossier and takes the buggy without Hawden. Sybylla’s insistence on driving the buggy alone also symbolizes her independence and her desire to lead her own life.
Themes
At the Dogtrap homestead, where the mail is posted, Sybylla meets Harold. He is surprised that she drove the buggy by herself and insists that she not drive back alone. Sybylla challenges him, asserting that she is able to take care of herself, and drives away. Harold chases her, which Sybylla takes as proof of his love for her, much to her delight. They bicker, and Sybylla thinks that “men are clumsy, stupid creatures regarding little things, but in their right place they are wonderful animals.” She allows him to help her home.
Throughout the story, romantic pursuits take the form of literal chases. While Everard’s chase made Sybylla uncomfortable, she is delighted to be chased by Harold. His stoicism and silence make his affection more desirable to the ambitious Sybylla, and the passion evident in the chase excites her. After he catches up to her, Sybylla allows her feelings about men to gain more nuance than plain dislike. She still regards them as “creatures” and “animals,” but she acknowledges that many of men’s flaws are in regard to “little things.” Still, she restricts her acceptance that men can be “wonderful” to men who are in “their right place,” which indicates that Sybylla’s disdain for men has not been replaced with a universal liking of them. However, her willingness to accept that people are not black-and-white shows that Sybylla is maturing.
Themes
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Sybylla returns home late, which worries Mrs. Bossier. Sybylla lies to a servant and claims that the harness he worked on broke, and she secures his silence by promising not to tell Uncle Julius about the servant’s alleged mistake. When she finds her grandmother, Mrs. Bossier scolds her for leaving Hawden behind. Sybylla justifies this only with a reminder of how much she hates Mr. Hawden, and Mrs. Bossier tries to replace a smile with a stern expression. Julius finds the whole affair funny, and Mrs. Bossier tells him not to encourage Sybylla’s “tomboyish ways,” or else she will never achieve a “ladylike demeanor.”
Though Sybylla views the lower classes with more respect than her relatives do, she still uses her power over a servant at Caddagat for her own self-interest. This is a continuation of the selfishness that Caddagat allows her to indulge. Mrs. Bossier’s hidden smile at Sybylla’s antics is also a reminder that Mrs. Bossier had a wild youth of her own, and her attempts to suppress that smile mirror her suppression of that youthfulness in favor of conservatism. The fact that Uncle Julius is amused by Sybylla’s misbehavior recalls the first chapter, when Mr. Melvyn encouraged Sybylla’s childhood horse riding. Mrs. Bossier’s worry that Sybylla will be a “tomboy” instead of a “lady” also reflects the language Mrs. Melvyn used when she was concerned about horse riding being unwomanly
Themes
