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Chapter 17
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
Aunt Helen tells Sybylla to be careful around young men, warning her that “some people’s age cannot be reckoned by years.” When Sybylla loses some of her youth, the maturity of her spirit will be made obvious. If Helen had confronted Sybylla with this a day earlier, Sybylla would have felt guilty, but she is emboldened by Mrs. Bossier’s scolding and Hawden’s dislike of her, which makes her bitterness that she isn’t loveable. She tells Helen sourly that no man could ever fall in love with a plain woman like Sybylla. Helen is sad that Sybylla is so young and already so bitter, but she continues on and asks if Sybylla intends to marry Harold.
Helen’s advice that “some people’s age cannot be reckoned by years” speaks to the idea that Sybylla is more mature than other girls her age. This, in turn, hints that Sybylla’s narration might present herself as more childish than she actually is. Sybylla again demonstrates her belief that she is unlovable, and that fear transforms into bitterness and vitriol.
Themes
Helen’s question surprises Sybylla, and she repeats her intention never to marry anyone. Helen lists Harold’s many virtues, highlighting that he is honest and faithful. When Sybylla counters that Harold is conceited, Helen agrees. But she claims that Sybylla is also conceited, and that this flaw doesn’t make a person less loveable. Sybylla is still put off by the notion that Harold might think he could woo any girl just by asking for her hand, and she tells Helen she intends to surprise him by playing hard to get.
Helen does not dismiss Sybylla’s belief that Harold is conceited, which demonstrates her consideration for Sybylla’s thoughts and feelings. Instead, Helen approaches Sybylla honestly and offers her own belief that Sybylla is just as conceited as she thinks Harold to be. Helen imparts that people can be loved despite their flaws, which challenges Sybylla’s insecurity about being too flawed to be loveable. Sybylla reveals that her feelings about love are more complicated than simple insecurity, since she also fears that accepting Harold’s feelings would mean submitting to being oppressed by men.
Themes
Aunt Helen tells Sybylla never to flirt, because playing with a man’s heart is unwomanly. Sybylla scoffs that men have no hearts, only vanity, but Helen insists that men’s shortcomings do not justify Sybylla’s unwomanly behavior.
Helen tries to impart her own version of womanhood on Sybylla. She describes toying with a man’s affection as unwomanly, which indicates how she defines womanhood around virtue and modesty. Sybylla resists this model of womanhood, however, since she believes that men are too vain to be hurt by her actions.
Themes
