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Chapter 22
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
Harold and Sybylla walk in silence to the orchard. Sybylla is wearing the ring Harold gave her, but she wears the stones facing inward toward her palm so the ring will not be recognized as a symbol of engagement. They collect cherries in silence until Harold abruptly grabs hold of Sybylla with the strength of a lion. Sybylla tries to pull away, shouting at Harold to unhand her, but she is excited to have awoken some passion in him.
Sybylla wears the engagement ring, but she hides its symbolic importance by concealing the stones. This suggests that her reluctance to marry Harold is partially driven by a concern for outside judgment, as even when she wears the ring, she does not want other people to know its significance. Harold grabs Sybylla, and her description of his strength as lionlike makes clear this is a demonstration of the lion’s temper that Julius warned her about. Sybylla is not frightened of Harold’s anger––she has succeeded in her goal to drive him to show some passion.
Themes
Literary Devices
Harold demands Sybylla explains her conduct with other men. Sybylla says that she has the right to behave as she likes, without Harold’s permission, but Harold reminds her that he could get any other woman to marry him and behave properly. Finally, he lets go of her. Sybylla throws her ring at Harold and mocks him, claiming she never planned to marry him and let him treat her as a slave. Harold looks so shaken by this that Sybylla starts to believe a little in love.
Sybylla once again makes clear her low view of marriage. She believes life as a wife to be the same as life as an enslaved person, since her husband would own her and she would owe him submissive obedience. Harold angrily reminds her that he could easily marry a more conventional woman, which shows that he is aware of his own desirability as a bachelor. Just as she mocked Frank Hawden for his marriage proposal, Sybylla turns on Harold. Her stubborn tirade is disrupted, though, by Harold’s response. He is so troubled by Sybylla’s cruelty that she has to reconsider her views on love.
Themes
Harold tells Sybylla that he believes in three types of women: one who would marry any man for money, one who would flirt with anybody and “disgrac[e] the name of woman,” and one who would marry a man and be faithful to him. He thought Sybylla only pretends to be “heartless and worthless” because of her youth, but he now believes she has no good in her at all. Sybylla scoffs and tells him to find a proper lady to marry, but her rudeness stems not from malice but her own pain and bitterness at lack of love.
Just as Sybylla is learning different types of womanhood, Harold has preconceived notions of what a woman must be. His description of flirting as “disgracing the name of woman” shows that he shares Mrs. Bossier’s distaste for female forwardness, and his distinction of a woman who only marries for money reveals that he has no interest in marrying a woman like the beautiful Mrs. Derrick. He accuses Sybylla of being “heartless and worthless,” which is similar to the language Sybylla uses against herself in her periods of self-loathing. She responds rudely, but she recognizes that she is lashing out due to her own pain. This self-awareness speaks to Sybylla’s increasing maturity, even if her conversation with Harold is immature.
Themes
As Harold departs, Sybylla has a moment of empathy for him. She recognizes that she led him on because she thought him emotionless, but he has proven that he is in fact capable of passion, and probably of love as well. She wonders if men might suffer more than a blow to their vanity when they are rejected. She realizes she is in the wrong and has acted unwomanly. Sybylla is ashamed, especially because she really does like Harold.
Harold’s display of emotion casts Sybylla’s entire perspective on men into doubt. She has used Harold’s lack of passion to validate her belief that men are creatures driven by vanity, not love, but his actions have proved that mindset false. As she reshapes her view of men, Sybylla strengthens her definition of womanhood, as well. She concludes that she had no right to judge Harold’s behavior and that to do so was unwomanly, suggesting that her guilt over mistreating Harold has led her to accept some of the submissiveness expected of women.
Themes
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Sybylla goes after Harold in the orchard. She expects him to be as rude to her as she was to him, but still she apologizes for being cruel and unwomanly. She wants to be friends again, but Harold wants to be more. He is surprised to hear that Sybylla has felt unloved by him, since he loves her so deeply, but he worries that she does not love him. Sybylla tells him she “very nearly love[s]” him, but she needs time. Harold isn’t sure Sybylla can trust him after seeing him in bad temper, but Sybylla assures him that she liked his passion and, if they were married, would always defy Harold when he was in that state.
Sybylla expects Harold to spurn her, but she apologizes anyway. This is a marked lack of selfishness from the usually self-absorbed Sybylla: her apology is not about earning Harold’s forgiveness, but about acknowledging to him that she was in the wrong. Again, her fear of being unwomanly resurfaces, and again Sybylla must confront her understanding of love. Harold reveals that he has never wavered in his love for Sybylla, and has in fact worried that she doesn’t return his feelings; this suggests that Sybylla is more lovable than she believes, and it continues the theme in their relationship of misunderstanding each other despite genuine affection. While Sybylla is usually the one seeking love, now she is trying to bring herself to love Harold fully instead of “very nearly” loving him. Even as she grapples with this relationship and her fear of being unwomanly, Sybylla demonstrates her strong will by promising to defy Harold when he is in a temper.
Themes
Sybylla and Harold return to the birthday party. Uncle Julius gives Sybylla a doll, which disappoints her, but Julius insists that playing with a doll is more appropriate than worrying about homeless men and politics. Sybylla behaves properly for the rest of the evening, and at the end of the night, Harold tells Sybylla she is “the best little woman in the world.” That night, Sybylla sits at her writing table and thinks for a while. She has come to realize that men are not invincible, and that they have feelings after all. She laughs to herself and quietly announces that she and Harold are “quits.” When she undresses for the night, she finds bruises along her arms from Harold grabbing her. She has thoroughly enjoyed her birthday.
Uncle Julius giving Sybylla a doll signifies his attempt to confine her to conventional femininity. A doll is a traditionally feminine toy, and Julius strengthens the gendered aspect of it by insisting that Sybylla should pay attention to her doll instead of politics and social justice. This gesture demeans Sybylla due to her gender, but also due to her age, as a toy infantilizes her and implies she is not mature enough to understand political matters. Harold’s description of Sybylla as “the best little woman” is also unintentionally condescending, though he means it from a place of love. Harold’s behavior that night has redefined Sybylla’s understanding of men, and she sees them as more human than she once did. She believes she and Harold are now “quits”––that is, on equal terms.
Themes
