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Chapter 24
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
The Beechams leave Five-Bob Downs before Christmas. The Beecham aunts will be in Melbourne while Harold manages his affairs in Sydney. Despite Mrs. Bossier’s strictness for propriety, she is so used to Harold’s presence at Caddagat that she allows him to visit with Sybylla freely before he leaves.
Harold’s life after losing his fortune follows a similar track to the Melvyns’, though their paths are not entirely identical. Like the Melvyns, Harold is giving up his beloved home, but Mr. Melvyn sold Bruggabrong before losing the family fortune, while Harold and his aunts leave as a consequence of their loss. Leading up to their departure, it becomes clear that Harold and Sybylla’s relationship has developed enough for people around them to notice the change. They are so familiar with each other that even Mrs. Bossier allows them to speak without supervision. This marks a change in Mrs. Bossier’s opinion of the couple’s relationship since the incident at the tree, when Mrs. Bossier punished Sybylla for her forwardness.
Themes
Harold asks Sybylla if she really intends to marry him and pleads with her to think through the sacrifice she is making. Sybylla protests that she is not the kind of person who only cares for those with money; however, she makes Harold promise that if he meets a girl he likes more than Sybylla, he will not worry about staying faithful to her. He makes this promise easily, assuming that he will never have to keep it. Sybylla promises in turn that she will never flirt seriously with another man until it is time for she and Harold to marry. He tells Sybylla he trusts her, and they agree not to write to each other until Sybylla turns 21.
Harold again expresses concern that Sybylla is binding herself to a pauper, but Sybylla insists she is happy to marry Harold even when he has no money. However, she makes Harold promise not to restrain himself from loving other women. This demonstrates both her continued insecurities and her uncertainty about the marriage. She does not trust that she is the best woman for Harold, and she wants to give him ample time to realize this.
Themes
Sybylla truly loves Harold, but not enough to want to bear his children. She does not consider explaining her feelings to him because he is so practical and orthodox that he could never understand. She repeats her intent to marry Harold when she turns 21. When Harold leaves for Five-Bob Downs later, he gives her “one light, gentle, diffident kiss.”
For the first time, Sybylla contends with the idea of taking on another female role: the role of mother. She is resistant to this notion, but she cannot justify her feelings with any logic, so she doesn’t believe them reasonable enough to share with the sensible Harold. When he kisses her, the kiss is not sensible or orthodox, but “light, gentle, [and] diffident.” The modesty and lack of confidence in these adjectives is surprising for the masculine, often aggressive Harold. The kiss suggests that Harold’s love for Sybylla makes him capable of tenderness.
Themes
Sybylla stares at the hills in the distance and cries. She convinces herself that she is disappointed in love––because, although she loves Sybylla “as much as [she ] could ever love anyone,” she does not want to marry him. She thinks she’s selfish and cowardly for this. Later, when her relatives ask about Harold, Sybylla does not tell them he paid her a visit.
Sybylla is confused by her own tears, and she persuades herself that she is disappointed in love. The fact that she actively convinces herself of this thought suggests that Sybylla finds it easier to be disappointed in love (which she has already made up her mind to distrust anyway) than to acknowledge the complexity of her feelings for Harold. Although Sybylla desperately wants to be loved, she doubts her own ability to love. This is evident in her confession that she loves Harold “as much as [she] could ever love anyone,” which suggests that she does not think herself capable of loving to the extent that she wants to.
Themes
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