Previous
Chapter 25
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
Christmas at Caddagat is a happy occasion with many guests, though Sybylla sorely feels Harold’s absence. She looks forward to visiting Everard Grey in Sydney. She hopes Everard might be able to aid her ambition for a career in show business, which would allow her to help Harold financially without marrying him. While she waits for the trip to Sydney, Sybylla’s enjoyment of everyday “little pleasures” makes her temporarily forget her “wild unattainable ambitions,” such as writing.
With Harold gone, Sybylla turns her attention back to her ambitions. She is newly motivated to succeed in a career, because that would allow her to support Harold without marrying him. This goal highlights that Sybylla truly does love Harold, but she is only willing to marry him as an act of compassion, not any desire to do so. As in Chapter 17, Sybylla is distracted from her dreams by the “little pleasures” of Caddagat. Her description of her ambitions as “wild” and “unattainable” also suggests that she doesn’t see her hopes for a career as plausible.
Themes
A man from the post office at Dogtrap arrives at the estate and tells Sybylla that he is in need of men to help put out a fire. He has also brought her some letters. Sybylla ignores the letters because they are from her mother, who only writes to express hope that Sybylla is behaving well. The men of Caddagat are seven miles away, so Sybylla saddles her horse and rides to find them. She delivers the message and rides back to Caddagat. As she approaches, she takes in the beauty of Caddagat. This, she thinks, is her home.
Mrs. Melvyn has been absent from the story for a long time, and Sybylla does not grant this first mention of her with any significance. This, combined with the fact that Mrs. Melvyn is still concerned about Sybylla’s behavior, indicates that the relationship between mother and daughter remains strained. Sybylla does not miss her family or Possum Gully because she sees Caddagat as her home. It is beautiful, and life there is easy and without hardship.
Themes
Literary Devices
Aunt Helen and Mrs. Bossier are out walking when Sybylla comes back to the house, so she sits down to read a letter from Mrs. Melvyn. The letter informs Sybylla that she must “give up pleasuring” and “meet the responsibilities of life.” Mr. Melvyn has fallen into deep debt to a man named Peter M’Swat, who will accept Sybylla’s services as a governess to his children in place of the loan. Sybylla is horrified––she has heard of the “total ignorance” of Peter M’Swat’s wife, and his home is rumored to be squalid and dirty.
Mrs. Melvyn describes Sybylla’s life at Caddagat as “pleasuring” that allows Sybylla to neglect “the responsibilities of life.” Mrs. Melvyn grew up at Caddagat, which gives this description more weight––she sees the estate as a false utopia removed from reality, and Sybylla now has to leave Caddagat to resume real life. The news of Mr. Melvyn is a reminder that the Melvyns’ suffering has not stopped just because Sybylla is not there to witness it, which strengthens the idea that Caddagat is not a true sanctuary but a temporary escape from hardship. Sybylla is dismayed to think that she will have to leave the beautiful Caddagat and its cultured residents for “total ignorance” and squalor, which reiterates the importance Sybylla gives to beauty and refinement.
Themes
Sybylla grows angry that her mother has expressed no regret at Sybylla’s situation. She believes that Mrs. Melvyn does not want her to enjoy pleasure, reflecting on past instances where Mrs. Melvyn indulged Gertie but not Sybylla. Sybylla blames this unfairness on her ugliness, since ugly girls generally lead joyless lives.
Hearing from her mother brings back Sybylla’s insecurities and resentments, causing a sort of regression of Sybylla’s burgeoning maturity. She once again paints her sister Gertie as the ideal daughter, lamenting the favoritism Mrs. Melvyn showed to the perfect Gertie. The happiness Sybylla has enjoyed at Caddagat vanishes, as she once again wallows in self-pity about her ugliness and the injustice of her life.
Themes
Get the entire My Brilliant Career LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sybylla refuses to go to the M’Swats. She begs Mrs. Bossier to let her stay, but Mrs. Bossier will not contradict a mother’s wishes for her child. She agrees, though, to write to Mrs. Melvyn to ask her to reconsider. Mrs. Melvyn writes back quickly, calling Sybylla selfish and overly concerned with her own leisure. Mrs. Melvyn refuses to break her promise to Mr. M’Swat. Sybylla is devastated at having to leave Caddagat, her home, and Mrs. Bossier and Aunt Helen, whom she adores. In her remaining time, Caddagat seems to get only more beautiful, and the older Sybylla—who’s narrating the story—reveals that she is crying as she writes about the place.
Once again, Mrs. Bossier’s commitment to traditional values and convention stands in the way of Sybylla’s wishes. Mrs. Bossier is willing to ask Mrs. Melvyn to reconsider the decision, which implies that Mrs. Bossier herself wants Sybylla to stay, but her respect for traditional family structures prevents her from helping Sybylla more forcefully. Mrs. Melvyn has no sympathy for Sybylla’s desire to stay at Caddagat, since she is more practical than Sybylla and opposes the idea that Sybylla would prioritize her own happiness over the responsibility to family. As Caddagat loses its permanence in Sybylla’s life, it becomes more beautiful, suggesting that its beauty comes in part from the contrast to the rest of Sybylla’s life in the “real world.”
Themes
Sybylla leaves Caddagat on a hot Wednesday afternoon. Aunt Helen kisses Sybylla’s hand and tells her that everyone at Caddagat will miss her. She reminds Sybylla to stay positive and reassures her that things will be better than Sybylla imagines. As Sybylla leaves, she hopes Helen will miss her at least a little, and she wonders where Harold is.
Aunt Helen displays her aversion to cynicism by encouraging Sybylla to take an optimistic outlook. Sybylla, though, demonstrates her natural tendency towards insecurity and pessimism when she wonders if her family at Caddagat will miss her at all, right after Helen assures her that they will all miss her.
Themes
