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Chapter 26
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
Frank Hawden drives Sybylla away from Caddagat, and the two of them part on good terms. When she gets on her second carriage, she leans out the window and waves to Hawden until he is out of sight.
Even though Sybylla’s relationship with Hawden has been nothing but contentious, on her final day at Caddagat, she loses her grudge against him. He becomes not an entitled man, but a part of Caddagat itself. Just as the estate became more beautiful when Sybylla had to leave it, her opinion of Hawden takes on a rosy tint now that she is leaving him behind.
Themes
For the next leg of the journey, Sybylla rides in a large coach with sixteen passengers, of which she is the only woman. The other passengers are a diverse mix of races and professions, and they are all kind to her. Before they reach their destination, however, the horses tire out, forcing the passengers to walk the hilly route for miles in the heat. This irritates them, and they make many rude jokes and comments to the driver as they walk.
As Sybylla leaves Caddagat, she is thrust back into reality. Unlike at Caddagat, she lacks the company and protection of other women. She lacks the ease of life she was used to at the estate, as the horses tire out and the travelers are forced to walk. She is also confronted with more diversity than she ever saw at Caddagat, where she spent time primarily with wealthy relatives and guests and occasionally with laborers and traveling vagrants. But her experience on the journey is positive: the men are kind to her, and they include her in their jokes as they walk. This suggests that the utopia of Caddagat is not really so superior to the rest of the world––it’s only simpler.
Themes
Despite the delay of the coach, Sybylla and her fellow passengers manage to catch their train. The men take special care of her: they get her ticket, save her a seat, and carry her luggage. Sybylla enjoys the rush of the train, which moves too quickly to give her time to linger in her thoughts.
The kindness and courtesy of the other travelers shows that good manners are not restricted to the educated classes. Sybylla tends to associate chivalry and other qualities of true manhood to the refined upper class, but each member of the diverse group of travelers behaves like a gentleman towards Sybylla.
Themes
When the train reaches Sybylla’s stop, she thanks the men for their kindness, and they express their hope that some of them might meet again. The train pulls away, and Sybylla stands alone of the platform. She feels utterly alone. Mr. M’Swat picks her up at the platform, and they depart without a word to each other.
The swift shift from the jovial company of the travelers to the solitude of the train station, followed by the silent ride with Mr. M’Swat, foreshadows the loneliness that will overtake Sybylla in the coming chapters. The world outside Caddagat is not as universally negative as Sybylla anticipated, but she will have to face more hardship than she did in her sheltered life on the estate.
Themes
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