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Chapter 33
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
Gertie initially sends many letters from Caddagat, but she sends fewer as time goes on. Mrs. Bossier mentions in one of her own letters that Gertie is much less wild than Sybylla, and very popular for her good looks. Sybylla still misses Caddagat, but Gertie’s letters imply that the residents of Caddagat do not miss Sybylla.
Gertie’s letters about Caddagat do not comfort Sybylla; they only emphasize how far away Sybylla is from the one place she considers home. Though Sybylla worships Caddagat as her far-off utopia, the residents of Caddagat have taken to Gertie just as they did Sybylla. This reawakens Sybylla’s insecurities about her lovability compared to her sister, and Caddagat becomes another reminder of the lack of love in Sybylla’s life.
Themes
A few months later, Sybylla receives several letters from Caddagat informing her that Harold Beecham has moved back to Five-Bob Downs with his fortune intact. An old sweetheart of Harold’s father left her wealth to the son of her lost love, and Sybylla is struck by how like a piece of fiction that seems. Her relief that Harold does not need her to save his finances makes Sybylla realize that she does not love him. She thinks that now that Harold is rich, she is free from her obligation, and he will have his choice of beautiful women.
Harold’s experience with poverty is much shorter than Sybylla’s, and regaining his fortune requires little effort on his part. Sybylla’s remark that Harold’s luck seems like a piece of fiction emphasizes her literary mindset, while also poking fun at the contrived nature of the story itself. Now that her marriage to Harold will not be an act of support for a fellow pauper, Sybylla realizes she does not want to go through with the wedding. She assumes this won’t be an issue, since now that Harold is rich, he can have his pick of many more desirable women.
Themes
Sybylla writes to Harold, and he responds that he will come to marry her within the month now that he has his fortune. Sybylla rips his letter in two and drops it in the fire. She knows he is a determined man, and since he made up his mind to marry her he will not think of doing otherwise. But Sybylla “see[s] what he could not see himself”: that Harold is likely bored of Sybylla and is becoming enamored by Gertie’s beauty.
Once again, Sybylla convinces herself that Harold does not love her. She is disappointed to learn that she can’t get out of the marriage as easily as she hoped, but her assumption that he has fallen in love with Gertie conveys that she is disappointed to have lost Harold’s love. Of course, she hasn’t lost his love, but Sybylla believes that she can “see what he could not,” implying that she knows Harold better than he knows himself.
Themes
Sybylla writes back to Harold in a formal letter. She tells him he is free of obligations to her, and she hopes he will choose someone better for him. As she sends the letter, Harold seems far away––“the shadow of a former age.” Harold writes back, confused, and asks Sybylla to explain. When she does, he writes her a short, impersonal letter, which says he has “sufficient manhood” to stop him from taking his frustration out on her. He does not ask for Sybylla’s reasoning.
Sybylla’s experience at Barney’s Gap has forced her to mature, and her happy, youthful romance with Harold seems “the shadow of a former age”: a remnant from her youth at Caddagat. Sybylla, who loves to express herself with words, indicates her lack of interest in Harold by keeping her language terse and formal. Harold mimics this when he accepts her rejection. His reference to having “sufficient manhood” speaks to Harold’s journey to define manhood as he grows up, which has run parallel to Sybylla’s own journey of maturity.
Themes
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As Sybylla reads Harold’s final letter, her image of him becomes clearer. She imagines sitting with him in an orchard and watching rage settle over him as he reads her rejection. She insists Harold will soon get over “a woman, a girl, a child! as weak and insignificant as I.” When they meet again, Sybylla is sure that they will laugh at their youthful foolishness.
Sybylla is so convinced that she knows what Harold is thinking that she believes she can imagine his reaction to her letter perfectly. She belittles herself by calling herself “a girl, a child,” which is similar to the language she used when making fun of Frank Hawden for his marriage proposal. As she assumes she knows Harold’s thoughts, Sybylla thinks he will come to see her in the same negative light she sees herself.
Themes
Sybylla’s romantic notions of love have vanished, like all her other dreams. She has not realized how close she came to loving Harold until she grieves the loss of him in her life. The best thing in life is knowing that somewhere in the world there is “an individual to whom our existence is necessary.” The only people who can devote so much of themselves to each other are husband and wife, and Sybylla has thrown away the chance to make that connection. But as Gertie’s letters reveal she and Harold are growing closer, and Mrs. Bossier and Aunt Helen come to approve of the match, Sybylla knows she has made the right decision. Still, she is bitter that love has proven to be exclusively for the beautiful and that she will forever be a lonely “alien among her own kin.”
Sybylla does not want to marry Harold, but she still craves love, and she has given up her best opportunity at securing it. She has matured past romantic notions of wild, passionate love, and she now defines love as feeling that someone’s “existence is necessary.” This description is simple yet profound, which speaks to Sybylla’s growth. Gertie and Harold grow closer, and Sybylla’s assumption that he will fall for her sister seems to be validated when Mrs. Bossier and Aunt Helen also see the potential for a match. Despite her maturity, Sybylla cannot help but envy her beautiful sister, as Sybylla resigns herself to a life alone. Her description of being “an alien among [her] own kin” highlights Sybylla’s fear of being eternally misunderstood, which she now believes has come true.
Themes
Sybylla worries for her younger brother Horace, who has grown frustrated of the slow life at Possum Gully and is leaving the family home to work for their uncle. Sybylla watches him go and is miserable that she has failed to save him from her own “sparsely furnished existence.” She often quarreled with Horace, but he was the only one who ever stood up for Sybylla in family arguments. She misses his presence in the house.
Sybylla sees some of herself in Horace, who is tired of the monotony of Possum Gully. But Horace does not pursue a “brilliant career,” instead trading a life of labor at Possum Gully for a life of labor at their uncle’s house. Sybylla feels guilty that she couldn’t help Horace achieve something greater than her own life. Sybylla cherishes beauty in all its forms, so her description of her life as “sparsely furnished” demonstrates how empty and unappealing she finds her existence.
Themes
