My Brilliant Career

by

Miles Franklin

Mrs. M’Swat Character Analysis

Mrs. M’Swat is the matriarch of the M’Swat family, whom Sybylla comes to work for after her father falls into the debt of Mr. M’Swat. Mrs. M’Swat is untidy and uncultured, and she overly indulges her children by taking their side when Sybylla tries to discipline them for misbehaving during lessons. Sybylla attributes this lack of discipline to Mrs. M’Swat’s ignorance, believing that Mrs. M’Swat does not know how to properly run a household. Mrs. M’Swat lacks the refined femininity of Sybylla’s relatives, and her character exemplifies how poverty and ignorance can corrupt traditional feminine values like domesticity. However, Sybylla’s representation of Mrs. M’Swat does not dehumanize the woman: Sybylla respects Mrs. M’Swat’s good nature and her faithfulness to her husband, and she especially respects Mrs. M’Swat’s ability to suffer through childbirth so many times. Further, Sybylla envies Mrs. M’Swat’s ability to be content with no ambitions. This envy suggests that although a peasant woman does not fit the 19th-century ideal of femininity, she is not entirely isolated from social groups because she is understood by other peasants.

Mrs. M’Swat Quotes in My Brilliant Career

The My Brilliant Career quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. M’Swat or refer to Mrs. M’Swat. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 28 Quotes

Mrs M’Swat was a great, fat, ignorant, pleasant-looking woman, shockingly dirty and untidy. Her tremendous, flabby, stockingless ankles bulged over her unlaced hobnailed boots; her dress was torn and unbuttoned at the throat, displaying one of the dirtiest necks I have seen. It did not seem to worry her that the infant she hold under her arm like a roll of cloth howled killingly, while the other little ones clung to her skirts, attempting to hide their heads in its folds like so many emus.

Related Characters: Sybylla (speaker), Mrs. M’Swat
Page Number: 187
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

After Mrs M’Swat it was a rest, a relief, a treat, to hear my mother’s cultivated voice, and observe her lady-like and refined figure as she moved about; and, what a palace the place seemed in comparison to Barney’s Gap! simply because it was clean, orderly, and bore traces of refinement; for the stamp of indigent circumstances was legibly imprinted upon it, and many things which had been considered "done for" when thirteen months before I had left home, were still in use

Related Characters: Sybylla (speaker), Mrs. Melvyn, Mrs. M’Swat
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mrs. M’Swat Quotes in My Brilliant Career

The My Brilliant Career quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. M’Swat or refer to Mrs. M’Swat. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Womanhood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 28 Quotes

Mrs M’Swat was a great, fat, ignorant, pleasant-looking woman, shockingly dirty and untidy. Her tremendous, flabby, stockingless ankles bulged over her unlaced hobnailed boots; her dress was torn and unbuttoned at the throat, displaying one of the dirtiest necks I have seen. It did not seem to worry her that the infant she hold under her arm like a roll of cloth howled killingly, while the other little ones clung to her skirts, attempting to hide their heads in its folds like so many emus.

Related Characters: Sybylla (speaker), Mrs. M’Swat
Page Number: 187
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

After Mrs M’Swat it was a rest, a relief, a treat, to hear my mother’s cultivated voice, and observe her lady-like and refined figure as she moved about; and, what a palace the place seemed in comparison to Barney’s Gap! simply because it was clean, orderly, and bore traces of refinement; for the stamp of indigent circumstances was legibly imprinted upon it, and many things which had been considered "done for" when thirteen months before I had left home, were still in use

Related Characters: Sybylla (speaker), Mrs. Melvyn, Mrs. M’Swat
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis: