University Essay: My Brilliant Career - A Feminist Critique

This essay offers a critical analysis of Miles Franklin's novel, "My Brilliant Career," examining its feminist themes, Sybylla Melvyn's struggles, and the societal constraints she faces. The essay begins with an introduction to the context of women's writing and the challenges they encountered. It summarizes the novel, focusing on the circumstances that impede Sybylla's aspirations as a writer, including poverty, gender inequality, and patriarchal expectations. The critique evaluates the novel's strengths, weaknesses, and notable features, incorporating insights from secondary sources such as Ian Henderson, Stephen Garton, Susan Magarey, and Virginia Woolf. These sources are used to explore themes of gender, marriage, and the quest for independence, comparing "My Brilliant Career" to Woolf's "A Room of One's Own." The essay concludes with an overall evaluation of the text, emphasizing its significance as a feminist critique and its portrayal of a modern woman challenging societal norms.

Running head: WOMEN’S WRITINGS
WOMEN’S WRITINGS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Earlier the women were not treated as they are treated now. There had been a huge
controversy over their empowerment and them being independent. This had largely been because
the society in which they used to live had always been ruled by the patriarchal force. This had
made them stronger personality and in any or every way they tried to confront their confinement
and move out from their shackles. The English literature and many of the novels speak about the
women and talk about feminism which lets the readers know that the women of the then times
needed a space of their own where they could breathe independently. The following essay is a
critical analysis if the novel “My Brilliant Career”, by Miles Franklins, followed by a discussion
of the summary of the novel and also a critique of the same.
Discussion:
The novel “My Brilliant Career”, had been written by Miles Franklin which had also
been adapted into films and movies. This novel is a story of a teenage girl, named Sybylla
Melvyn. Her desire was to become a writer but throughout her journey of life, she had to face a
number of challenges as the patriarchal authority had prevented her from pursuing ther career.
The story is all about gender inequality and poverty. She being poor and belonging t o the female
gender, had been forced to support her family and earn her living, and this had prevented her
from walking towards her passion. Being demeaned by her own mother many of the times, she
had been finally sent to her grandmother where she had been lucky enough to work on her
passion, and develop her confidence and self esteem. However during her stay at her
grandmother’s house, she had been proposed by a boy named Harry Beechman. She had been

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hesitant because she had always wanted to be self dependent and financially stable. She hatred
control and wanted to pursue her dream of writing. However , again the patriarchal card plays
and she had to return back to her parents and clear her father’s debts. She is bound to be working
as a governess in her home and help her parents in Possum Gully1. This ends up shattering her
passions and her dreams and she thus could not pursue her passion of becoming a writer.
The Australian novel “My Brilliant Career”, had been strong and stands as a very bright
example for the present generation women. The novel dealing with a bush girl successfully and
most efficiently deals with the three phases of Women’s literature. These phases include the
indomitable strive for gaining equality in the male dominated society, the quest for gaining
independence and portraying her personality and the third phase includes the dream of self
fulfillment. In this context the author also says that the main protagonist of the story is a brilliant
example of all the modern day women. The novel very clearly depicted Sybylla Melvyn as the
rebellious one, who knew how to raise her voice. The author of the story had to take up a
pseudonym of a male character in order to make her book publish. She often had showed her
concerns and her hope in saying that had dreamt of standing in par with all the male novelists
and writers of the then times.
Virginia Woolf’s famous novel, “A room of one’s own” can also be compared with “My
Brilliant Career”, as being the twentieth century’s greatest feminist text that spoke of a women
and her state of mind. The main plot structure of the story deals with a women who also raises
her own voice saying that in order to let a women write fiction or become a writer, she must have
the financial stability and also a space of her own, where she can ponder upon her thoughts with
1 Henderson, Ian. "Gender, genre and Sybylla's performative identity in Miles Franklin's My Brilliant
Career." Australian Literary Studies 18, no. 2 (1997): 165.

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full concentration without anyone disturbing her2. Through the fictional character of Mary Seton,
Virginia Woolf lets her alter ego speak to her audiences. She founded that there have been a
large number of books written upon women by the male writers but there had been no women
writing about themselves. The library books gave her this impetus and asked her to raise this
topic that the women could not write books because they had been poor and did not have the
money. Also it has been discussed, that when the male writers write about the women, they
concentrate upon their inferiority and not upon their success or their position in the society. This
is a clear and sheer example of them exerting their superiority through their writings. The
strength of both the novels have been that the narrator or the writer had a string belief over their
self confidence and their independence. Both the novels have been a shout out to all the men of
the society that the women need to be financially stable and independent and not have any kind
of dependency on the patriarchal society. Magarey Susan in “My Brilliant Career and
Feminism”, took a different approach to the feminist novel and wanted t explore whether there
had been any underlying causes that had compelled her to write about the novel and the character
of Sybylla3 . She discusses that the author Miles Franklins had herself in her biography sated that
she had been distracted from her literary career. She had also wanted badly to become a female
nationalist writer of Australia. She herself had wanted to have a brilliant career. This had actually
been the strength of the novel along with the novel of “A Room of one’s Own”, because both the
writer shave written a part of their story and wanted to let the entire world know about their
2 Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One’s Own (1929)." In The People, Place, and Space Reader, pp. 338-342.
Routledge, 2014.
3 Magarey, Susan. "My brilliant career and feminism." Australian Literary Studies 20, no. 4 (2002): 389.

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struggles and their distractions, along with the position of the women in the male dominated
society.
In accordance to this, Stephen Garton in his article, “Contesting Enslavement: Marriage,
Motherhood and My Brilliant Career”, discusses several issues that the women faced in their
lives and also in the presence of the male superiority4. He talked about the depiction of marriage
in the novel of “My Brilliant Career”, and wanted to say that the marriage is a social confinement
which confines the women to a legal bondage and responsibilities, not letting her pursue her
dreams. He also depicts Harold Beecham, who had given a marriage proposal to the protagonist
of the story, as a masculine entity that tries to confine the feminine power in his shackles. In this
manner, he tried to portray and represent the different politics of masculinity and femininity in
her article and letting the entire world know about the women’s dreams and their barriers.
Marriage has been depicted as a social enslavement concern for the women, both in this article as
well as in both of the novels “A Room of One’s Own”, and “My Brilliant Career”. It can also be
stated that Sybylla Melvyn and Mary Seton wanted to abstain from marriage because they
thought that marriage would stop them from being independent. Marriage has been seen as an
institution of financial dependency upon the male counterpart that has stopped the women from
pursuing their career and dreams and also has proved them inferior time and again in every
sphere of their life. Thus on an critical analysis, it can be found that the women being the
strength and the most important aspect of the novel have been the coming out of the women from
their inferiority. Challenging the male superiority have been the strength of the novel as well
because the marriage, the independence and also the passion of the women have been cultivated
and talked about.
4 Garton, Stephen. "Contesting enslavement: marriage, manhood and My Brilliant Career." Australian Literary
Studies 20, no. 4 (2002): 336.

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Conclusion:
Thus from the above critical analysis of the novel “My Brilliant Career”, by Miles
Franklin, it can be concluded that the women writers of the then times wanted to let the entire
world known about the position and the condition of the women who used to be living under the
confinement of the male patriarchy. Both the writers, Virginia Woolf and Miles Franklin had
showed their strengths in their writings and their novels speak about the women’s desires, their
struggles and their passions. They represented their alter egos in their novels and raised their
voice against gender equality saying that if a women wants to pursue her dreams of becoming a
writer, she would need financial stability , independence and her own world. This had been
impossible when they had to be dependent upon their male counterparts. Marriage, money as
well as self fulfilment have been the main criteria upon which the novelists have created their
creation. The aspects that have confined the women of the society for so long have been the most
important and the strength of the novel that eliminates the weakness of the masculine gender.
Thus it can be said that as a feminist critique, “My Brilliant Career” had been a great novel, with
all it strengths and representing the protagonist as a modern woman.

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Bibliography:
Garton, Stephen. "Contesting enslavement: marriage, manhood and My Brilliant
Career." Australian Literary Studies 20, no. 4 (2002): 336.
Henderson, Ian. "Gender, genre and Sybylla's performative identity in Miles Franklin's My
Brilliant Career." Australian Literary Studies 18, no. 2 (1997): 165.
Magarey, Susan. "My brilliant career and feminism." Australian Literary Studies 20, no. 4
(2002): 389.
Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One’s Own (1929)." In The People, Place, and Space Reader, pp.
338-342. Routledge, 2014.