The afternoon sky huddles darkly against the window, while steam from a pot of brown rice boiling on the stove rolls along my kitchen ceiling like great swathes of mist along a river. I read My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin a few weeks ago, and now, the steam gathering in the ceiling reminds me of mist and rivers, and the bush.
But this book has significance well beyond its evocative and lovingly wrought descriptions of the Australian bush. My Brilliant Career is the honest and intelligent outpourings of a young woman dismayed at the narrowness of her future, and determined to defy conventions.
Stella Miles Franklin's potential to be a brilliant singer and pianist was crushed due to her family's reduced financial circumstances. Amidst the grinding poverty and unrelenting labour of her family's drought-stricken dairy farm, she wrote both prolifically and honestly of her disappointments, frustrations, fears, and aspirations, channelling them all into the fictional character of Sybylla Melvyn, who is similarly trapped by circumstance and gender.
At the age of eighteen, she manically 'scribbled' (as she called it) at My Brilliant Career for about six months before sending it off to several publishers with no success. Finally, she sent it to Henry Lawson, who took it to an agent responsible for notables such as H.G. Wells, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad. And thus, by the time she was twenty-two years old, Stella Miles Franklin's brilliant career was launched...
Miles Franklin was one of those rare individuals able to think outside of what society perceived as 'normal'. This is most clear in her literary creation, Sybylla, who cuts a most unusual figure amongst the placid, ringletted, self-sacrificing maidens who populated much Nineteenth Century fiction. Franklin's outspoken and ambitious heroine rips away at the very fabric constructing these stereotypes.
Sybylla radically challenges even contemporary notions of gender. She is self-centred, sharply intelligent, strong-willed, and has a clear notion of what she wants out of life. Her realistic flaws, her youth, truthfulness, and courage make her one of the most endearing characters in Australian literature
Her stubborn refusal to marry stems from an all too real threat faced by women of her time. With no birth control, marriage meant endless pregnancies, possible health complications, many children, and economic dependence on a male. The negative implications of marriage are illustrated in Sybylla's unhappy, and trapped mother, who has nine other children and a feckless, alcoholic husband.
Sybylla, naturally, envisions a better future for herself. But more than that, she sees that she has the right to claim space in the world for herself, to realise fulfilment well beyond the boundaries of the domestic sphere and their small-minded rural community.
Finally, narrative tension in My Brilliant Career hinges on Sybylla's willingness to compromise; will she bow to the immense pressure on all sides and accept her 'fate' as a woman, or will she stubbornly continue: independent and free, but alone and unloved?
It is interesting then, how this key tension in the novel played out in Franklin's real life. In the novel, Sybylla essentially has to choose between her career as a writer, and her suitor, Harold Beechum. In real life, Stella Miles Franklin must choose between conforming to her family's needs, or striking out on her own.
Tellingly, after the novel was published, Franklin was effectively cut off from her family and community, most of whom were scandalised by the book as they wrongly assumed it was purely autobiographical.
Franklin never fully repaired the rift with her family, but nonetheless led a full, brave, and vibrant life, as a writer, committed feminist and social activist.
Eventually, Miles Franklin was yet again forced to make a harrowing decision; between continuing the much needed fight for women's rights, or devoting herself body and soul to writing...
Here is a link to a review to the 1979 film of My Brilliant Career:
2 comments:
he he I always thought Miles was a man. Thanks for the heads up, I'll put book on my 'to read' list
me too - and ditto it is now on my must read list
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