Aahana Swrup
‘My Brilliant Career’ is a period drama series created by Liz Doran, set in 1900 Australia, where an aspiring young woman wrestles with the discrepancy between her own dreams and society’s expectations for her. Sybylla Melvyn is a farm girl who grows up with ambitions of becoming a writer. As she comes of age to enter society, her wealthy grandmother extends an invitation to her estate at Caddagat, where she plans to polish her up and introduce her to the marital market.
In turn, the young woman, with a sharp wit and even sharper pen, has plans of her own that involve soaking in as many new experiences as possible to fuel her creative drive. However, a wrench is thrown in her plan when she seemingly meets her match in Harry Beechum, the most wanted bachelor in town. Thus, caught between daughterly duties and her own desires, Sybylla learns the cost of love and independence. In exploring this vivid inner world of a young woman in the 20th century, the Netflix coming-of-age series finds an authentic and accessible narrative.
My Brilliant Career is Based on Miles Franklin’s Novel From the 1900s
‘My Brilliant Career’ sports an intriguing origin in reality. The show is a TV adaptation of the eponymous novel, an Australian classic, written by Miles Franklin. The book itself is a piece of literary fiction that delves into the life of a young girl in the 1900s. Although the author has reportedly denied the speculation that tha the novel is derived from her own life and experiences, the beats of her life evidently share many similarities with the narrative of her bookish protagonist. Franklin was born in 1879, at a time when marriage and motherhood were a part of society’s expectations for women.
However, much like Sybylla, the author also showed little to no interest in marrying and instead sported ambitions of becoming a writer. At the age of 19, Franklin finished her first novel, ‘My Brilliant Career,’ and by the age of 20, she began submitting her work to publishers in hopes of jumpstarting her career. After facing plenty of rejection, she finally struck gold when she reached out to Henry Lawson, a poet and the young author’s personal hero. With his help, she was able to finally get published in 1901, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Franklin, like many other female authors before and after her, chose a masculine pen name while revealing her true gender in the novel’s preface. Additionally, though the author received many marriage proposals, true to her word, she never ended up marrying, defying the societal expectations of a domestic, wifely life. Thus, even though the details of Franklin’s life swerve from her literary heroine’s narrative, the two evidently share much in terms of their ambitions, passion, and ideologies. Therefore, though not entirely autobiographical, ‘My Brilliant Career’ certainly inherits an influence from the life of its author. Philippa Northeast, the lead actress in the Netflix adaptation of the story, recognized the same and delved into some research on Franklin’s life in preparation for her role as the fictitious Sybylla.
My Brilliant Career Depicts Female Agency Through a Historical Lens
One of the core themes of ‘My Brilliant Career’ revolves around Sybylla’s professional aspirations and their inherent clash against romance in a patriarchal society. For the protagonist, the expectations of marriage and a domestic life arrive as the central conflict in a story about a young woman’s pursuit of her ambitions. When Sybylla is sent ot her grandmother’s house, it’s with the assumption that she will secure a good proposal for herself. Although the writer has no outward interest in the same, it’s a custom that she has to entertain, oftentimes to the detriment of her own desires.
Likewise, when Sybylla begins to experience romance for the first time, it develops friction against her own philosophies. Therefore, her struggle with obtaining agency over her life and her choice, in defiance of society and her own heart, presents a key thematic pillar to the story. This conflict, though defined through the protagonist’s existence as a woman in the 20th century, still deeply resonates with contemporary audiences. In a conversation with Elle, Philippa Northeast spoke about the modern relatability of Sybylla’s story.
Northeast said, “I feel so proud we’re putting this story out right now. We are seeing reversals of women’s rights around the world. It is a pretty fragile political space in a lot of countries. A story like this, told in the way we are telling it, is vital — especially for young women coming through and realizing that there is still a need to fight for your own independence and agency. It’s not a matter of sitting back and hoping these things will come to you.”
My Brilliant Career Adds Authentic Diversity to Miles Franklin’s Original Story
‘My Brilliant Career’ remains faithful to its source material, despite the occasional divergences from literary counterparts. However, most of the changes that the show makes to Miles Franklin’s novel only work towards adding further realism and authenticity to the tale. One of the most prominent differences in the adaptation comes from its decision to rework certain supporting and secondary characters in order to depict a more diverse landscape of Australian society in 1900. Harry Beechum, the primary love interest, is written as a half-Chinese, half-white man, whose biracial identity becomes a defining aspect of his social standing in the era’s high society.
Likewise, the characters of Betty and Nell are added to the story as First Nation women, allowing the show to delve into narratives revolving around indigenous characters. Lastly, a queer storyline is added to the fray through a secretive love story that develops in the shadows. All of these additions remain unique to the series. However, they add a more historically accurate sense of diversity to Sybylla’s life. While developing these characters and their storylines, the show writers wanted to analyze Franklin’s book in the context of the reality of society in 1900 Australia, to then examine what perspectives and voices had been left out in the source material. As such, the diversity that the series adds to Sybylla’s world works in tandem with the show’s historical roots and commitment to depicting authentic stories.
Read More: Where Was My Brilliant Career Filmed?
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