# Mother — My Brilliant Career character guide > Mother in My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. **Role:** supporting **Also known as:** Mother **First appearance:** 0005-ii-an-introduction-to-possum-gully ## Snapshot Sybylla's worn, practical mother at Possum Gully, who writes to her own mother of her daughter's faults and accepts charity to keep the family fed. ## Who they are Lucy Melvyn runs a household on shrinking means, and her daughter's dreamy recalcitrance reads to her as laziness, illness, or plain badness. She hands Sybylla's failings to her mother in letters, a betrayal Sybylla feels keenly, yet she also arranges the Caddagat visit that will change her daughter's life. Her weary pragmatism is the counterweight to Sybylla's artistic hunger, and the ache between them runs under the whole book. ## Relationships ### [Sybylla Penelope Melvyn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/sybylla_penelope_melvyn) _family_ A strained mother-daughter relationship marked by conflict over Sybylla's unconventional ambitions and behavior. ### [Father Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/father_peter) _family_ A married couple strained by financial hardship and differing temperaments, with Father Peter often passive. ### [Joe Harris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/joe_harris) _professional_ A servant or laborer relationship, with Joe Harris working under Mother's direction on the farm. ### [Grannie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/grannie) _family_ A mother-daughter relationship marked by generational tension and differing views on propriety. ### [Gertie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/gertie) _family_ A familial relationship, likely aunt-niece or close family friend, with Mother acting as a maternal figure. ### [Sybylla Penelope Melvyn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/sybylla_penelope_melvyn) _family_ A strained mother-daughter relationship marked by conflict over Sybylla's unconventional ambitions and behavior. ### [Joe Harris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/joe_harris) _professional_ A servant or laborer relationship, with Joe Harris working under Mother's direction on the farm. ### [Father Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/father_peter) _family_ A married couple strained by financial hardship and differing temperaments, with Father Peter often passive. ### [Grannie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/grannie) _family_ A mother-daughter relationship marked by generational tension and differing views on propriety. ### [Father Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/father_peter) _family_ A married couple strained by financial hardship and differing temperaments, with Father Peter often passive. ### [Gertie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/gertie) _family_ A familial relationship, likely aunt-niece or close family friend, with Mother acting as a maternal figure. ### [Grannie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/grannie) _family_ A mother-daughter relationship marked by generational tension and differing views on propriety. ## In the story ### [My Brilliant Career](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/my-brilliant-career) Sybylla's mother, who endures the family's hardships alongside her. ### [I: I Remember, I Remember](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/i-i-remember-i-remember) Sybylla's mother; worries about Sybylla's tomboyish behavior and future, but ultimately lets her be. ### [An Introduction to Possum Gully](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/ii-an-introduction-to-possum-gully) Sybylla's mother; feels dubious about her husband's ability to make a living off the small farm, but goes along with the move. ### [III: A Lifeless Life](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/iii-a-lifeless-life) Struggles to entertain the visiting farmers and is upset about having to send her children to the public school. ### [IV: A Career Which Soon Careered to an End](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/iv-a-career-which-soon-careered-to-an-end) Sybylla's mother; refined but worn down by dairy work; rises at 2-3 AM to make butter; grows thin, careworn, and often cross. ### [Disjointed Sketches and Grumbles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/v-disjointed-sketches-and-grumbles) Works alongside Sybylla and father in lifting cows and ironing. ### [A Drought Idyll](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/a-drought-idyll) Works alongside Sybylla, tending chickens and helping lift cows; described as careworn and weary. ### [VI: Revolt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/vi-revolt) Frustrated by the family's poverty, she pressures Sybylla to find work and considers breaking up the home. ### [VII: Was E’er a Rose Without Its Thorn?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/vii-was-e-er-a-rose-without-its-thorn) Writes to Aunt Helen detailing Sybylla's faults and plainness, and arranges for Sybylla to go to Caddagat; Sybylla feels betrayed by her mother's lack of discretion. ### [Self Analysis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/self-analysis) Sybylla's mother, who tries to counsel her with conventional wisdom but fails to understand her deeper struggles. ### [VIII: Possum Gully Left Behind. Hurrah! Hurrah!](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/viii-possum-gully-left-behind-hurrah-hurrah) Appears in Sybylla's thoughts as a work-roughened, temper-soured woman; her portrait at Caddagat shows a lovely, happy girl before marriage. ### [XXIX: To Life (Continued)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/xxix-to-life-continued) Refuses to allow Sybylla to return to Caddagat, as revealed in her letter to grannie. ### [Back at Possum Gully](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/xxxiii-back-at-possum-gully) Bitter and critical, she complains about her husband and children, and pressures Sybylla to return to Barney's Gap. ### [XXXV: The 3rd of December 1898](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/xxxv-the-3rd-of-december-1898) Busy with mending; greets Harold with dignity despite poverty; approves of Harold after initial impressions. ### [XXXVI: Once Upon a Time, When the Days Were Long and Hot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/xxxvi-once-upon-a-time-when-the-days-were-long-and-hot) Referenced indirectly through Sybylla's comparison of Harold's earnestness to a mother's concern. ### [XXXVII: He That Despiseth Little Things, Shall Fall Little by Little](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/xxxvii-he-that-despiseth-little-things-shall-fall-little-by-little) Scolds Sybylla for laziness and carelessness; her gentleness has been worn away by years of poverty and hard work. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/chapters/i) Scolds Sybylla for laziness and carelessness; worn down by years of poverty and hard work. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters/mother - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_brilliant_career_se/characters