# The Consultation explained — Anna Karenina

> Chapter companion for Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

## What happens

The Shcherbatsky family holds a medical consultation for Kitty, who has been ill since the winter. A celebrated physician examines her, dismissing her modesty as a 'relic of barbarism.' He and the family doctor debate her treatment, ultimately recommending a trip abroad to the Soden waters, though the celebrated doctor is skeptical of foreign medicine. Kitty feels the entire process is absurd, her heartbreak being the true illness, but she pretends to be cheerful for her mother's sake.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Misunderstanding

Kitty's emotional suffering (heartbreak) is completely misunderstood and misdiagnosed by the doctors, who focus solely on physical symptoms, isolating her in her true pain.

### Hypocrisy and Social Pretense

The celebrated doctor's false expertise and the entire performative consultation are a social pretense. Kitty must also pretend to be interested in the proposed cure to comfort her mother.

## Character check-ins

### Kitty Shcherbatskaya

Physically ill and wasting away, but her condition is rooted in heartbreak and shame. She finds the medical examination ludicrous and is forced to pretend cheerfulness for her mother.

### Princess Shcherbatskaya

Distracted and feels guilty for Kitty's state. She defers to the celebrated doctor's authority and becomes more cheerful after he prescribes a course of action.

### Prince Shcherbatsky

Sees through the medical farce, furious at the doctor's conceit and fully comprehending the emotional cause of Kitty's illness. He withdraws in contempt.

### Family Doctor

Timidly suggests a tuberculous process and moral causes, but is overruled by the celebrated physician. He respectfully defers to his colleague's opinion.

## Key lines

> "Conceited blockhead!" he thought, as he listened to the celebrated doctor’s chatter about his daughter’s symptoms.

The prince internally scorns the doctor as a pompous fool.

_Highlights the prince's clear-sighted contempt for the social performance of medicine._

> All her illness and treatment struck her as a thing so stupid, ludicrous even! Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken.

Kitty views the medical treatment as pointless because her real sickness is emotional heartbreak, not physical.

_Core insight into the true nature of Kitty's ailment, contrasting physical and emotional cure._

> He maintained, with peculiar satisfaction, it seemed, that maiden modesty is a mere relic of barbarism...

The doctor argues that a young woman's modesty during an exam is an outdated notion.

_Illustrates the doctor's arrogance and the violation of personal dignity under the guise of science._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se/chapters/part-ii-i
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se/chapters