The Painted Veil · Chapter
LXXVIII explained
Kitty returns to Marseilles, reflecting on her shameful encounter with Charlie Townsend and her mother's letter.
What happens
Kitty returns to Marseilles, reflecting on her shameful encounter with Charlie Townsend and her mother's letter. She receives news of her mother's illness and death, and her father's unexpected letter.
Themes in this chapter
Self-Deception and Truth
Kitty struggles to understand her own actions and feels disgust and shame, yet begins to see her past self-deceptions.
Suffering and Growth
Kitty's journey and reflection on her humiliation lead her to a desire for self-respect and a recognition of the difficult path ahead.
Family and Obligation
Kitty's relationship with her mother and father is explored, highlighting the indifference and obligation that replace childhood love.
Characters to notice
- Kitty Fane
Kitty reflects on her humiliation and self-disgust after yielding to Charlie, and contemplates her future.
- Mrs. Garstin
Kitty receives a letter from her mother, who later dies after an operation.
- Bernard Garstin
Kitty's father writes to her about her mother's illness and later sends a telegram announcing her death.
- Doris
Kitty's sister writes to her about their mother's operation and her own pregnancy.
- Charles Townsend
Kitty recalls her passionate and shameful encounter with Charlie in Hong Kong.
Key passages
“She clasped her hands in supplication to what power she knew not.”
Kitty prayed to an unknown force.
Kitty's spiritual seeking after her ordeal.
“She could not understand herself. It was so unexpected. What was it that had seized her, so that, despising him, despising him with all her heart, she had yielded passionately to Charlie’s foul embrace?”
Kitty was bewildered by her own actions, having given in to Charlie despite hating him.
Kitty's internal conflict and shame over her affair with Townsend.
“She was like a person who has been stricken with sudden madness and recovering is distressed and ashamed at the grotesque things he vaguely remembers to have done when he was not himself.”
Kitty felt as if she had been temporarily insane when she succumbed to Charlie.
Kitty's attempt to rationalize her behavior.
“The way had seemed to stretch before her straight and easy and now she saw that it was a tortuous way and that pitfalls awaited her.”
Kitty realized her path forward was difficult and full of dangers.
Kitty's new awareness of life's challenges.
“How strange was the relation between parents and children! When they were small the parents doted on them... Indifference displaced the blind and instinctive love of the past.”
Kitty reflected on how the love between parents and children fades over time.
Kitty's observation on family dynamics.