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These chapters cover Kitty at the German spa where she has
gone to recover her health. You recall that after she turned
down Levin\'s marriage proposal, she became so depressed and
anxious that her doctors suggested she go away.
NOTE: It was common for wealthy 19th-century Europeans to go
yearly to a spa--a country resort built near a mineral spring.
The water from the spring was believed to have curative powers.
\"Taking the waters\" became an expression meaning \"to go to a
spa.\"
While at a spa, guests bathed in and drank mineral water,
followed special diets and exercise programs. Vacationing at a
spa was a \"rest cure\" for illness, anxiety, and the
hustle-bustle of daily life.
Kitty\'s plan for self-improvement while at the spa backfires
in a highly ironic way. She decides to model herself after a
girl named Varenka who takes care of ailing elderly people.
Kitty admires Varenka\'s apparent selflessness.
Kitty befriends an elderly couple. The husband becomes so
fond of her that his wife comes to suspect Kitty\'s intentions.
Kitty thus realizes that she is not at heart a professional
do-gooder. She wishes to devote herself to her family and
friends, not to strangers. She also realizes that she wants to
marry and have children--that Varenka\'s solitary life, devoid of
all sensual pleasure, is not for her.
Kitty\'s realization is her most important step toward
maturity. She stops patterning herself after others--Varenka,
for example, and her mother\'s vision of a socially accomplished
young noblewoman--and comes to terms with what she herself
wants. Kitty is a heroine in Tolstoy\'s eyes. She goes through
the difficult process of getting to know herself; her struggle
may not be as philosophical and torturous as Levin\'s, but she
does suffer, and she doesn\'t give up until she has achieved true
clarity. Tolstoy also considers Kitty a heroine because she
wants above all to devote herself to her husband and children.
Kitty doesn\'t back into this choice; she fights for it. Some
readers feel that Kitty, because she is the quintessential wife
and mother, is not a modern \"liberated\" woman. But keep in mind
that Kitty has the grit to hold out for what she wants, and that
is a form of liberation.
By ending Part II with Kitty\'s illumination, Tolstoy sharpens
the suspense. Surely Kitty\'s newly won maturity will bear on
the plot of the novel. Tolstoy gives you a hint of what will
happen by starting Part III with Levin.
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