Kitty's first venture into womanhood, resulting in failure, makes her retreat back into a dependence on her family. Having suffered deep humiliation on the very occasion she was intoxicated by her attractiveness and femininity (the moment when she looked with love at Vronsky) her reaction is to deny her womanhood. Kitty's physical illness expresses the violence of her denial. Kitty's immaturity is shown by her choice of Vronsky over Levin: Still influenced by her mother, she lacks the self-knowledge which would prompt her to choose accurately.
Kitty's crisis confuses her mother's sense of duty. While realizing she was wrong to influence her child, Princess Shtcherbatsky feels it is wrong not to guide her daughter. Besides touching on the difficulty of communication between generations, Tolstoy shows that judgments based on social principles rather than emotional values lead to disappointment and disillusion.
