Chapter 75: The Kitten – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
September arrives and Laura returns to a new school, but by November she announces she is learning nothing useful. Richard agrees she need not attend, so Laura joins The Abigails, a volunteer organization run by Winifred. Laura gravitates to the hospital’s poverty wards, where she tends to dying patients and accomplishes tasks other volunteers avoid, earning the nurses’ praise—and Winifred’s unease. Meanwhile, Winifred and Iris lunch at the Arcadian Court to devise a “stratagem” for Laura: a strategic marriage. Laura openly tells Iris that marriage is an outworn institution unrelated to love, dismissing Winifred’s concerns. Iris informs Richard she is pregnant; he responds with conventional joy. Winifred’s reaction is guarded, aware the pregnancy may increase Iris’s status. When Iris tells Laura the news, Laura asks, “Remember the kitten?”—referring to the kitten their mother had that killed her. Laura insists she knows it was not a kitten, hinting at deeper understanding of their mother’s death.
Key Events
- Laura quits school after declaring she is learning nothing useful.
- She volunteers with The Abigails, working in the hospital’s neglected poverty wards.
- Winifred and Iris meet at the Arcadian Court to discuss Laura’s debut and marriage prospects.
- Laura articulates her belief that marriage is a contract, not love, and that love has no place in a contract.
- Iris tells Richard she is pregnant; he treats it as a commercial transaction.
- Winifred reacts with feigned excitement but is privately alarmed by the shift in power.
- Iris reveals her pregnancy to Laura, who responds by asking about the kitten that killed their mother.
Character Development
- Laura Chase becomes more brittle and reckless, openly defying social expectations. She no longer seeks permission; she simply acts. Her hospital work reveals a compassion that Winifred misreads as bizarre, and her philosophical conversations show a deepening resolve to live by her own code.
- Iris Chase Griffen grows increasingly disillusioned with Winifred. She sees through Winifred’s varnish and recognizes the strings and pulleys behind her sister-in-law’s polished facade. Iris’s pregnancy gives her a new, uncertain status, and she begins to question her own complicity in the schemes around Laura.
- Winifred Griffen Prior remains fixated on control. She views Laura’s uniqueness as a flaw to be corrected through marriage, and she worries that Iris’s pregnancy will reduce her own influence.
- Richard Griffen appears only briefly but reinforces his pattern of treating Iris as a bearer of valuable goods, wagging his finger and promising “the very best doctor” at any cost.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Marriage as Transaction vs. Love as Giving: Laura’s argument that “love is giving, marriage is buying and selling” crystallizes the chapter’s central tension. Winifred’s plan for a strategic marriage treats Laura as an asset to be traded for connections.
- Control and Defiance: Winifred and Richard attempt to orchestrate Laura’s future, but Laura refuses to be managed. She quits school, chooses her own volunteer work, and openly rejects the marriage market.
- The Kitten as Symbol: The kitten that killed their mother (presumably through an allergic reaction or a fall) lingers as a symbol of hidden truths and unintended consequences. Laura’s cryptic “I know” suggests she understands more about their mother’s death than she has ever revealed.
- Pregnancy as Power Shift: Iris’s pregnancy elevates her status in Richard’s eyes but also makes her a target of Winifred’s jealousy. The unborn child becomes a new site of negotiation and control.
- Surface vs. Reality: Iris notes the incongruity between Laura’s dainty bedroom and her flinty spirit. The same contrast appears in Winifred’s glossy exterior, which Iris now recognizes as chipped enamel.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter marks a turning point in Laura’s trajectory: she officially exits formal education and enters a world of volunteer work that brings her face-to-face with death and decay, strengthening her indifference to social niceties. The conversation about marriage foreshadows the novel’s later exploration of the Chase sisters’ fates. Iris’s pregnancy introduces a new dynamic that will affect her relationship with both Richard and Winifred, and Laura’s reference to the kitten opens a mysterious thread about the mother’s death that will deepen as the story unfolds.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Laura call marriage an “outworn institution” in this chapter, and how does her view conflict with Winifred’s plans?
Laura believes marriage is a commercial contract that has nothing to do with love, which she defines as “giving.” Winifred, by contrast, sees marriage as a means of securing Laura’s future through a strategic match that benefits the family’s social standing. Laura’s defiance threatens Winifred’s scheme to present a fait accompli.
2. What does the kitten reference reveal about Laura’s state of mind?
When Iris announces her pregnancy, Laura responds not with congratulations but with a question about the kitten that killed their mother. This non sequitur suggests Laura is preoccupied with hidden causes, guilt, and the idea that appearances can be deceiving. Her insistence that she “knows” the kitten wasn’t responsible implies she has a private theory about their mother’s death—perhaps linking it to something or someone else entirely.
3. How does Iris’s pregnancy change her position within the family’s power structure?
Richard treats the pregnancy as a valuable asset, promising “the very best doctor” and placing Iris on a pedestal—but also restricting her behavior (e.g., banning gin). Winifred immediately recognizes that an heir could give Iris more influence, so she reacts with a mix of forced enthusiasm and underlying anxiety, hinting at future efforts to undermine Iris’s newfound leverage.