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Illustrated portrait of Mrs. Garstin

A character in The Painted Veil

Mrs. Garstin

Kitty's ambitious mother, who treats marriage as her daughters' route to rank and shapes the values Kitty must later unlearn.

What they want

To achieve the social rank Bernard failed to win by arranging advantageous futures for her husband and daughters.

The book

Cover of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
The Painted VeilW. Somerset Maugham, 1925

After an affair destroys her marriage, a young Englishwoman enters a cholera epidemic and begins the harder work of understanding herself.

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At a glance

Residence
South Kensington, London
Marriage
Bernard Garstin's wife
Children
Kitty and Doris
Central ambition
A judgeship for Bernard and high-status marriages

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Mrs. Garstin organizes the family around social advancement. She pushes Bernard toward Parliament and a judgeship, manages appearances beyond their means, and measures her daughters by the marriages they can secure. Kitty receives affection while beauty seems useful; Doris receives criticism because her prospects appear smaller.

Her pressure does not remove Kitty's responsibility for marrying Walter, but it explains why Kitty experiences Doris's engagement as an emergency. Mrs. Garstin has taught both daughters that a woman's future depends on finding a man with enough income and position.

The ending does not excuse Mrs. Garstin, but it reduces her ambitions to their final scale. She dies just before Bernard receives the colonial appointment she spent years trying to obtain for him. Her success arrives too late for her to know it.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Fifty, thin, and erectShe has prominent cheekbones, a large well-shaped nose, and the straight posture of someone always presenting herself to a room.
  • Smooth black hairHer abundant hair is so carefully maintained that Kitty suspects its color has been touched up.
  • Restless black eyesEven while speaking, she scans people and rooms, judging status and opportunity.
  • A polished social voiceShe can keep conversation moving at a dinner, though the ease of her speech often hides criticism and calculation.
  • An impassive faceHer smooth, unlined expression barely changes while her eyes continue assessing everyone around her.
  • Grand in ceremonial dressThe family photograph Kitty keeps shows her in the velvet gown, train, feathers, and flowers she wore when Bernard became King's Counsel.
Mrs. Garstin's deathHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

She dies while Kitty is returning from China, before learning that Bernard has been appointed Chief Justice of the Bahamas. Kitty sees that her mother helped make her shallow, but also recognizes the pathos of a life spent pursuing goals that death makes meaningless.

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