The Makika family pride and its fatal consequences

Is it another death scene? I don't know yet, but The Makioka Sisters (Junichiro Tanizaki, 1943-48) takes another sharp turn toward the dramatic as youngest sister, Taeko (Koi-san), comes down with a serious infection while staying at the house of her male friend possible fiance, Okabatu (sp?). Her older sister the unmarried Yuchiko comes in to help care for the gravely ill Taeko, but things get worse and worse, and once again we see the disparity in medical care: the doctor treating her is obviously out of his league; the sisters try to get some other medical help involved, but Taeko, with her last strength, resists and protests - she cannot abide having the family doctor see that she is living with a man. She may die for this. This family crisis plays out against yet another failed marriage match-up for the pathetic Yuchiko; an intelligent and attractive older man completely breaks off their arranged courtship after he's unable to get more than a word or two out of the incredibly shy Y. He assumes, as anyone would, that she's not interested in him, but that's not the case - she's almost pathologically shy and withdrawn during each of these arranged meetings w/ potential husbands. Is she too tied to the family? Too picky? Does she have some morbid fear of sexual relationships? Is she attracted to women? JT leaves all of these possibilities open, at least a little, but I'm thinking that w will never get a definitive answer as to why Yuchiko repels or rebuffs all suitors. Of course it's in part the Makioka family pride: Just as Yuchiko can never make the effort to communicate with her potential husbands, Taeko puts her life at risk rather than reveal that she is living with a man.