Reader's response - "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

SUMMARY
Griet is a sixteen year old girl, who lives in a simple house with her parents and two siblings; younger sister and an older brother. They do not have much, especially after Griet’s father accident at the tile factory, where he used to work before losing his sight. For this reason, Griet’s father gets a job for Griet, as a maid in a wealthy family outside their province to help financially her family; it means she will have to live with them and come home only on Sundays. When she gets to her new family’s house, she meets the six children of Catharina and the painter, Johannes van Vermeer. On her first day, Tanneke, the older maid, shows her the house and explain some of the house chorus; cooking, laundry, ironing, sewing and cleaning. Besides all the work inside of the house, Griet will also have to go to the Market Square for groceries and to Meat Hall for meat and fish from Pieter, the butcher. Even though, Griet was hired to help Tanneke she also has a very specific task; she is the only one allowed to clean the painter’s studio, which makes Tanneke jealous. Griet does not see much her master at the house; he is always busy at the studio painting or at the Guild. House work seems endless and Griet feels little lonely in the house, but on Sundays she goes home and tells everything about the Vermeer’s to her family. When she learns about a plague in her province through Pieter the son, she wishes to go home. However, her master’s family makes her stay with them because they worry Griet might infect the family. Few days later, Pieter the son tells Griet her sister, Agnes, is very ill. She cannot do much about her sister, so she thanks Pieter for let her know about Agnes. When she looks at Pieter’s eyes she sees kindness, but also expectation; something that she had feared.

THE PART I LIKED
When Griet goes home after her first week at Vermeer’s, from page 45 to 48, she is very excited in seeing her family again. Agnes, her younger sister, is so happy in having Griet back that she can’t stop asking Griet about her new life at Vermeer’s. Although, Griet’s parents are glad in seeing her, they are worried about how much work she has been doing; Griet’s father holds her hands and feels how rough and worn they are. I like this moment because while I was reading I could feel Griet’s happiness and her family’s in being together after six days apart. However, my favorite part of this reunion is when Griet is describing to her father the new painting her master is working on. The fact her father cannot see, after a work accident, makes her work harder in describe an image using words. Griet describes it so well that her father can feel through Griet’s words that being in Vermeer’s studio is the best part about her new life; even though, she does not answer her father when he asks, it is clear Griet’s answer.

THE PART I FOUND CONFUSING
When Griet and Maria Thins are at Vermeer’s studio looking the painting in process of van Ruijven’s wife (page 36). It is the first time Griet sees one of the Vermeer’s painting and wishes to be the woman from the painting; wears the mantle and the pearls. Plus, she whishes to know who painted van Ruijven’s wife, which I think it is confusing because she knows Vermeer is the painter; she has been cleaning his studio and living at the same house with him and his family. So I wonder why she thinks about meeting the man who painted Ruijven’s wife.

QUESTIONS
- Why did van Ruijven buy the painting of Tanneke pouring milk? She is just a maid and she is not even his maid, but van Vermeer’s.
- I wonder why Griet is the only one allowed to clean van Vermeer’s studio. She is the newest of the maids in the house, so I think would make more sense if any of the ones who has been working for longer time would do the job. However, why do they trust more in a new maid?

INTERPRETATION
I think this story is not only about the relationship between muse, Griet, and painter, van Vermeer, but It is also about the process of becoming a woman. Griet is used to have the protection of her parents and people of her province, so the moment she leaves them to live with van Vermeer’s family in another province, she feels vulnerable. This is when Griet starts feeling the real world through Tanneke’s jealousy and Pieter’s desire; she is not naïve anymore.