Girl With A Pearl Earring (Page 61-117)

Title: Girl with a Pearl Earring
Author: Tracy Chevalier
Page 61-117

Summary
As days when on, Griet had gotten used to the mistreatments of Catherina and Tanneke and her duties as a maid in the Vermeer household, her favorite part of being a maid was to clean the Johannes’ studio. Her talent to clean the studio “without moving anything” was superb. Griet only had to clean the room and then put the objects were they were. There had been some interaction between Griet and Johannes, but barely they saw each other. One day, while Griet was doing some errands for her mistress, Priet the son informed her about the plague near her family’s house. A sudden quarantine was place there. With fear and anguish, Griet runs down to the Vermeers and asked them to let her go. Except, Catherine rejected her request, Griet was not allow to return to her house for many weeks. During those weeks, Johannes had finally finish his portray of van Ruijven’s wife. The patrons were elated to see the final result. Anyhow, as the quarantine had been finally lifted, Griet received the news that her younger sister Agnes had died because of the plague. Grieve and sorrow came to Griet’s family, everyone became distant. On the other hand, Catherine gave labor to her baby. One perished and another life flourished. The Vermeers hosted a celebration party, which led Griet to distract herself from her family’s sorrow. The party was the only event that kept the house festive for the whole year of 1664. In 1665, Johannes had begun to paint another painting, thanks to Griet while she was cleaning the dusty windows in the studio. The streaks of sunlight illuminated Griet’s face while she turn toward him, this event led to her being more involve with this talented painter. From that moment on, Griet had begun to help his master by crushing bones to create paint or other errands behind her mistress’s back. Griet began to assist him while he painted the portrait of the baker’s daughter. Despite the hard time Tanneke gave her, after she found out several weeks after the master began to order Griet, Griet was still satisfied to spend time with him.

Quote
“The shock of his touch made me drop the muller, which rolled off the table and fell on the floor” (Chevalier 103).

Reaction
Chevalier’s transitions from time to time had been excellent. As 1664 ends, 1665 begins; the story takes a dramatic turn as Griet helps her master do another painting of the baker’s wife. In these series of pages, the narrator and Vermeer became more close to each other. Compared to the exposition, both maid and master work together to finish this painting. Despite keeping it a secret with the rest of the world, the interaction between these two develop a strong relationship with each other, maid and master. I assume that Griet might fall for Vermeer, which would be strange since he is already married to a haughty wife. The quote above comes from the passage when Vermeer showed her how to grind bones in order to create black paint. The touch of his master made Griet embarrassed, there are complex feelings Griet developed toward his master. They might be admiration, gratitude, curiosity or maybe love?