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Girl with a Pearl Earring

            The story of "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" was quite moving and I appreciated the director's motion for including art aside drama. The impression that stayed with me the longest was the portrayal of 17th century Dutch life and how through Griet's low-class perspective, societal influences were strongly felt. I actually felt ashamed of my own freedoms by the end and thought Griet's actions quite honorable, at least from my modern standpoint. .
             The structure of class was a dominant theme and provided much of the conflict that developed throughout the film. Being given insight on some of the more modest households like Griet's home and the Vermeers and how class-obsessed even they were, spoke powerfully for how rank influenced everything. Sending Griet out for maid service was typical for a lower class family to do in times of turmoil when any advantage to gain money was utilized. As the story progresses the embrace of Pieter by Griet's family, expressed their desperation and need for their daughter to have a secure future. The Vermeer's standard of living was more exquisite and existed more toward the upper class. Johannes Vermeer's paintings were the main source of income for a family of nine; five children, two mistresses and two servants with more expected. Money was still an issue as paintings had to be done at a constant rate but didn't produce consistent wages and supporting the desires of Catharina left little for savings. Minor characters, VanRuijven and Pieter the Butcher, helped shed light on different levels of the society and made the whole composition of the small Dutch town more rounded and believable. VanRuijven, being a wealthy man, held the most power in the film and at the same time used it the most often through his purchase of numerous paintings and his lusty practices with maids and lower class women.
             The level to which women had influence in the world around them was strictly dependent on class.


Essays Related to Girl with a Pearl Earring

1. Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

... were Protestant. It was rare to have religious art in the northern Netherlands. Dutch art during the Baroque period focused more on genre scenes, portraits, still life, and landscapes. The Girl with a Pearl Earring was no exception to this. Vermeer mainly painted domestic interior scenes featuring women performing every day actions and portraits. Rather than being dramatic and loud like Italian, Spanish, and Flemish ... Baroque art, Dutch Baroque art was much more quieter and calm. The Girl with a Pearl Earring was created in 1665 in Delft, a city that Vermeer was born in and spent a ma...

  • Word Count: 1249
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Girl with Pearl Earring

... did close to 30 paintings. A few are "ALLEGORY OF FAITH", "MISTRESS AND MAID", and "VIEW OF DELFT". The "Girl with a Pearl Earring" Painting "Girl with A Pearl Earring". 1665-1666. Oil on Canvas. 18x16inch. 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is characteristic of Vermeer's later, more mature style. It is thought that the girl in the painting in Vermeer's youngest daughter, Maria. However, this is often causes argument because the ... not possible here. But what is interesting for this particular painting is a description of the process of the restoration. The 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' was most...

  • Word Count: 797
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Art Analysis - Girl With a Pearl Earring

... to depicting dramatic emotion in the real world. In his paintings, Vermeer took the techniques and artistic concepts of his time and placed his own, personal touch on them. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vermeer shows the concentration of his personality and emotion. By looking deeply into this painting, one will see how Vermeer's creative ability captivates the heart and mind through the simple ... ambitions, or his intentions, which would help explain his artistic vision. Most of Vermeer's art works are portraits of people; therefore, the moods are usually very quiet and graceful. This...

  • Word Count: 1342
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Girl With A Pearl Earring

... does what she has to do in order to survive in the Vermeer household, and in the process she learns a lot about living. In the book, Girl With a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, Griet enters into many new relationships with different women, and in each she learns something, and she grows as a person. Griet has a house enemy, Cornelia, a young, red headed daughter of the Vermeers ... better than her, and as if Griet does not deserve respect. She accuses Griet of stealing her pearl earrings before even checking to see if they are missing. She asks Griet hastily, "Did you steal the key t...

  • Word Count: 805
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Girl With a Pearl Earring Grie

... to marry Pieter is a sane and sensible one. Before that, she was living in a fantasy world. Do you agree? Girl With a Pearl Earring, written by Tracy Chevalier, is a novel that follows the life-changing experiences of sixteen-year-old Griet, particularly accentuated over the ... two years of her serving as a maid for the Delft painter Vermeer. While Griet lives apart from her family, she struggles to deal with reality, yearnings of love and an escape from poverty. Not her desire but marrying Pieter the son is a sane and sensible decision, instead of fooling ... herself in her own fanta...

  • Word Count: 264
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

6. A girl with a pearl earing

The Girl With The Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, is an eloquent and successful intertwining of fact and fiction. Depicting life in the 1600's with great detail, while at the same time intriguing readers with an eloquent and imaginative explanation of the mysterious painting by Vermeer. I believe that the author's goal was to do exactly this; teach readers about the artist Vermeer and his time ... period, while at the same time telling a fascinating and well-written tale. The main character is a young girl named Greit, and the story follows ... by Vermeer's capricious wife, Catharina, his...

  • Word Count: 1154
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

7. a girl with pearl earrings

The Eye in Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a pearl earring" An interpretation of Griets ability to see and its use for Vermeer and the story: In the following lines, I will focus on Griets ability to see ... Vermeer and his paintings. When Griet is at her family house chopping vegetables and placing them in strick order on the plate, the reader is for the first time confronted with young Griets unique talent of colourization'. Griet had put the vegetables slices in coloural order in a circle on the plate, the colours fitting. ("I always laid vegetables out ... have an important impact on the pe...

  • Word Count: 1106
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Girls With a Pearl Earing

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING: Character Analysis Griet: "Strangers would think I was calm Only my mother would note the tightness along my jaw, the widening of my already wide eyes." Fairly ... town again. March was the month I was born." This was perhaps significant of her unpredictable nature? "You keep your thoughts to yourself here" - Maria Thins. Treated with no respect, on her first day is put into place about her position in the household. Griet was always treated worse than anyone else in the household, notably receiving less ... willingly become a maid for a job. In regards to Tanneke'...

  • Word Count: 860
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Seeing Literature as a Mirror

... a life. The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare demonstrates the recklessness of Hamlet is the main cause of his death. Hamlets' character flaws mirror my own. The novel Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, is based on the girl named Griet in Vermeer's painting. Griet is the protestant daughter of a tile painter Delft who has lost his sight in kiln accident. In order to make ... sexism, discrimination between different social statuses is also reflected through literature. Literature can reflect social stratification much like a mirror reflects our "good and bad days". In the nov...

  • Word Count: 1988
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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