Summary:
A 16 year old girl named Griet, lived with her family in a small poor house. Griet was the oldest from her sister Agnes and her bother Frans. She lived in a neighborhood where only Protestant lived. Her father was not able to work and lost his trade, because he had an accident when working in the tile factory, and lost his eye sight. She was to work as a maid for, the Vermeer’s family who were Catholic. Johannes Vermeer who was a painter, and his wife Catharina had haired Griet to do the housework, laundry, clean the studio, and take care of Catharina’s six children who were, Aleydis the youngest, Maertge the oldest, Cornelia the second oldest, Lisbeth and their little brother Johannes. Catharina was jealous of Griet, because Griet was allowed to go to the studio. But Griet had founded out why Catherina was not allowed to go to the studio, because Catharina was clumsy and had broken a box which belonged to Van Leeuwenhoek. Griet would get paid eight stuivers a day, and only came home Sundays to meet her family and go to church. Her father had told her about the patron named Van Ruijven who bought most of Vermeer’s paintings. When Griet was on her way to Vermeer’s, she had stood in the center of an eight pointed star inside a circle, which made her feel as her center of a new beginning and her new life. While she had stayed with the Vermeer’s family she had seen may paintings that were not her masters painting. She had figured out how every was and how she should behave and act with them. She noticed that Tannekke the other maid who have being working with the Vermeer family and Catharina were both jealous of her, and Cornelia had a change of mood sometimes she is nice and most of the time she is mean. Griet had met someone new in the meat shop his name his Pieter, who she gets her meat from. Griet had heard from Pieter that her sister was ill because of the Plague. Griet was sad and hopeless because she was not able to do anything.
Part I liked:
When Griet finally met and talked to Vermeer, in the studio while she was cleaning. He had shown her the camera obscura which had pictures that he uses them to draw. It shows that Vermeer knew that she was good with colors, because when he and his wife first saw her at her house kitchen chopping vegetable, she had placed the chopped vegetable on the plate with colors of the different vegetables and presented them nicely for the soup. Griet had asked him “But why do you look at it, sir, when you can look at your own painting.”…. “But you use your eyes to see.” Vermeer felt that someone like Griet cares the way he does is paintings and admires it, then the way others do.
Questions:
Will Giret love Pieter?
Why was the camera obscura not in Vermeer’s studio?
Interpretation: For Griet working as a maid in a wealthy Catholic family, was a new beginning of her life. Her life totally changed from a normal teen living with her family in a poor home to ,working as a maid for a painter. There were jealousy from Catherina and Tanekke, which she had to face most of the time, but was not able to do anything. She had turned her back to her sister in the meat shop, which she had never expected to do. She had realized that she loves colors and is happy only in the studio when she is with Vermeer. Her life totally changed even when she came home on Sundays to visit her parents, is like she had forgotten were things where in her house. She is facing a situation which she had never faced before. The question is will her change bring her happiness or will it not?
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