Bildungsroman is a German term used to describe novel which focus on the protagonist’s transition from childhood to maturity. (Bildung= education; Roman= novel).
Change is unexpected to occur especially in a very young age. However in the novel, the Girl with a Pearl Earring written by Tracy Chevalier presents Griet, the protagonist experiencing circumstances and changes that would demonstrate her transition of childhood to adulthood.
Griet was enjoying her simple, yet meaningful life even though their family is undergoing some difficulty. Until one day she was told and forced to serve as a maid for Vermeer so that their family could sustain their living. Now she is expected to enter a different world which accumulates changes in her life. She is now leaving her childhood memories and now forced to act maturely along with her new responsibilities. According to Chevalier “I had walked the streets all my life, but had never been so aware that back was my home” (11).
That was the time when she starts to absorb everything that her life would not be exactly the same as it was before and that there is no more way of getting out, she was stuck in a scenario that would change her entire life.
Griet’s self exploration spans many states; artistically, emotionally, morally religiously as she emerges to a more complex and mature character. At first she was not sure of how to react to changes primarily about the new environment, the job that has been given to her. Not only that she also has to learn to balance herself with the way she acts toward her own family members and her obligations “I have two families now, and they must not mix” (Chevalier 53).
The Essay on Change in Family Relationships
Significant life events can negatively impact family relationships, since the family is often strained to respond to the changes brought upon by these events. Because of her parents' divorce, the narrator is only able to see her father once per week. This limitation in face-to-face contact strains their relationship. To make things worse, when the narrator turns ten, she is introduced to her “ ...
Being young undergoing through a lot of changes was hard. She had no one to talk to regarding her emotions by that she learned to keep her thoughts to herself and started to lie. Back then before she arrived as a maid Griet had a strong relationship with her parents, but as soon as she started working for Vermeer her parents, her sister’s death her parents became suspicious about her and she did not often tell the truth to her parents. Griet was young, innocent she is curious about different things that led her to help Vermeer and develop her artistic skills. The tile given by Griet’s father is an example in relation to Griet growing up. The painting on the tile is about Griet’s future. The tile shows that a girl and boy playing as other children do. In connection to growing up, when the tile was broken into pieces it represents that the childhood he had with her siblings has ended.
Griet’s wide eyes is a symbol of her purity and innocence while at the same time it suggests that she is curious and has much to learn about the world. Being young and so attractive to men, she always conceal every last stand of her hair, presses hair lips together, and lowering her eyes to men in order remain virtuous. Everything started when van Ruijven is trying to physically harass her and when Vermeer saw her hair which she kept from people. As a result she felt that she didn’t have anything to hide from herself and she no longer felt virtuous and so she decided to give herself Pieter. An advice was given to her by van Leeuwenhoek to “take care to remain herself”, demonstrating his sympathetic understanding with her impossible situation, of the expectations and obligations leveled at Griet from all those men surrounding her. At the same time Griet ultimately heeds Van Leeuwenhoek’s warning and remains true to herself. In the end when she had her own decision and decided to leave Vermeer and its family she had her own choice.
Griet herself knew that she was trapped and lost in Vermeer’s world. However she did not let her life stop revolving from what had happened to her she continued on with her life. She got married to Pieter and had two children, they are now happily living together along with her memories that she wants to forget. From all of the hardships that Griet had experienced she became a stronger person. The Griet that we first knew is no longer a child, she turned out to be an adult along with that making her own decisions, finding her place and choosing her own path.
The Essay on Griet Vermeer Family World
The 17 th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's portrait, the anonymous Girl With a Pearl Earring, lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's novel, an historical novel that doesn't read like an historical novel. The novel has a strong plot and engaging first-person narrative voice. It centres on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660 s but also the poorer household of the narrator's ...
At the end of the novel, it reluctantly tells that a maid came free, demonstrating the dependence generated by her lowly status, as well as the price that is evidently attached to each and every individual. There is message that novel is trying to bring to readers that realizing objects, paintings are not just one colour, but composed of many layers, different shades just like life that it is not always a happy state to be in. People also have to experience hardships, struggles in order to get a better painting, a better view of what life is like, which makes you a better and a stronger person.
