Girl WIth a Pearl Earring
...ould always come second to his paintings, with never a place held for Griet. Vermeer never had the courage to “admit” doing anything wrong when it came to back-up Griet, instead Vermeer kept his mouth shut, leaving all the blame for the pearl earrings befall Griet. Vermeer utilized Griet’s position as a maid for his benefit and manipulated her into wearing the pearl earrings, all for which Griet was exploited by Vermeer all for his artistic obsession. Tanneke, the older maid becomes jealous of Griet, who was younger and yet clever, cunning and manipulative. But, Griet possessed many adolescent personality traits. Sometimes her feelings take over what is the right thing to do. Tannekes’ ‘loyalty’ does not make up for all which Griet has to offer Vermeer, but Tanneke has many more years to Griet’s experience, and when Griet is found helping Vermeer, a task not assigned, Tanneke makes the most of Griet’s guilt by becoming deliberately obstructionist, and by doing so Griet became ‘alone in a house full of people.’ Tanneke is the only other person in the house who could understand the hard labor involved, but Tanneke, the only other maid in the household, utilizes Griet excessively. From the moment he laid eyes on Griet, she became the ‘wide-eyed maid.’ Van Ruijven is a lecherous man who lives a life with money in a high class society, He has money to commission paintings of specific subjects, such as young defenseless maids. Van Ruijven takes advantage of Griet by trying to fill his sexual desires, knowing that he has control ‘You shouldn’t fight me, my girl’ as he did not get to pose in the painting as he wished. Van Ruijven exploits Griet which then takes its toll on Griet, and measures are taken so that Griet is not around the Vermeer household to become a victim like a previous maid was exploited. Griet’s parents want Griet to work at the Vermeer household, but also want her to marry Pieter. Both these desire...