Essay on Girl with a Pearl Earring - Concerns on Women

Words: 1086
Pages: 5

In her novel Girl with a pearl earring, Tracey Chevalier, explores many thematic concerns in relation to women, in the 1600s. She explored this through the themes of; the restricted roles of women, the battle of the sexes and Class, money, gender and power, she utilises literary techniques; such as dialogue, first person, exclamation and allusion to convey these themes.
In a girl with the pearl earring the protagonist, Griet, is sent to be a maid the artist Johannes Vermeer and his growing family. In this household she becomes close to Vermeer’s work, and eventually the secretive painting of Griet seeps out into the rest of the family and the town beyond.

Chevalier explores the restricted roles of women in a girl with a pearl earring.

The battle of the sexes is the struggle of power, not only between women and man but with women and women. This thematic concern demonstrates the tactics women had to utilise in order to get places in a man’s world and the struggles between the female characters in a Girl with a pearl earring.

Class, money, gender and power, play a phenomenal role in a girl with a pearl earring. Chevalier explores many of the thematic concerns in the novel this way, especially in relation to Griet. Griet has little power within the Vermeer household as she a poor protestant maid, in a wealthy catholic home, “say hello to the master when he speaks to you girl. Your manners are a disgrace” (pg. 143). Chevaliers effective use of dialogue symbolises the class structure of the time, as she is being spoken to in a way that represents her lower class. It also verifies that Griet is not used to being a maid and unaware of how to address her ‘betters’. The class system was a big part of the 1600s and therefore plays a considerable role in the novel, which are represented Class, money gender and power.

Also, power struggle, is one of the main thematic concerns of Chevaliers novel, which is convey in Class, money gender and power. Griet has, practically no power at all in the novel, forced to be a maid in a foreign household, and always in someone else’s control. “Thank you for reminding me