Topic: “We feel for Griet, who glimpses possibilities beyond her limited life, but is condemned never to reach them.” Discuss.

The drama of the novel Girl with a pearl earring, centers around the tension created between what people want and what is permitted, especially when it comes to the main character, Griet. She is very much ‘bound’ because of her lower class and poverty. Chevalier has skillfully brought to life an imagined character, whose situation and behaviour are quite true to the novel’s historical setting. Griet suffers considerably, in a number of ways (in which we feel for her), including her being forced to go into service because of her family’s poverty, her being mistreated in the Vermeer household, her being looked down on despite her obvious abilities knowing that if she follows her instincts with the artist she will be damned, and so on. Although Griet suffers a great deal of unfairness, she develops throughout the novel and learns to deal with the situation she is dealt.

Griet is illiterate and comes from a poor family. The truth is she never really had the option of being cate...