‘When I made my choice, the choice I knew I had to make, I set my feet carefully along the edge of the point and went the way it told me, walking steadily’ To what extent did Griet really have freedom to make her own choices.

Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet ‘the wide eyed maid.’ The novel describes Griet’s maturity from a shy, socially awkward girl to a blossoming, vibrant young woman. It is not her freedom of choice that brings on this self-development, because she has none. The Vermmers, Van Ruijven, her parents, society, and even Pieter control Griet throughout the novel, thus denying her an opportunity to make her own choices.

Being only sixteen, Griet’s life is controlled by all those around her. Even though she had wild aspiration about ‘wearing the mantle and the pearls,’ she was never able to act upon these dreams as the Vermeers had complete control over her during the time she was a maid. From the very beginning of Girl with a Pearl Earring she is forced into things as she ‘was young and it was expected [she] would have the hardest tasks’ in the house. Later it is seen that Griet is forced to grind colours for her master so that he can ‘paint ...