Girl With A Earl Earring

Girl With a Pearl Earring


by Tracy Chevalier





Teaching notes prepared for VATE members by Beverley Rangott






CONTENTS




|1. |Introduction |Page 1 |
|2. |Historical background |Page 3|
|3. |Ways into the text |Page 5 |
|4. |Running sheet |Page 8 |
|5. |A perspective on the text |Page 13 |
|6.|Character, style and setting |Page 14 |
|7. |A guided approach to selected passages |Page 17 |
|8. |Activities for exploring the text |Page 18 |
|9. |Appendix|Page 21 |
| |Paintings mentioned in the novel |Page 21 |
| |Some useful references |Page 22 |














Page numbers in thesenotes refer to Chevalier, T. Girl With a Pearl Earring. HarperCollins, 1999


Section 1.
Introduction to Girl With a Pearl Earring

In her novel of the same name, author Tracy Chevalier has constructed an intriguing story around one of the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer’s best known paintings, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’. Griet, the narrator of the story, is the subject of the painting. Griet isan entirely fictitious character, the actual person in the portrait being unknown. However, the author has created an imagined and credible life for her character. Drawing on what little is known of Vermeer, his family and associates, and the more extensive knowledge available about Dutch society of the time and Vermeer’s home town of Delft, she has presented a very believable story.

Inappreciating the text, we should base our evaluation on how successfully the writer has accomplished what we expect of all novelists - credibility and interest of plot, a convincing narrative point of view, successful characterisation and setting – whether or not the events depicted are ‘true’. Nevertheless, in an historical novel, as readers we also expect plausibility and accuracy in the depiction ofthe physical environment, the political realities and the social mores of a particular era and location. In this novel, the author’s meticulous research and clever use of historical material creates just such a convincing scenario. The way in which this novel conveys such a strong sense of a particular place and time is one of its most powerful qualities.

Chevalier depicts the ‘girl with thepearl earring’ as a live-in servant in Vermeer’s household who has had to go out to earn money to help her family after her father, a tile-maker, has been blinded in a kiln accident. Griet is sixteen when she leaves home. Once employed, she is then asked to dust in Vermeer’s studio, help grind his colours for painting and eventually becomes a reluctant subject of one of those paintings.

It iseasy to see why Tracy Chevalier chose this painting on which to build a story. Vermeer painted mostly single figures or small groups, and mostly women, usually in a domestic setting. However, in Girl with a Pearl Earring, in contrast to most of his other works, there is no background detail to give an indication of the subject’s identity, role or status.

In most of Vermeer’s paintings, the...