28 Griet is described as a brave, hardworking, quiet, careful, tough, smart and artistic
person.
1. Brave
When she is 16 years old, Griet as a teenager has to face many problems. It begins with family problems and financial problems. Her father gets an accident
when he is working as a tile maker; he loses his eyes and his eyesight, so that he cannot work anymore to support his family life. Griet as the member of the family
has to support her family life. She is the one who has the responsibility to live her family. Her brother is not settled enough as a tile maker and he cannot contribute
much to their family. In her teenage years, she has to make a hard decision. Griet is brave to be a maid, to leave her home and to adapt with the new situation of her
life. I walked away from our house, carrying my things tied up in an apron. It
was still early – our neighbor were throwing buckets of water on their steps and the street in front of their houses, scrubbing them clean. Agnes would
do that now, as well many of my other tasks. She would have less time to play in the street and along the canals. Her life was changing too. People
nodded at me and watched curiously as I passed. No one asked where I was going or called out kind words. They do not need to- they knew what
happened to families when a man lost his trade. I would be something to discuss later- young Griet become a maid, her father brought the family low.
I walked along that street all my life, but had never been so aware that my back was to my home.” Chevalier 11
According to Harold’s History of the Netherland and Dutch Revolt
http:www.historyworld.net, the Dutch are known for their religious tolerance, Protestants are the majority and Catholics are the minority. Catholics tend to keep
themselves in their own section of each town despite making one of the largest single denominations. In this novel, Griet works in Johannes Vermeer’s house in
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29 Papist Corner of the town of Delft. Griet’s bravery can be seen through her
decision to adapt and to socialize with the Catholicism in Vermeer’s house. It causes some religious misconceptions and makes Griet feel like a minor person,
both in family and social life. In this situation, Griet is brave to face a new environment where she is not comfortable with.
On the wall directly opposite hung a painting that was larger than me. It was Christ on the Cross, surrounded by the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and
St John. I tried not to stare but I was amazed by its size and subject. ‘Catholics are not so different from us,’ my father had said. But we did not
have such pictures in our houses, or our churches, or anywhere. Now I would see this painting every day. I was always to think of that room as the
Crucifiction room. I was never comfortable in it Chevalier 18.
Griet is also brave to express her anger, even to her mistress’ daughter. Her bravery is shown when she slaps Cornelia, the sly and troublesome daughter, who
hates her since the first time she meets Griet. Cornelia always annoys Griet and disturbs her when she works. One day, when Griet takes some water in the canal,
she disturbs Griet again and again. Griet becomes angry, and then she slaps Cornelia without worrying the consequences and punishment from her mister or
mistress. Cornelia’s face turns red, but she does not cry. She runs and her two sisters, Aleydis and Lisbeth peer down solemnly Chevalier 23.
Cornelia does not like Griet, and she always tries to find her mistakes, so that Griet will be punished by her parents. Again she throws stones into the pot to
make it sink in the canal a couple minutes after Griet slaps her. It makes Griet angry, but she is brave to warn her not to do that or Griet will slap her again.
‘I’ll slap you again if you don’t stop.’ ‘I’ll tell our mother. Maid don’t slap us.’
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30 Cornelia threw another stone.
‘Shall I tell your grandmother what you’ve done?’ A fearful look crossed Cornelia’s face. She dropped the stones she held
Chevalier 23. Griet’s bravery is also seen when she begins to get used to lie. Actually she
does not want to lie, but the condition forces her to do so. She is brave to face bigger consequences in the following days. Her master asks her to do some extra
tasks. She has to help him grind and mix colors in the attic. She has to cover it to anyone, because it will cause some problems when everyone knows it. She lies to
Chatarina, Tanneke, Maria Thins, Cornelia and her parents. One day, when she begins to work in the kitchen, Tanneke recognizes that there is a slash of red dust
in Griet’s apron. She considers that it is not blood on the apron. She becomes so jealous and angry because she knows that it is their master’s mixtures of color.
‘What’s that there? Are you bleeding?’ I looked down. A slash of red dust crossed my stomach like a streak on a
window pane. For a moment I thought of the aprons of Pieter the father and son.
Tanneke leaned closer. ‘That’s not blood. It looks like powder. How did that get there?’ I gazed at the streak. Madder, I thought. I ground this a few
weeks ago. Cornelia had been waiting for this mischief. I did not make up an answer fast enough. As I hesitated, Tanneke’s
suspicious grew. ‘Have you been in the master’s thing? She said in an accusing tone. She had, after all, modelled for him and knew what he kept in
the studio. ‘No, it was-‘I stopped Chevalier 120.
Tanneke gives Griet a hard and angry look, but behind, she has a desire to
tell this case to her beloved mistress, Chatarina. She has a wish to punish Griet but she has not had enough evidence, so that she says nothing about Griet’s attic work
to Chatarina or the girls or to anyone. She becomes much harder to Griet. Her father also becomes suspicious when he smells linseed oil in Griet. ‘You smell of
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31 linseed oil Chevalier 183’. He does not believe that simply cleaning a painter’s
studio would make the smell linger on her clothes, her skin, and her hair. He guesses that Griet does more than cleaning the studio. In this situation Griet is
brave to take the hard risk of Chatarina’s and the girl’s jealousy or Maria Thins’s anger that may make her be fired out from the house.
Griet’s bravery can also be seen through her struggle in finding the information related to the plague happening in her hometown, Rietveld Canal. She
tries to find the information by asking a soldier. Although she is very young, she is brave and tough to ask the soldier about the situation in Rietveld Canal. Being
far away and having no information about her beloved family really make her sad and down. In this condition she becomes brave. Unfortunately, the soldier cannot
provide any information about the plague. They underestimate Griet by asking some payment if they could find any information about her family. Griet also
shows her bravery trough her speech. She does not like the manner of the soldier that takes advantages from this misery.
I tried to speak to another soldier on a barrier at a different street. Through friendlier, he too could tell me nothing about my family. ‘I could ask
around, but not for nothing,’ he added, smiling and looking me up and down so I would know he didn’t mean money.
‘Same on you,’ I snapped,’ ‘for seeking to take advantage of those misery.’ But he did not seem ashamed. I had forgotten that soldiers think of just one
thing when they see a young woman Chevalier 70. When the plague and quarantine happen in Griet’s hometown, she also tries
hard to make herself tougher by praying hard for her family. She is brave to go to the strange church alone. Beside, Pieter, the butcher’s son, also helps her find out
the information of the plague and the quarantine.
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32 I did not want to face a strange church alone again. We found one not far
away, and although the service did not comfort me, I prayed hard for our family Chevalier 73.
Through Griet’s speeches, her reactions in dealing with the various situations, her thoughts, and her conversation with others, we can conclude that
Griet is a brave person. She is brave to face a new environment where she is not comfortable to work as a maid. Griet is brave to warn her master’s daughter. She
slaps Cornelia when she finds Cornelia disturb her work. Her bravery is also seen when she begins to get used to lie to others. She has extra tasks in the attic to help
Vermeer and no one knows this except Maria Thins. Griet is brave to face the bigger consequences of her actions. She is also brave when she asks a soldier
related to the plague in Rietveld Canal.
2. Hardworking
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