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
Griet is a hardworking person. She does all of her duties well. There are so many tasks for Griet to do: laundering, ironing, cleaning the house and her
master’s studio, helping Tanneke cook the food, shopping, and taking care of the children. She never grumbles and complains with the tasks she gets. She is always
responsible of her works and she can finish it well. Her master and mistress are pleased with it. At the beginning of her works, Griet is not used to do the routine
and hard jobs even though she used to help her mother do household duties in her own house.
‘I was so exhausted I could hardly think. At home I worked just as hard but it was never so tiring as in a strange house where everything was new and I
always tense and serious. At home I had been able to laugh with my mother or Agnes or Frans. Here there was no one to laugh with. Chevalier 31
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33 On her first day she works, Tanneke, the other maid, does not only explain
to her about her tasks, but also introduces her to some rooms and corners in Johannes Vermeer’s house. The tasks are harder than those in her own house. She
begins her task with laundering and ironing the clothes. We crept downstairs again. When we were back in the washing kitchen
Tanneke said,’You’re to take on the laundry house.’ She pointed to the great mound of clothes- they had fallen far behind with their washing. I would
struggle to catch up. Chevalier 21 Griet has to do the laundering of many members of the Vermeer’s family.
She spends much of her time to finish the tasks. Moreover, there are some children and one baby who will make more clothes dirty than the rest.
Even though it is hard and makes some injures in Griet’s body, she is always responsible for all the tasks she has in Vermeer’s house. She soaks the
laundry a day before she can wash it, takes some pewter water pots and a chopper kettle in the storage room that leads down to the cellar. She does the laundry well
and finishes it with ironing them neatly. Laundering is her everyday task which makes her hands become chap and crack from the soap and water. Her face is red
from standing over the steam, her back is painful from lifting the wet cloth and her arm is burnt by the iron Chevalier 21.
Griet has the sole responsibility to clean her master’s painting studio. Only a few of the family members might enter this room. Even Tanneke, the senior maid,
cannot enter this studio to clean it. This room is a restricted area; Chatarina, Maria Thins and the children are afraid to clean and to move anything in this studio. The
distractions can disturb the master’s concentration in painting the object and can change the lighting which also changes the tone of the painting. This duty to clean
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34 the studio is Griet’s extra task. She has to clean the studio without moving
anything. The small things on the table are easy to clean, but the furniture is harder. She use her feet, her knees, sometimes her shoulders and chin with the
chairs. I dusted and swept and mopped- the floor, the walls, the windows, and the
furniture- with satisfaction of tackling a room in need of a good cleaning. In the far corner, opposite the table and window, a door led to a storeroom,
filled with the paintings and canvases, chairs, chest, dishes, bedpans, a coat rack and a row of books. I cleaned it there too, tidying the things away so
that there was more order to the room Chevalier 37. Griet often has a little time to rest, because she has to help Tanneke prepare
the meals for the family after she has finished her daily tasks. Through her actions in helping and completing the jobs, she can be considered as a hard worker. Once
she cleans the studio and goes to the fish stall or the Meat Hall. After that she begins working on the laundry, sorting, soaking and working on the stains. On the
other day, she scrubs, rinses, boils, and wrings the clothes before hanging them to dry in the noon sun. The next day, she irons, mends and folds the clothes. At some
points she always stops to help Tanneke with the midday meal. Afterwards they clean up, and then they have a little time to rest on the bench out front, or back in
the courtyard Chevalier 43. Through the conversation between Griet, her father, and her mother when
she is going home also shows her hard working character. One day, her father rubs her palms when she gives her hands to guide him over the front stop. Griet’s
father can assume that Griet works very hard in Vermeer’s house. He thinks that she must have a lot of things to do as her daily tasks which cause chap on her
hands.
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35 My father came sit outside with us and hear about my new life. I gave my
hands to him to guide him over the front stop. As he sat down on the bench he rubbed my palms with his thumb.
‘Your hands are chapped,’ he said. ‘So rough and worn. Already you have the scars of hard work.’
‘Don’t worry.’ I answered lightly. ‘There was so much laundry waiting for me because they didn’t enough
help before. It will get easier soon.’ My mother studied my hands. ‘I’ll soak some mallow in oil,’ she said.
‘That will keep your hands soft. Agnes and I will go to the country to pick some’ Chevalier 48-49.
On one occasion, Johannes Vermmer’s family wants to celebrate the new
member of the family, baby Franciscus. Chatarina likes to hold a big feast. Thus, Tanneke and Griet have to prepare the things for the birth feast. They have ten
days to prepare it, ten days for cleaning and cooking. Maria Thins hires two girls for a week to help Tanneke with the food and Griet with the cleaning. They have
to work extra hard and they have not enough time to take a rest. One day we washed, whether they were clean already or no, all the table
cloths and napkins that would be needed for the feast, as well as all the clothes in the house- shirts, linens took another day. Then we washed all the
tankards, glasses, earthenware plates, jugs, copper, pots, pancake pans, neighbor who lent them for the occasion. We polished the brass and the
copper and the silver. We took curtains and rugs. We polished the wood of the beds, the cupboards, the chairs and tables, the windowsills, until
everything gleamed. By the end my hands were cracked and bleeding Chevalier 84.
Griet’s interaction with Pieter, the butcher’s son, also points out that Griet has to work hard not only as a maid but also as Vermeer’s assistant in grinding
and mixing colors in the attic. One April morning when they are walking along the Koornmarkt to the apothecary, Pieter catches some tired look on Griet’s face.
He considers that her eyes are red. Pieter cares about Griet, and feels that Griet works too hard and has no time to sleep. He knows that Griet’s has extra duties to
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36 do. Vermeer gives Griet so much bone to grind that forces Griet to wake up very
early to finish it. And at night after the household duties are finished, Tanneke asks Griet stay to rewash the kitchen floor. Griet does not want to blame her
master because of her extra works. She does not complain when Tanneke gives her more tasks to do. Griet tries to finish all of her job without murmuring
Chevalier 122-123. Through Griet’s speeches, her past life, her conversation with others, her
thoughts, and her reactions in dealing with the various situations, we can say that she is a hardworking person. She keeps working hard to support her family life
and save them from poverty. She wants to help her family’s conditions, to have bread and food. She also learns a lot how to be a new good maid in the Vermeer’s
family by working hard so that she does not lose her job.
3. Quiet
