Object of the Study

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methods of the study to solve the problems stated in chapter I. This study is intended to answer: how Vermeer, Catharina, and Griet are portrayed in the novel, and what are the true meanings of the pearl earrings to the three main characters as seen in Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

A. Object of the Study

Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the most popular novels of Tracy Chevalier. It was first published in 1999 by Harper Collins Publisher and later became the bestseller. Girl with a Pearl Earring was a story written in 1999— after she published her first novel on 1997. She wrote it in London when she was pregnant. On the interview by Gavin J. Grant, Johannes Vermeer’s painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, was inspired her. She was 19 when visited her sister in Boston and saw it in her sister’s room. She has been loving the painting very much until now. The novel has the same name as the painting because the painting is the culmination of the story; its creation is what the story is leading up to. The novel itself could not exist without the painting. The novel was printed and bound in the Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc. The text is divided into four chapters and runs up to 248 pages. Girl with a Pearl Earring belongs to the genre historical fiction. Historical fiction usually tells a story that is set in the past. The setting is real and drawn from history, and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 37 often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional. The novel opens on Griet’s house in Delft and the whole novel is set in Delft, the Netherlands and mainly in the Vermeer’s studio. The story throughout is narrated from Griet’s perspective, in the first person point of view. Her way to tell the story is clear and descriptive, about the paintings and the characters itself. Despite its title, Girl with a Pearl Earring is not situated in the context of the history of painting, but stays focused on the human relationship, especially between Vermeer and Griet, and more in the domain of psychological insight. This novel is a work that focuses on the essence of the painting’s charm, the earring. Chevalier started researching by reading the entire catalogue for the 1996 Exhibition at The Hague. She was doing a combination of research in Delft and writing at the same time. Chevalier spent four days in Delft, a couple of days in Amsterdam, and The Hague where the painting that inspired the novel is in a museum. She wrote her novel when she was pregnant so that it was easier for her to tell the character of Catharina that seems to be always pregnant in the novel. “She finished the work in just eight months, because she had a “biological deadline” The GuardianThe Observer, 2003.

B. Approach of the Study