Plotstormers Breakdown: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

See how Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier squares up against Plotstormers and the Magical Sixteen Point Plan Of Your Dreams.

Spoiler palooza ahead!

A bit of backstory

Girl with a Pearl Earring was published in 1999 and the following year became a New York Times bestseller. By 2005, it had sold one million copies, and to date has sold upward of five million copies, which is an awful lot of books. Tracy Chevalier was inspired to write the book after the poster of the painting hung in her room for 16 years and she wondered what the girl’s expression meant. In 2003, it was adapted into a film starring Scarlett Johansson.

The story

17th Century Netherlands. Griet, just 16 years old, has to go to work after her father is blinded in an accident. She ends up as a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer, the painter. Griet has to navigate the complicated social and religious dynamics as well as fending off male attention as she becomes A Woman ™.

Vermeer takes an interest in Griet and The Wife ™ gets suss. Meanwhile, a lecherous rich dude tries to get his hands on Griet and Vermeer protects her. This protection is somewhat convoluted and involves Griet wearing Vermeer’s wife’s earrings while she sits for a painting. All hell breaks loose and Griet is chucked out on the street and this time Vermeer does nothing.

A decade after all this, Griet is married with children when she hears Vermeer has died and the earrings are left to her in his will. She pawns them to pay off a debt the Vermeer family owe her husband.

So far, so scandalous. Let’s have a look at how the story works, Plotstormers-styleee:

The Four Point Plan

1. 16-year-old Griet’s dad is blinded in an accident, so Griet has to get a job as a maid in Johannes Vermeer’s household in order to support her family.
2. She keeps her head down and gets on with her work in Johannes’ tense, chaotic home.
3. Johannes paints Griet wearing his wife’s pearl earrings and there’s *tension* … she’s forced to quit her job.
4. Ten years later Johannes dies, leaving the earrings to Griet in his will. She sells them.

The Seven Point Plan

1. 16-year-old Griet’s dad is blinded in an accident, so Griet must find work as a maid.
2. She goes to work at Johannes Vermeer’s house. She finds their Catholic lifestyle weird and the family dynamics dysfunctional, so she tries to keep her head down.
3. Griet takes an interest in Johannes’ paintings, and he tasks her with secretly assisting him in his studio.
4. Johannes paints Griet wearing his wife’s pearl earrings and there’s *tension*.
5. Johannes’ wife finds out about her earrings and goes apeshit.
6. Griet has to leave and choose her own path.
7. Ten years later Johannes dies, leaving the earrings to Griet in his will. She sells them.

The Big One: The Sixteen Point Plan

1. 16-year-old Griet’s dad is blinded in an accident. Griet must find work to support the family. Johannes Vermeer visits their home and notices Griet’s eye for colour.
2. Griet is employed as a maid in Johannes’ household. We meet his wife Catharina (who sees Griet as a threat), his mother-in-law, children and assorted servants. Griet clashes with Johannes’ daughter Cornelia.
3. One of Griet’s jobs is to buy the family’s meat from the market. Pieter, the butcher’s son, is clearly attracted to her. The feeling isn’t mutual.
4. Griet’s younger sister dies of the plague.
5. Griet is told to clean Johannes’ studio, where she takes an interest in his paintings. He gets her to run arty errands for him, without Catharina’s knowledge.
6. Cornelia seeks out ways to get Griet into trouble.
7. Johannes’ patron Pieter van Ruijven sexually assaults Griet and pressures Johannes to paint them together. Johannes refuses but agrees to paint Griet on her own and sell the painting to van Ruijven.
8. In preparation for the painting, Johannes makes Griet pierce one of her ears with his wife’s pearl earring.
9. Pieter proposes to Griet while Johannes’ daughters look on. It’s awkward. Griet manages to excuse herself without giving him an answer.
10. Johannes paints Griet. There’s tension, there’s *eye-contact*, there’s Very Meaningful ear-piercing.
11. Cornelia makes sure Catharina sees the painting and recognises her earrings. The shit hits the fan. Catharina tries to stab the painting.
12. Griet leaves the Vermeer household and must choose her own path.
13. Ten years later, Griet has married Pieter and is living a quiet life as a wife and mother. She’s unexpectedly called to the Vermeer house. She assumes it’s because they want to settle their outstanding 15-guilder sausage bill.
14. Surprise! It’s not about the sausages. Johannes has recently died, leaving the pearl earrings to Griet in his will. Catharina grudgingly hands them over.
15. Cornelia suggests Griet should give her the earrings, so Griet slaps her right in the face.
16. Griet realises that she can no more wear the earrings as a butcher’s wife than she could as a maid. She takes them to a pawn shop and sells them for 20 guilders. She gives Pieter fifteen to settle the outstanding bill and explain the trip chez Vermeer. She keeps the remaining five in a secret place, never spending them.

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By: SarahWHQ