Tasman Miller’s Reviews > Girl with a Pearl Earring > Status Update

Themes

Class, innocence, loss of innocence, desire, art, oppression

She mostly just did what was asked of her, everyone projected things onto her because she was pretty. Thinking things about her without ever choosing to get to know her.

“The most trouble we’ve had with a maid.”

“You see, you e grown used to stained fingers as you’ve grown used to the flies,” he liked to say “now you know the world a little better you can see there’s no reason always to keep your hands clean. They just get dirty again. Cleanliness is not as important as you thought back when you were a maid eh?”

“It’s the price I have paid for you.” He sometimes teased “now know what a maid is worth.”

I did not laugh when he said this.

-her husband mind you

The background was black, making me appear very much alone, although I was clearly looking at someone. I seemed to be waiting for something I did not think would ever happen.

“It is not the painting that is catholic or Protestant” he said, “but the people who look at it, and what they expect to see. A painting in a church is like a candle in a dark room—we use it to see better. It is the bridge between ourselves and God. But it is not a Protestant candle or a Catholic candle. It is simply a candle.”