She was back at home, wasn't she? Not married. Tanneke still didn't talk to her, though she smiled expectantly. Why? How did you interpret Griet's reaction to the pearls? Were they compensation? Did the family want to rid themselves of them? When Griet crushed them in her hands, was she angry, rueful? The whole scene was haunting.
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I think she was going to be married. I'm assuming she was at her parents house, though temporarily until the wedding. That's my guess.
I don't think Tanneke fully understood/knew what exactly happened between Griet and Vermeer. But I think she still liked Griet so that smile was a mark of a friendship that didn't end with Griet getting kicked out. Perhaps she didn't stop to idly chat because she was still unsure of what happened and was thinking it through. Or maybe she simply didn't have time. Griet's conversation was mostly about facial expression anyway so maybe Tanneke said all that needed to be said with that little smile.
I like to think (having only seen the movie once and never reading the book) that Vermeer sent the pearls to Griet as a thank you. To let her know even though he didn't combat to keep her in the house (after all,his marriage was at stake) he still thought fondly of her. Maybe part compensation, part wife didn't want them anymore, part Vermeer thinking of Griet. I think it was all of that.
When she crushed them in her hand I don't think she was angry. Again, I only saw the scene once and it was the background of puppies going wild (dog sitting) so I may not have the clearest take on it. I think that was her lifeline--the pearls in the wrappings that so resembled the cloths she wore on her head. A little token of what she's felt, what she's accomplished, and what happened. A token of Vermeer and the time she truly understood something (painting, the soul behind painting).
But this is all my take. :P
I'm just seeing her leaving again. He SHOULD have told her goodbye. What harm could it have done? And it would have meant so much to her.
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In the book Griet was married and working in the stall when she brought the pearls to her. If I remember right (been a few years since I read it) Pieter and Griet had children by that time so it'd been many years.
shareThis is how the novel ended:
"Ten years later {after Griet leaves the Vermeer household] long after Griet has married Pieter and settled into life as a mother and butcher's wife, she is called back to the house upon Vermeer's death. Griet assumes that Vermeer's widow wishes to settle the household's unpaid fifteen-guilder bill with the butcher shop. Pieter laughs and says that he didn't mind losing the fifteen guilders because they bought him Griet as a wife. At the Vermeer house, Griet learns that even though Vermeer had made no effort to see or speak to her, he had remained very fond of the painting. In addition, Vermeer's will had included a request that Griet receive the pearl earrings that she wore when he painted her. However, Griet realizes that she could no more wear pearl earrings as a butcher's wife than she could as a maid. She then pawns the earrings for twenty guilders and pays fifteen guilders to her husband, claiming that Vermeer's widow had given her the coins to settle a debt with the butcher shop, but keeps five guilders to herself and never spends them."
Thank you! I wondered what happened to Pieter!
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