Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Girl with a Pearl Earring:
“He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.”
“You're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes.”
“Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising.”
“I had walked along that street all my life, but had never been so aware that my back was to my home”
“I heard voices outside our front door - a woman's, bright as polished brass, and a man's, low and dark like the wood of the table I was working on. They were the kind of voices we heard rarely in our house. I could hear rich carpets in their voices, books and pearls and fur.”
“I wanted to wear the mantle and the pearls. I wanted to know the man who painted her like that.”
“He spoke her name as though he held cinnamon in his mouth.”
“I could not think of anything but his fingers on my neck, his thumb on my lips.”
“It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.”
“I did not mind the cold so much when he was there.”
“My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again.”
“He had decided to trust me.”
“At first I could not meet his eyes. When I did it was like sitting close to a fire that suddenly blazes up.”
“There is a difference between Catholic and Protestant attitudes to painting," he explained as he worked, "but it is not necessarily as great as you may think. Paintings may serve a spiritual purpose for Catholics, but remember too that Protestants see God everywhere, in everything. By painting everyday things-tables and chairs, bowls and pitchers, soldiers and maids-are they not celebrating God's creation as well?”
“I slowed my pace. Years of hauling water, wringing out clothes, scrubbing floors, emptying chamber pots, with no chance of beauty or color or light in my life, stretched before me like a landscape of flat land where, a long way off, the sea is visible but can never be reached.”
“There followed a time when everything was dull. The things that had meant something lost importance, though they were still there, like bruises on the body that fade to hard lumps under the skin.”
“You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began,“but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.”
“Lick your lips, Griet."I licked my lips."Leave your mouth open."I was so surprised by this request that my mouth remained open of its own will. I blinked back tears. Virtuous women did not open their mouths in paintings.”
“Pieter would be pleased with the rest of the coins, the debt now settled. I would not have cost him anything. A maid came free.”
“I felt as if my parents had pushed me into the street, that a deal had been made and I was being passed into the hands of a man. At least he is a good man, I thought, even if his hands are not as clean as they could be.”
“I knew that he would go out to the tavern, returning with eyes like glittering spoons.”
“When I left the room, Maria Thins was still standing in front of the painting.”
“I had not yet been down to the cellar where I was to sleep. I took a candle with me but was too tired to look around beyond finding a bed, pillow and blanket. Leaving the trap door of the cellar open so that cool, fresh air could reach me, I took off my shoes, cap, apron and dress, prayed briefly, and lay down. I was about to blow out the candle when I noticed the painting hanging at the foot of my bed. I sat up, wide awake now. It was another picture of Christ on the Cross, smaller than the one upstairs but even more disturbing. Christ had thrown his head back in pain, and Mary Magdalene’s eyes were rolling. I Iay back gingerly, unable to take my eyes off it. I could not imagine sleeping in the room with the painting. I wanted to take it down but did not dare. Finally I blew out the candle—I could not afford to waste candles on my first day in the new house. I lay back again, my eyes fixed to the place where I knew the painting hung. I slept badly that night, tired as I was. I woke often and looked for the painting. Though I could see nothing on the wall, every detail was fixed in my mind. Finally, when it was beginning to grow light, the painting appeared again and I was sure the Virgin Mary was looking down at me.”
“Años de acarrear el agua, retorcer la colada, fregar los suelos, vaciar los orinales, sin que la belleza o el color o la luz entraran en mi vida, se extendían ante mí como una paisaje llano en el que se divisa el mar a lo lejos, pero nunca puedes alcanzarlo. Si no podía trabajar fabricando los colores, si no podía estar cerca de él, no sabía cómo iba a poder seguir trabajando en aquella casa.”
“نپرسیدم تا چه حد برای گرفتن این اطلاعات خودش را به خطر انداخته. زیر لب گفتم، « متشکرم پیتر. » برای نخستین بار بود که نامش را بر زبان آورده بودم.به چشمانش نگریستم و مهربانی را در آن ها دیدم. در عین حال چیزی را تشخیص دادم که از آن وحشت داشتم – توقع.”
“It seemed to me that the baker had an honest response to the painting. Van Ruijven tried too hard when he looked at paintings, with his honeyed words and studied expressions. He was too aware of having an audience to perform for, whereas the baker merely said what he thought.”
“Mein ganzes Leben war ich diese Straßen langgegangen, aber nie war mir so sehr aufgefallen, dass ich dabei meinem Zuhause den Rücken zukehrte. Doch als ich das Ende der Straße erreichte und außer Sichtweise meiner Familie abbog, fiel es mir leichter, ruhig auszuschreiten und mich umzusehen.'' 19”
“Sólo los ladrones y los niños corren.”
“Yalnızca hırsızlar ve çocuklar koşar.”
“I had not thought I would learn something from a maid,” he said at last.”
