Is Justice Served in "A Girl With a Pearl Earring"?

There are many "injustices" in the novel A Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Some are small and seem trivial, like Griet having to deal with Cornelia's ruthless plans to cause her harm, and big ones that are a part of the conflict of the novel, such as Griet becoming a maid to provide for her family at the age of sixteen. All of these injustices, however, form the main conflict of the novel. In this story, the biggest injustice is perhaps Griet's limitation of freedom caused by the social class differences in the 1600s Europe. During that time period, a maid could not have been in a relationship with a famous painter, and teenage girls couldn't refuse working as a servant to provide for their families. Though Griet and Vermeer are attracted to each other, they cannot be in a real relationship, even if Vermeer didn't have a family. This is because of their socioeconomic differences.

*S P O I L E R* In the end of the novel, Griet finally leaves the Vermeer household, quitting her job as a maid, and later on we learn that Vermeer passes away. Griet visits the house after ten years, having heard his death, and Catharina unwillingly hands her her pearl earrings that Griet had worn during the painting of the now famous portrait. She glumly states that Vermeer had expressed this desire, for Catharina to give the earrings to Griet, in a letter days before his death. Griet takes the earrings, unsure of what to do with them, and unexpectedly decides to sell them, though not simply for the money. She pays for her family's debts with the money given in exchange of the earrings, but keeps the change, claiming that she would never spend it. This is to keep it as a reminder of him.

The ending is a form of justice because Griet finally breaks away from Vermeer's "world" she had been living in, even after his death, and becomes free. Towards the end she wonders whether she had stayed herself after all that has happened, referring back to the time van Leeuwenhoek had told her to do. Judging from the unexpected ending of the novel, I've decided that she has.