When his secret is outed he is drowned in the canal, demonstrating the dangers of merging the public and the private. Behind closed doors Johannes is sinning and consequently compromising his position in the city. However, when Nella sets out to surprise him in his office she finds him committing sexual acts with another man, Jack Phillips. Therefore, he assumes the appearance of a heterosexual, reputable male. To society, he is a powerfully masculine merchant, with a young wife, and travels away for work. This is illustrated through the figure of Johannes too. The characters are intricately laced with complexities and contradictions between their real and their performative self. The way Marin presents herself to society conceals her situation and her emotions. This is an example of the public vs private and appearance vs reality.
Secretly, she eats candied walnuts and is in love with the foreign servant, Otto. However, the coldness she emanates is a cover up for her pregnancy. Her apparent hostility continues as she belittles Nella for wanting marzipan and separates her from her pet bird, Peebo. She greets Nella with an austere haughtiness, becoming immediately disliked. For instance, I find the character of Marin, Johannes sister, interesting. This is illustrated through the characters too. Throughout the novel, there is a merging of the public and private, reflecting the difficulty of keeping these spheres separate. The doll’s house itself becomes an emblem of the private domestic, but starts to mirror events that become public. I want to explore the themes of the public and private spheres alongside the concept of appearance and reality. There are many intricacies within the novel and it explores many themes including race, gender and sexuality. It is a strange, thought provoking novel with well-developed characters. Nella hires a miniaturist to furnish the house and it is here that secrets start to unfold as Nella receives mysterious packages from the miniaturist that uncannily begin to mirror the events that take place. Johannes wedding present to Nella is a grand, exquisitely crafted doll’s house, an exact replica of the Brandt property. Johannes does not seem interested in Nella, spending more time out of the house, so consequently she is left to her own devices. The protagonist, Petronella, arrives in Amsterdam to live with her husband, Johannes Brandt, along with his sister and the servants. Set in 17 th century Amsterdam it depicts the unfolding of events in the Brandt household. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, completing it in just one day. I was uncertain at first as I had read some mixed reviews and my Grandma, with whom I discuss every book I read, said that she found it slightly boring. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton was another book I read whilst on holiday.
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