Curley's Wife Victim

In the novel, Of Mice and Men, there are many characters who face different conflicts that they have to overcome, whether it is man vs. man, man vs. self, or man vs. society. One of the characters who faces both internal and external conflicts is Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is known for being the ideal stereotypical woman; always wears makeup, is always wearing a dress with heels, and is described as a “tart.” Although Curley’s wife has these qualities that may make you think she's just an average woman, she has a many conflicts she faces along with tragic events and isolation.

The colour red is also used a lot to describe Curley's wife. Steinbeck describes her as having "rouged lips", "red mules" and "red ostrich feathers". Suggesting red is a colour that is associated with Curley's wife, and that she signifies danger. Adding to this, during Curley's wife's conversation with George and Lennie, "Lennie's eyes moved up and down her body". This immediately alerts the reader that Curley's wife is dangerous. As previously George and Lennie had to run from their last job in Weed, due to Lennie's attraction to petting soft things. After this conversation, George calls her "jailbait" and a "rattrap", he knows that she is dangerous, and warns Lennie to keep out of her way. It is evident from these points that Curley's wife is a dangerous and provocative character, and one that should be avoided.

This desire for company and to live her dream, can be seen in her final scene when she confides in Lennie, telling him about her longing for someone to talk too and the tragic story of marrying someone she does not love. "I don 't like Curley. He ain 't a nice fella."

He does this to make Lennie realise how lucky he is to have some on that he could rely on. But as Lennie is so vulnerable he gets angry and scares off Crooks. Lennie is a person who likes to touch soft things and is vulnerable to Curley’s wife as well as she knows she can talk to someone who won’t take advantage of him. Lennie being dumb is a harsh reality but as an innocent person causes bad things to happen.

Curley’s wife from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is an important character to the plot and themes of the novel. She is first introduced as the new wife of Curley who is very flirtatious. She grew up in Salinas and had dreams of being a Hollywood actress. However, her mother would not allow her to follow her dreams since she was only sixteen. So, she married Curley, who she met at a dance, and lives on the ranch with him and the other ranch workers. Throughout the novel, Curley's wife shows that she has a ignorant and flirtatious personality but is also very lonely.

Another very important event of the novel is Curley’s wife death. Lennie is blamed for having killed her, although she could have easily avoided this by not talking to Lennie. He speaks to him as if he were a baby, and, since he tells her that he likes to pet soft things, she asks him to touch her hair. “Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is.” Lennie cannot stop, and when she orders him to leave her he holds on.Curley’s wife starts screaming and, to make her stop and not get into trouble with Curley, Lennie puts his hand on her mouth. He doesn’t realize how strong he is, and he kills Curley’s wife by breaking her neck. “[…] her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”

Curley’s wife - a flirtatious, mysterious women in the novel. She is the only women that is described by Steinbeck in the novel. How we call her- “Curley’s wife” shows that she is just a possession of Curley. And the others names that George and Candy had given to her are “looloo; jailbait; tart”; these names show how badly she was treated in the ranch particularly and the sexism in American society in 20s - 30s generally.

Although she wasn’t physically there Curley’s Wife’s Mom, a bitter old woman, had some responsibility in the death of Curley’s Wife’s. In her last minutes alive Curley’s Wife tells Lennie all about the glamorous life she could have and almost had. She explains to Lennie about how she met an actor and once he got back home to Hollywood he would write her a letter telling

Curley's Wife is first shown as a dangerous desperate villain in the novella by Steinbeck.

Curley’s Wife may be misinterpreted by most of the other workers at the same time, as there are times when she seems to snap out of the flirtatious character, and into the vulnerable human being persona. This character is introduced when she is confiding in Lennie about her ambition to be a Movie Star, but these attempts are being blocked by Curley. "Coulda been in the movies, and had nice clothes". This shows she want’s recognition She shows a very vulnerable and human character to us all when she goes as far as to tell Lennie her true feelings about Curley , “a nasty man”. This drives us away from the impression of Curley’s wife that she’s a vixen who sports fancy red shoes. This aspect of Curley’s Wife’s character tells us that she is a victim not of her actions, but of the stereotypical image of women. Also she's unnamed in the novel, possibly to add to her sense of loneliness or to show the insignificant role women played in that time/era in the eyes of males

Steinbeck shows us the evils of temptation and the innocence they hold. Curley’s wife is a symbol temptation, poison to men on ranch and the main reason for Lennie’s death. In the  Garden of Eden, Eve betrays the word of God and brought sin and evil into world. Curley’s wife is known as a tart, very pretty, and has “the eye”. All of which are distracting and tempting attributes to a man on the ranch, when there is no other women in sight. Eve ignores God’s warnings to fulfill her own wishes and manipulates Adam in the process. Curley’s wife is dressed in red things when she is physically described, this red can symbolize the red apple Eve took. The redness of an apple can stand for love and beauty, but these “good” characteristics also have their flaws. The love and beauty that appears to be genuine is just another example of temptation.  The evil serpent enticed Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. This action was the first immoral act and caused mankind to be set out of place. Curley’s wife is similar to both Eve as well as the evil serpent. For Curley’s wife’s beauty and soft hair is what tempts Lennie towards her, while she is also manipulative like Eve in getting what she wants. Curley’s wife only married Curley so that she wouldn’t feel lonely. “Well I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make anything of myself, and’ where they stole your letter” (Steinbeck 88). Curley’s wife was convinced her mother had stolen her letter from a guy who works in Hollywood, she believed her mother destroyed her chances of ever being a famous actress. She was lonely and hopeless, so when she met Curley at the Riverside Dance Palace she stuck with him because he gave her the attention she seeked. Eve and Curley’s wife only think for themselves, not once do they give thought to how their consequences can affect others. Eve influencing Adam to take a fruit from the forbidden tree caused vile things to enter their perfect world. Curley’s wife’s interest in Lennie, his strength, and his quietness brought

In the novel Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a source of trouble and danger for the men, not only in how she is described, such as ‘Curley’s married a tart’, but also in how Steinbeck portrays her affect on light and hope. Lennie and George first come across Curley’s wife when ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the door way was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in’. She is blocking one of the only light sources into the bunkhouse, which indicates that she is an obstacle on the path to realising hopes and dreams, for Lennie, George and the other men. George is wary of Curley’s Wife and so he warns Lennie ‘ Well you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rat trap ’. He suspects that someday she will cause Lennie to get into trouble, thus making it harder to reach their dreams. In the barn towards the end of the novel when Lennie kills Curley’s Wife, ‘ the sun streaks were high on the wall...and the light was growing soft ’. In this situation the light represents her hopes and dreams

He tried to escape prison and was shot dead, and it was normal for people like him to forget who they are and try live the way the world wants them to. Of Mice and Men perfectly described how a woman does not have a voice and they can forget their true selves to fit society's standards. Curley’s wife’s name was never revealed in the novella which illustrates how women are seen as objects who are undeserving of a proper name. She could have had a career in modeling however, that opportunity was taken away from her and she married Curley because that’s what women were meant to do during the time. Women just like her had no say at all and were marginalized, Curley’s wife was told to stay inside and to never come out. She never had the chance to live as freely as she wanted, she was trapped with only herself to keep her

John Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife at the start of the story as an irrelevant character because she has no relation with George and Lennie. At the start, Curley is one of the most important characters (besides George and Lennie) because he has the power to crush George and Lennie’s dream of having a farm of your own. But as the story goes on, to end, we see the importance of her character and that everything that has happened on the ranch is caused by her presence; even though she is not in the story as much as others, she has a long lasting effect on the other characters. She is mentioned in the story a lot because of how she would acted around the men working in the ranch. In the end, we knew Lennie and George were not going to get a

Throughout the book curley's wife is always “looking” for curly although she is really trying to look for other companionship. This happens many times throughout the course of the story. One of the most obvious time is in the movie of Mice and Men During the barn seen when curley's wife and george talks she says “A good-looking guy like you must have had a million sweethearts”. This quote is one of many that show that she flirt with the other workers because she is lonely. Another reason why she is lonely is the fact that she never wanted to marry curly or live on the ranch.