John Steinbeck planned out every word he put into his novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck did exactly this with the development of the character Curley’s wife. She had started the novel as a “tart” or a nuisance of a character, but later she turned into an admriable character, one that you really feel for. In Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife is shown as a very unpleasant character. For example, while Lennie, Candy and Crookes were in Crooks’ room discussing their ranch, she walks in and says “Listen, Nigger...” “...You keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” (Pg 88 and 89). This shows she is taking advantage of the fact she’s the boss’s son’s wife, and uses her position of power …show more content…
This shows she doesn’t always just want to cause trouble and be a nuisance. She only wants to make friends and not feel lonely all of the time. In addition, she also says “Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it...” “... I never got that letter.” (pg 96). She is saying here that she thought she could one day be famous, and she doesn’t like being with Curley at the ranch. She never wanted to be at the ranch, but after the letter never showed up, she went and married Curley. Curley’s wife is compassionate and admirable, but very lonely. Loneliness is unavoidable for most characters on the ranch in Of Mice and Men. Curley’s wife is one of the characters in this novel who fell victim to loneliness. It is shown when she explains why Curley does not allow her to talk to the other men because of his insecurities: “‘I get lonely,’ she said. ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (pg 95). Curley’s insecurities disable his wife from being able to talk to people. Curley’s wife gets lonely, and it provokes her to act in a way of meanness when she does. Her loneliness is also shown as she walks in to Crooks’ bunk, “Well I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house all time?” (pg 85). This directly shows that she is unable to have a social life
Imagine running away from home. Then picture marrying someone that you never loved. On top of all of this, envision not being able to fulfill your dreams. This was exactly the case for Curley’s wife. Throughout the novel Curley’s wife was portrayed as a victim in many instances. Curley’s wife appeared to be a victim because she didn’t fulfill her dreams, didn’t love her husband, and was lonely.
Curleys wife -Curley 's wife 's loneliness has altered her demeanor towards others tremendously, making her overtly insecure and excessively flirtatious. Curley 's wife has become virtually another person because of loneliness. The men on the ranch avoid her because of flirtatious personality to keep out of trouble. No one understands her situation and how loneliness affects her. Her insecurity is evident by the way she dresses and utilizes her make-up. She uses her appearance to receive attention like when "[Curley 's Wife] was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters,
In this essay I am going to be assessing the character Curleys Wife from Steinbeck’s book Of Mice And Men. The book is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression it features two farm workers called George and Lennie. The travel around together in search of work sharing a dream of a place of their own, a small ranch where they can live and work for themselves. It tells the story of how violence may erupt to destroy those dreams. Curleys wife is a character in the book who from the brief encounters with her is presented in two ways. Firstly the dangerous, flirtatious character who isn’t trusted by the rest of the ranch workers but then later one we realize how she is just a victim
Curley’s wife is a victim because Curley her husband, abuses and mistreats her. Curley is always curious and spectacle of where his wife is as if he does not trust her with other men. Commonly asked by Curley "y'all seen my wife around?". Perfectly explaining as of how low the trust is in their relationship. Curley is also presented a being one of the cockiest, if not the cockiest, on the ranch, despite his size. Everyone on the ranch can see it too, the Swamper says” He’s cockier then ever since he got married.” The way Curley act’s comes off as he has a good-looking wife just to present her looks off to other men on the ranch, as a way to show his power. Or is treated because Curley truly does not care about her, he is really not in love
In this novel there is a woman referred to solely as Curley’s wife. She wanted to be famous while she only settled down with Curley. Her high hopes is what let her down, and made her unhappy in this situation. There are some controversies surrounding her. Some may speculate that she could have been trying to seduce Lennie. Was it all true, was she trying to make trouble, or was she simply caught as a victim in her plead for attention?
Most of John Steinbeck’s characters in the book are male and think of Curley’s Wife as a very simple sexual and seductive person. Almost every scene that she is in, Curley’s Wife presents herself in a provocative manner. In her first appearance in the novel, “...she put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so her body was thrown forward(?)”. As you can see, Curley’s Wife’s body language tries to show off her physique and is very enticing. After Curley’s Wife leaves the room George acknowledges her actions and says, “What a tramp(?)”. Most married women do not put themselves
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
We are first introduced to the character 'Curley's wife' in chapter two by Candy. We immediately see her being blamed for causing her husband’s arrogance “Curley is cockier'n ever since he got married”. An image of her as someone who should be blamed is therefore set up this early in the novel. Soon after this we get an impression of her appearance. Candy describes her as
Curley’s wife acts very provocative, playful, childish and flirtatious, this is because she is very lonely and has no power at all. Nobody knows the real person she is because no one ever dares to get in trouble with her. Curley’s wife is often presented negatively by Steinbeck such as when she is cruel to crooks after his hopes have been raised by the dream. This is easily shown when Curley’s wife snaps at Crooks. “keep your place then, Nigger.
Throughout the book, Curley’s wife is known as an evil temptation just because she’s a girl; however, when she is at her strongest it’s not because she is a girl it’s because she strips away Crooks power and tears him down to nothing. Curley’s wife walks into the stable where “all the weak ones [are]” (Steinbeck 77), and when they tell her to get out because shes no good, she threatens Crooks. She states, “‘Listen, nigger… You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’... She closed in on him… ‘Well you keep your place then, nigger
During the Great Depression, women's employment rose 24 percent, and despite this, most women were still bound by their gender. Women who didn't perfectly emulate what men saw as appropriate were demeaned and isolated. Steinbeck uses Curley's Wife as insight into the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of women in the 1930's. In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the sole female character, Curley's Wife should be seen as a victim of the time period because of how she is treated by the men in her life and her murder.
Curley’s wife, on the other hand, is not insecure, but suffers from ostracism and isolation because she is a married woman. Michael Meyer points out, “…the hardship for a woman to live on the ranch as presented in the novel should not be ignored”. Curley’s wife only wants someone to talk with her, but the men on the ranch mistake her trying to start conversations as sexual advances: “I never seen nobody like her. She got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody… I don’t know what the hell she wants” (Steinbeck 51). They also ridicule her, calling her a
The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck contains an evident theme of loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck uses his characters to invoke this theme throughout the novella. One character that is able to portray this perfectly is Curley's wife. John Steinbeck's main message through the use of the theme of loneliness, is that it's better to isolate oneself from others in order to achieve your goals.
When she was in the barn with Lennie, she began to tell her dream of being a movie actress in Hollywood, with luxurious life, money and respect other people that she currently doesn’t have. Her dream almost came true, but then Curley came destroyed her dream, and now, she has to stay in the dirty ranch, doing housework and doesn’t have any freedom, being treated as a possession of
The character of Curley’s Wife is very hard to unravel, as throughout the book, Steinbeck’s representation of women through characters such as George and Candy, is very harsh. This is because the sociological opinion at that time was that they were either, mothers, sisters, or prostitutes,