In Of Mice & Men, the character Curley’s Wife is depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous, and insensitive. However, her husband Curley sees her as only a possession. Most of the workers at the ranch see her as a tart, whereas Slim, the peaceful and god-like figure out of all the men, see her as lonely. This answer will tell us to which extent, is Curley’s wife a victim, whether towards her flirtatious behaviour, or to everyone’s representation of her. 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, …show more content…
This is very odd for a woman especially to enter a working environment, when wearing such clothing. T In this particular aspect of the character of Curley’s wife, she is a victim of her tarty behaviour. 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 The final part of this answer is the predator that lies within Curley’s wife, the one that preys on other’s disadvantages. This is shown in many scenes, where she takes advantage of Lennie’s mental instability
In John Steinbeck 's novel, Of Mice and Men, we gather our first impressions of Curley 's wife from Candy, a man with one arm and who 's only companion is his dog and is his equivalent of a friend, which he has had since it was a pup. "I had 'im since he was a pup". We develop our initial impressions of Curley 's wife as being flirtatious, attention seeking and even promiscuous .
Curley’s wife is a lonely and Naïve, and that makes her an easy prey. She is the only woman on the ranch she is a lonely woman. Her husband, Curley, is a mean and over powering man, uses her to pick fights with other guys. He is a terrible husband who not only is mean to his wife but also leads us to believe that he beats her up. Curley’s wife usually would listen to her records but Curley even breaks those. Her flirtatious nature is what gets her into trouble, and that also leads her to her death. Lennie is a gentle giant who doesn’t mean to hurt anybody but accidentally does. In the case of Lennie, Curley’s wife does not know what she is getting in for. Curley’s wife flirtatious nature is a harsh reality but as an innocent person get her in to trouble.
In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, there is a character named Curley’s Wife. Curley’s Wife is first shown in the novella as a character who is thought as provocative and represented as darkness. This does not change throughout the story, and she is dehumanized, objectified, and sexualized. Therefore, Steinbeck crafts the character, Curley’s Wife, in order to convey how the american dream is unattainable through him showing sexism and discrimination towards women.
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
Curley's wife is cast out because she is a woman. Curley watches over her carefully since she is his wife and the only woman on the farm. Curley does not allow his wife to converse with the other workers because he is afraid she will be unfaithful. She complains that individually, the men are generally nice, but in groups, they shun her and are sometimes cruel. Since Curley's wife is oppressed, she lashes out at a target that is weaker than she is, which is usually Crooks. He does the same.
Curley’s wife can be seen as a manipulative, vile woman or a victim of society as a whole. While she does appear to use her sexuality in attempts to get what she wants, I believe she may only be doing this out of necessity. Like the workers on the ranch, she too has her own hopes and dreams that she may never be able to fulfill. Also, there is never any overwhelming reason given for the reader to dislike her, just a general feeling of distaste. The only thing she truly appears to be guilty of is seeking the attention that she lacks from her husband. She may not be a paragon of virtue, but she is more a product of society than an innately terrible person.
Curley's wife flaunts herself around the guys because she just wants someone to notice her, but by doing this, the men perceive her as a “tart”, “tramp”, and “no good”. She is a very flirty character, but only to get noticed by the other
That they are treated as inferior to men. One way this is revealed is that in both stories the women are sometimes not even given a name. Near the beginning Curley’s wife walks into the room and introduces herself
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. Her insecurity is evident by the way she dresses and utilizes her make-up. She uses her appearance to receive attention like when
Even in Curley’s wife’s very first appearance, the men on the ranch look down upon her due to her looks and flirtatiousness, especially George. In the second chapter, George scolds Lennie for commenting on how ‘purty’ she is, saying “I seen em’ poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her.” Of course, Curley’s wife
Before the reader even gets to fully experience the character of Curley’s wife, they are immediately given a bias of distaste towards her. The reader is programmed to dislike her before they even get to meet her. Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife as being a tramp and a whore. She’s described as “having the eye,” or that she’s unfaithful. After our first encounter with her, George tells Lennie to keep away from her, because she is a danger.
First of all, Curley’s wife feels like more of a victim because all of the men judge her. They all seem to think first before they know who she actually is. The men judge on what they see at first. Many of the men talk about her behind her back. For example, on page 32 in the book, one of the characters, George, talks to another
She is lonely even though she is married. Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as a woman without a name, which indicates that she is an unimportant character. She is also the only woman on the ranch. The first time you hear about Curley’s wife is when Candy describes her to George. Candy uses expressions such as “she got the eye” and goes on to describe her as a woman who’s looking at other men, and because of this they call her a “tart”.
What the hell for? Well, I will tell ya what—Curley says he's keeping' that hand soft for his wife," which is a lousy thing to say. (Alder 27). Another example of this is the mere fact that Curley’s wife is not even given a name throughout the novel yet she is one one of the most important characters.
“She had full rouged lips and wide spaced eye’s, heavily made up.” - This is one of the ways John Steinbeck (who is the author of the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’) describes the character of ‘Curley’s Wife’. She is a complex and controversial character, who although is not referenced much throughout the book, still plays a significant role within the story.