Steinbeck is showing how Curley’s wife emerges as a complex and interesting character. Although her purpose is rather simple in the book’s openings, she is been called “tramp,” “tart,” and “bitch”. These nasty comments are made by the people that dislike her and her appearances; this makes the reader feel sympathy for her. Later in the book Steinbeck become more complex. She is first introduced through rumours means that the reader already has a biased opinion of Curley 's wife before she even enters the section. Candy mentions that she, "got the eye" explaining that she is flirtatious and immoral with the fact that she flirts with other men immediately after it is stated that she is married to Curley. Already, the reader is introduced to …show more content…
Not only is Curley 's wife described as being a floozy but she is also described as being threatening. Upon entering Crooks 's room, it is apparent that Crooks and Candy are afraid of her when they both, "scowled down away from her eyes." This deliberate prevention of eye contact could suggest that the men have a fear of Curley 's wife or that they do not feel the need to dignify her with eye contact. The use of the word " scowling" means that either way, the presence of Curley 's wife displeases Candy and Crooks. Eventually Curley 's wife explodes at Crooks in a series of threatening comments after he sticks up for himself, "I could get you strung up so easy." Crooks then retracts all emotion and becomes very weak and submissive because of Curley 's wife 's threats. On the other hand, in this encounter you begin to realise the cause of her hostility, as it mentionsthat Curley 's wife would like to "bust him." referring to Curley. The fact that Curley 's wife has admitted that sometimes she would like to hurt Curley hints at domestic abuse as throughout the novel, Curley is described as violent and now that Curley 's wife has admitted that despite being his wife, she would like to hurt him, creates the idea that Curley gives her a reason. If Curley 's wife does infact suffer domestic abuse then this may partially excuse her hostility as she is mirroring the only atmosphere she is
After Curley 's wife talks about her loneliness she begins to verbally attack the men about their lack of concern and apathetic attitude towards Curley. After Crooks asks her to leave, she threatens with him lynching. Curley 's wife knows that she could easily have this done, as she is married to the bosses son and can
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.
' “ (Steinbeck 32). Curley 's Wife, innocent just like Crooks, is also judged and persecuted by others. She is not even given a name, which does not give her any dignity. Curly’s wife is always called out by the ranchers. Even after her own tragic death Curley 's Wife is still seen as the cause of trouble. Candy believes that Curley 's Wife is at fault. Candy lets his anger out on Curley 's Wife because he has more power than her, “ 'You God damn tramp, ' he said viciously. 'You done it di 'n 't you? I s 'pose you 're glad. Ever 'body knowed you 'd mess things up. You wasn 't no good. You ain 't no good now, you lousy tart. ' “ (Steinbeck 95). Candy calling out Curley 's Wife represents society treating her as a cast off. Curley 's Wife is lonely because she is the only woman on the ranch, however because of this, she is always being treated cruelly and without respect.
Curley’s Wife was a subject of Prejudice because she was a woman. During the 1930’s a woman’s place was to be at home raising a family, also women were seen as second class citizens and property of their husbands. Before we meet Curley’s Wife, the reader already has an opinion of her because of what the character Candy calls her- “jail bait”; George calls her a “tramp”. It’s implied that she is a tart and a promiscuous woman; she craves the attention her husband doesn’t give her.
At first, Curley's wife is described to the reader through the comments of the men on
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
While Crooks, a victim of racial prejudice, expresses his isolation openly, he also socializes with the other workers on the job and while playing horseshoes with them. Curley’s wife, on the other hand, cannot talk to anyone without suffering the consequences of a jealous husband: “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?” (87) More specifically,after meeting him that same night, Curley’s wife ran away from home to marry Curley to spite her mother. She further confessed to Lennie she doesn’t even like Curley. As a result, she left one situation hoping to move closer to capturing her dreams, but her companion’s jealous and violent behavior prevents her from even socializing with others.(88) Therefore, she went from living with multiple people to living with only Curley, who is supposed to be her companion and someone she
I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." This quote tells us that Curley's Wife knows that she is above Crooks in the social hierarchy since she is white and he is black and has a disability. When she talks to Crooks she is also very confident and disrespectful and uses racist language. When you zoom into the quote you will also see a ellipses in the quote which shows the tension and anger which Curley's Wife would never show to the other men even Lennie. Steinbeck may have used this language to emphasise the villain in herself. Which tells us that if she had more power she would use it in a negative way. You can also tell that Curley's Wife is releasing her anger towards Crooks since he is one of the only people she can show her
George and Candy call Curley’s wife by other names such as "jailbait" or "tart." Curley’s wife ask lennie to touch her hair because Curley’s wife said it was so solf. Lennie learn over to touch her hair then he starts stroked harder. “Oh, that’s nice. Lennie put his hand over Curley’s wife mouth because she is freaking out. Curley’s wife begged Lennie to take his hands off of her mouth. Lennie tells Curley’s wife that he does not want to hurt you because he is so tuff. Everyone thinks that Curley’s wife is a tromble person. Curley’s wife just wants someone to listing to her about her pass before she meet Curley. Also, Curley gets mad at his wife because she goes to all the guys at the farm. Curley’s wife called Linne nuts. (Pg. 90).
"He got married a couple of weeks ago. Wife lives over in the boss’s house, seems like Curley's even cockier since he got married" Candy doesn’t seem to like Curley’s wife
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
Curley’s wife, who is never given a name, but always called “Curley’s wife”, is shown with a lot of sexual prejudice. She is referred to as a “looloo” (51) with a very flirtatious nature and “she got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody”, and she might “even gives the stable buck they eye” (51). A "ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like
I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her” (pg. 32). Curley’s wife tries to get attention from someone besides Curley by showing herself off, but the men on the ranch realize that if they respond to Curley’s wife, it will elicit a violent response from him and a possibility of getting kicked off the ranch. The result is that Curley’s wife gets a lot of negative attention without any actual friendship. She is also the only woman on the entire ranch from what Steinbeck describes. She cannot talk to the men and there are no women that Curley might allow her to talk to, leaving her without any meaningful relationships. Despite her efforts, she ends up even more separated from the other people on the ranch.
Curley's wife on the other hand is rude without excuse. " `Listen, Nigger' , she said. `You know what I can do to you if you open you trap'" She abuses her position and has no respect for him at all, she doesn't even refer to him by his name, looking down on him with utter contempt and disdain. It is attitudes like hers that have turned him into the bitter man he has become – "Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego-nothing to arouse either like or dislike"
Loneliness affects Crooks and Curley’s wife through their actions and how they live. Curley’s wife is portrayed as a sexual and inappropriate woman to other men in the novella because of her makeup and behavior. Her makeup is a mask covering her real self –lonely and living a life of solitude. Even though she is married, not once do we see Curley’s wife and her husband together. Curley is going to a whore house every Saturday and his wife acts subtle about it. We