We can see that Curley’s wife is portrayed by Steinbeck as a ‘tart’ in the beginning of the book, she is not cared for or liked by many of the men on the ranch at all as she irritates them and they think that she is not loyal towards Curley. However, by the end of the book the reader feels sorry for her as we see deeper inside her and see how lonely she is, she only has the image of a tart because she is so alone and the only way she knows to make friends is by being a flirtatious person. The first mention of Curley’s wife is in chapter 2 when George and ‘the swamper’ are talking about her. They say that she is ‘Purty ... but- well-she got the eye’. They mean that she is always looking and flirting with other men.
Curley’s wife clearly feels neglected by her husband and she likes to create attention for herself as she feels she isn’t noticed. She is extremely lonely, and that is why she is constantly going in to the bunkhouse to allegedly ‘look for Curley’ but really she is crying out for the attention and affection that her loveless marriage lacks. “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” and “Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs – a nigger an a dum dum and a lousy ol’ sheep – an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else.” This shows how desperate she is for contact with people. She is isolated because she is the only woman on the ranch, and because of this Curley is possessive over her. No characters in the novel care for Curley’s Wife (except for Lennie for a brief time) and very little attention is given to her- partly because they are intimidated by the potential wrath of Curley, son of the boss, if they step out of line concerning his wife.
Her character is harshly judged from the start simply because she’s a woman and no one saw things from her perspective. Because of this, the reader is influenced to feel sympathy for Curley’s wife. Her husband, who is always trying to keep a close eye on her, controls her. He is exceedingly possessive of her, and is easily angered when he catches her talking to another man. “I get lonely.” She says to Lennie, “You can talk to people, but I cant talk to nobody but Curley”.
She would flirt with the ranch hands for her own fun and she stupidly tried the same with Lennie. She was racist and a bit of a "tart". You could also look at her sympathetically. She was the lonely wife of jealous husband. All she wanted is someone to talk to but all there was were the ranch hands who didn't want anything to do with her because they would get in trouble.
She avoids Curley and seemingly only enterers into the relationship in order to leave an unpleasant, constraining home life, although she now regrets it. She does not belong on the ranch, however, and is ill at ease and out of place in this violent, brutal world that is dominated by men. Her death, even if we argue that is partly her own fault because she leads Lennie on allowing him to “pet” her hair, makes her yet more of a tragic victim. Whilst the men want revenge for her death, no one mourns for her and she is left alone in the barn with Candy, who is equally angry with her for spoiling his dreams. The final description of Curley’s wife suggests that in death she is finally at peace as she is abandoned like a rag doll in the hay, which is truly tragic and
Curley’s wife in particular is a bully towards him as she thinks she has more power over him than anyone else, as she is married to the bosses’ son and she’s white. Crooks longs for friendship with someone but nobody wants to communicate with him as he is coloured. Excitement in his actions when Lennie turns up to talk to him shows just how lonely he is. But Lennie only talks to Crooks when all the other men are out in town. He’s quite cruel towards Lennie and torments him.
‘No one cares about me’ this makes the reader feel sorry for her as nobody cares about her and nobody wants to be with her. At Curley’s wife death the reader feels for her as when Lennie is touching her hair and gets harder and harder it says ‘her eyes were wild with terror’ which makes the reader feel bad as she only wanted somebody to talk to and when she finds someone to talk to she gets killed for just being nice and letting Lennie feel her hair. Curley has something to do with his wife wanting attention as he goes out to town every Saturday with the men and they go to the brothel while she sits at home and isn’t even allowed out just to the town. Curley also sort of traps Curley’s wife by not letting her speak to the men but his allowed to do what he wants. She only gets attention from Curley and she doesn’t even get much attention from him so wants to speak to others to make her feel less
The harsh use of word ‘tart’ for Curley’s wife before her introduction in the novella suggests that her actions are not praised by the men on the ranch .This also implies that Steinbeck wants to creates a false impression about Curley’s wife in the readers head which leads them to prejudice before meeting her. Moreover, we can also link this to the theme of loneliness because Curley’s wife is using her body to attract other men just because Curley is not paying attention towards her, leaving her lonely in the world of men. This thought can lead readers to feel pity on her being lonely and ignore how she behaves. However, this flirtatious expression of Curley’s wife is confirmed when Steinbeck describes her ‘full roughed lips’ and ‘heavily made up eyes’. Steinbeck effective use of adverb ‘heavily’ emphasise that her makeup is
‘Women must creep’ (Elaine R. Hedges) illustrates the thought that women shouldn’t be heard, but do only what they’re required to do, reinforcing how women were demeaned. The lack of power women had was not only present within their marriage, but also in society as males were perceived as the more significant gender, so women were patronised and dismissed by patriarchal control. Patriarchal control is represented clearly by John, the protagonist’s husband, which increases complexity within the novel as the isolation and ‘The resting cure’ he enforces upon her, causes her mental state to degenerate further, despite John believing it is helping his wife. There are a number of methods used to increase the characters complexity in The Yellow Wallpaper. For example, the use of epistolary displays a 1st person narrative and is in the present tense, “I never used to be so sensitive.” This is present when the protagonist writes to herself, Gilman uses this technique in order to show the
Different from other women, who obey men and follow orders, Shelley represents Safie as a rebellious female figure in an attempt to convey her hostility toward sexism. Safie’s strength is shown when she disregards her father and escape to join Felix instead. Because of Safie’s mutinous characteristic, Safie is able to criticize a male dominant society where women’s rights are often neglected. Furthermore, Shelley argues that confinement is nauseating because it is a form of oppression toward women. Victor’s two years of alienation between himself and society during his process of creating the monster parallel the period of a woman’s confinement before labor.