Curly's wife is so lost, lonely and insignificant that Steinbeck does not even give her a name. She spends the novel trying to find company under the guise of looking for her husband. Curly is in fact an intensely abusive person with a major case of small-guy complex. The irony is that while she pretends to be looking for Curly, she is actually trying to avoid him. The men on the ranch fear Curly's wife.
This further suggests her need to overcompensate in her image as an attempt to impress the ranch workers and her husband. The reader may infer that Curley’s wife succeeds in her attempt for their attention when slim addresses her as “good-lookin” in a friendly manner, however we notice George stays constantly wary of her and treats her with a similarly brusque air “well he aint now.” Steinbeck uses this short and abrupt sentence to perhaps highlight George’s intolerance of her, and her dangerously flirty personality. Steinbeck prefigures the death of Curley’s wife, later in the novel, also through his physical description of her. This is shown through use of the colour red in her; “rouged lips”; “little bouquets of red ostrich feathers” and “red mules” perhaps meaning her association with the colour red holds connotations of danger and death. Her death is also prefigured in the very first introduction of her entering the bunkhouse “the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off” Steinbeck presents the sunshine as being part of Curley’s wife’s’ ‘dream’ and perhaps being used as a metaphor for the freedom and happiness she longs for, however when the light is “cut
This is manifest when she attempts to manipulate situations and the male characters with her sexual presence. This is evidenced when Steinbeck uses the character of Whit after George has told him he hasn't seen Curley's new wife to state “Well stick around an' keep your eyes open. You'll see plenty. She ain't concealing nothing..” Steinbeck is effective in showing women in the 1930's had very little power and the only power we are sure they had was a seductive one. Steinbeck’s treatment of women was not a positive one as some of the ranch workers described her as a ‘bitch’, ‘tramp’ and ‘tart’.
In the Novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, you will find that everyone has a bit of loneliness in them, even if it is a little. Curley’s Wife is lonely because Curley treats her wrong, nobody talks to her, and she never got her dream. Candy is lonely because he is old and disabled. Crooks is lonely because he is being bullied, racially discriminated and his skin colour. In the end, loneliness is everywhere and still affects
This enforces the idea that unlike Lennie, she is a complex character in the novel. Steinbeck mentioned that Curley’s wife’s voice had a “nasal, brittle quality” which is a clear sign of her flirtatious behaviour. Although her intentions were flirty, the fact that it was described as ‘nasal’ by the author made it obvious that it was unpleasant to the ears. The reaction from George made it clear to the reader that she was an attractive woman, however he was being apprehensive as he “looked away from her and then back”. This contrasts with Lennies reaction as his “eyes moved down over her body” blatantly checking her out.
How Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife in this passage above? Intro: In of mice and men, Curleys Wife is presented in many numerous ways. Steinbeck depicts Curley’s wife not as a villain, but rather as a victim. Like the ranch-hands, she is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life. She's the only female character in the novel, and she's never given a name and is only referred to in reference to her husband.
Later in the novel we meet Curley’s wife, she is portrayed as a provocative character with her “full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes”. From this quote we can infer that Steinbeck is presenting Curley’s wife as a sexual object, with her red lipstick. In addition we can say that her red lipstick and her red nails can indicate danger, lust and passion. However on the other hand we can say that she puts on her makeup to cover up her loneliness and the shattered broken dream of her becoming a star. Steinbeck’s creates effect through illustrating
She was completely isolated. Never wanted, never loved. Curley treats her as if she were an object, and Steinbeck puts more ‘loneliness’ to her by not giving her a name because she’s merely a property belonging to Curley. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife is a character who is alone and misunderstood. Her life on a ranch in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl is even worse because she is the only woman.
The intention of making the reader perceive her early on as a ‘tart’ foreshadows that something later is going to happen and there could be trouble. Curley's wife's loneliness has altered her behaviour towards others tremendously, making her insecure and excessively flirtatious. The isolation and the intense
When we first meet Curley’s wife, Steinbeck makes her appear very flirtatious and dangerously beautiful. Steinbeck does this by giving her features that are very atrocious but yet lures you such as ‘full, rouged lips’, ‘red fingernails’, and ‘red mules’. The word ‘red’ symbolises many associations with sex, lust and seduction. Another quote that would question the reader would be, ‘She’s a jailbait.’ From this quote alone, it evokes the reader of suspicion that she could be the ticket to jail as well as being an object that would foreshadow later in the book. In addition to the previous paragraph, we also know that Curley’s wife is a married woman, a possession of Curley’s.