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.
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.
She did not find that a marriage service generated love; she did not enable her husband to recapture his youth through hers; nor could she compensate for that by running his home in the manner of an experienced housekeeper.” This quote illustrates that Elias Strorm was very cruel to her that she died after her second child was born. She was a beautiful, young woman who Elias turned into a very dull person. She always wanted him to be happy and be a good person, but that did not happen, he was just unfair and unpleasant to everyone. To conclude Elias Strorm’s wife is a good supporter of her husband as well as Emily Strorm. The role of women does demonstrate bystanders and supporters of their husbands and family member.
Don Elias didn’t go out and make an honest living. He was only respected by the people around him because they feared him. Dona Matilida was not seen as an equal partner in the relationship. She was more of a servant to Don Elias. I believe that when they first got married there was some kind of love in their relationship, but when they realized they could not conceive a child Don Elias blamed his wife.
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. Because of this, many of the men only see her as an
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”.
Since during the novella Curley’s wife is constantly bullied and segregated which drives her to having to flirt with the men since it is the only way she can get anyone to talk to her so she deserves to live a life free from loneliness and sorrow and to live her dream. George in one way gets what he deserves since that he is freed from constantly having to watch out for and look after Lennie so he can live his life how he wants with no distractions. However, he does lose his best friend and only companion which is grave since now he has no one to share his lifelong dream with. Lennie deserves a better a more full life where his dream of petting rabbits comes true and that he is forced to be valiant by George and occidentally kills Curley’s
‘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
Curley’s wife lived not only through the sexiest society which rejected her but her husband did not love her at all making her become “… a tart… with the eye,”(Steinbeck14). That is the image that the men have of Curley’s wife because they are ignorant and do not understand that all she is searching for is to have someone to talk to. Curley’s wife’s loneliness led her to have a bad image with the men on the ranch but also made her seek for attention in anybody she did not matter who. For example she would talk to Candy, and old lifeless man, Crooks who is a Negro that is physically disabled, and Lennie who is a huge man that is mentally retarded. She became mean too since she was lonely and the men rejected her.
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