'of Mice and Men' Curley's Wife

1144 Words5 Pages
In Steinbeck’s novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ Curley’s wife is a representation of many of the women in the 1930’s deep within the Great Depression. Steinbeck has created Curley’s wife as a very complex and fascinating character using different techniques to portray her personality and character. These techniques include the use of the language used to describe her and the structure in which Steinbeck has written the novella. In this essay, I will show how Steinbeck has presented the complexity of Curley’s wife’s character by exploring sections of the novella in detail using sophisticated explanations and evaluations of the language and the structure used by Steinbeck. Curley’s wife is often excluded due to being female. The men on the ranch believe that ‘the ranch aint no place for a girl’ as she is seen as a dangerous and provocative woman; they do not want to get involved in any trouble that she could cause. She is frequently found in search of companionship on the ranch as her unsuccessful marriage to Curley doesn’t give her the affection that she desires. In her life, she has had an opportunity to fulfil her wish and to become an actress. However, due to her mother’s interference, this was not possible. She had to marry Curley simply because she had to get married - she had no choice. Here we see her as a vulnerable and fragile character. We also see this during her conversation with Lennie just before her death. She shares with Lennie about the puny relationship between her and Curley. Here we have evidence that she doesn’t really love Curley; she just married him because she had to get married. ‘I don’t like Curley, he aint a nice fella’. This tells us that she is lonely in her relationship; she tries to look good around the ranch-the only place she can go-just to get a hint of what life could have been like if her dreams were reality. There aren’t any women she
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