The fact that Curley's Wife, on a ranch, is 'heavily made up' indicates the fact that she is lonely, as on a ranch there is need to wear such heavy make up, and the only purpose it serves it to attract attention from the other men. Her husband Curley also seems to isolate her, taking away her right to companionship, a key theme in the novel, despite the fact she is married, showing itinerant workers are not the only ones lacking companionship. Adverbs are used by Steinbeck to show Curley's Wife's dangerous nature when around the other characters. The adverb 'playfully' is used to describe the way she talks to George and Lennie, showing the way she tries to get the attention of the men, despite her marriage to Curley. However she does not know that Lennie, unlike the other men, cannot control his actions as the other men can, and this eventually results in her and Lennie's deaths.
It is in her garden that Elisa lights up with thought of possibly, just a little more from life. Just like the chrysanthemums Elisa blossoms, while she interacts with the Tinker, a wandering salesman. As he the Tinker Tries to get Elisa to give him some work, sharpening scissors or mending some pots, “her eyes hardened with resistance”(689). “Oh, no, she said quickly” (689). “Nothing like that” (689).
She is desperate to feel noticed and special and this shows how lonely she is and isolated. Steinbeck presented Curley's Wife in different ways. First she is seen as 'a tart', a threat, using her power, being racist but then she is presented as also lonely and compassionate to Lennie. In Steinbeck's letter to the actress playing her in the play version, he says 'if you could break down her thousand defences she has built up, you would find a nice person, an honest person, and you would end up loving her.' We see in the end what a nice person she can be and that she wants to be loved like anyone else.’ |
It was either keep her marriage with Curley or get a divorce and pursue her acting. Many women in the 1900’s were faced with this same decision. Curley’s wife is the only women on the farm, making it hard to make friends. This makes life on the farm boring. During the novel Curley’s wife is often found wondering around the farm “looking for Curley”.
As I was watering it, I began telling it jokes, and talking to it, “What did Mrs. Plant say to Mr. Plant? 'Hey Bud, I like how you always bring me flowers! '” Mother was smiling at me, proud of seeing me interested in horticulture. Night was coming , and I was getting ready for dinner at the table, talked to Mother about Woody, and thinking of jokes to tell him. The next day, I excitedly ran to Woody to check on him, as I was watering him, I started petting him, leaf by leaf.
Steinbeck portrays Curley's wife at the beginning of the novel as a tramp, a tart that threatens to destroy any male on the ranch. However, her appearances later in the novel that show her to have a more vulnerable, humane side change that. For example, the scene when she confronts Lennie, Candy and Crooks in the stables (109-114) shows her from a completely different perspective. It suggests that she is not entirely malevolent and can be considered innocent, however ultimately she does bring about her own doom. Curley's wife is an insecure, misunderstood and lonely woman caught in a tragic situation.
Steinbeck presents the character of Curley’s wife in a complex and complicated manner. Steinbeck uses her as a literary device to show what it was like for a woman in 1920s America during the depression through Curley’s wife. Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife as a vehicle to show the gender prejudice and discrimination a woman had to face. He wanted people to change the way society thought of people such as women by showing that they are actually lonely and vulnerable even if they don’t seem it at first with the use of Curley’s wife and subtle methods as a symbol for women in that era. Steinbeck makes the reader conflicted on how they feel about her throughout the novel until and after her death.
Sickness is replaced by the lettuce the man steals for his deteriorating wife. According to the narrations of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Rapunzel, “One day the wife stood at this window, looking down into the garden, and her eyes lit on a bed of the finest rapunzel, which is a kind of lettuce. . . Her craving for it grew from day to day, and she began to waste away because she knew she could never get any” (154).
In the poem The Farmer’s Bride by Charlotte Mew, the use of language makes the reader feel sorry for the farmer and his bride. This grief is due to the situation that the poor couple are in and how the farmer refers as his bride to an animal. Within the poem, the farmer explains how the maid is related to animal, and how she is always acting like one. He calls her a “frightened fay” because he married her too young and she is scared to be in his presence, like a child is scared of an older or bigger object or person. This shows how timid she is just like a small fay.
The Devil which is a parallel to money is a motif so people such that in Tom's position, will borrow money from him. The Devil has essentially converted Tom into his spawn, as he is doing the same thing the Devil once did to him. The greed and money ultimately resulted in his death, and Tom's userer subjects led the end of their lives because of the debt they had to pay. The subjects indulged in the thought of free money, easily accessible money, ruining their lives, which is what the 'Devil' quiescently did to Tom Walker. This quote portrays the greed contained in people, "He was on the point of foreclosing a mortgage, by which he would complete the ruin of an unlucky land-speculator for whom he had professed the greatest friendship."