Curley made life really unpleasent for his wife on the ranch. He never had a proper conversation with her throughout the book and never cared how she felt. Curley kept “his hand soft for his wife” and went around showing off to other men about it. Curley is always resentful and angry towards everyone on the ranch, he has a problem with big men even though he is described as small in the book. Everyone on the ranch called Curleys Wife a ''tart'' because she flirts and the ranch men said ''Shes got the eyes''.
When Lennie is in the barn because he killed the puppy Curley’s wife walks in and starts talking to Lennie. “…Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.”(86) In doing this Curley’s wife is coming right out and telling Lennie that she is lonely and just wants someone to talk to. Curley’s wife is always looking for someone just to talk to because she doesn’t have anything better to do.
Like the ranch-hands, she is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life. Curley’s wife: Of Mice and Menis not kind in its portrayal of women. In fact, women are treated with contempt throughout the course of the book. Steinbeck generally depicts women as troublemakers who bring ruin on men and drive them mad. Curley’s wife, who walks the ranch as a temptress, seems to be a prime example of this destructive tendency—Curley’s already bad temper has only worsened since their wedding.
Another character is Curley's wife who is very lonely. Steinbeck shows lonliness by showing her only women on the ranch. She is lonely because at that time author is writing ,women were used to stay at home and not allowed to go out. She always flirts with the male workers of the ranch to seek attention.She always try to talk to somebody but no one is ready to talk to her. For evidence she said to Lennie,"I never get to talk to nobody.
The title "Of Mice and Men". Firstly Steinbeck portrays Curley's wife as a lonely character. Newly married and in a strange place, she is forbidden by Curley to talk to anyone but him. To counter this, she constantly approaches the ranch hands on the excuse of looking for Curley. The only result is that the men regard her as a "slut", and Curley becomes even more intensely jealous.
Poor Curley’s wife! Curley’s wife is a victim. She is a victim because she suffered through a lot when she was young or before she was married and also after her marriage.In this scene Curleys wife was flirting with lennie and she said “I get Lonely. You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.
She is a lonely character constantly searching for attention, even if it is from ranch workers, cripples and the coloured. Curley's wife is made to show her disgust at married life by being 'married two weeks an' got the eye', this makes the ranch workers towards her bitter and unhappy as they see her as a tart who has no reason to be near them as she will only lead to trouble. Steinbeck uses Curley's wife's character along with others to show that many people of that time had dreams, hers was that she 'could be in the pitchers' we find out about her dream just before her death this heightens the impact of the news. She knows that she is no longer able to fulfil her own dream, as she is no longer her own person but Curley's, she turns her anger into the form of making Curley jealous by flirting with other men. Despite the fact that she wants to believe she had a chance in the pictures she knows she had no chance after the promised
Curley’s wife would always try to show more of herself, and of course the reaction of the men was to call her a “tramp” and a “rat trap”. This is also subtly changing the readers view. We can see that all the men on the Ranch feel the same way about her. Steinbeck almost puts you in the position of Lennie and George, so whenever she insults them, so also insults you, further exaggerating what you feel about Curley’s wife. For example, when she says “They left all the weak ones here” all the men ignore her to let her know that she isn’t wanted, and Crooks tells her to get out.
Sykes was very ungrateful and didn’t appreciate his wife, he tried to get her out of the way so he can be with his mistress Bertha. The saying “Karma is a bitch,” relates to the story because, Sykes tried poisoning his wife with a rattlesnake, but instead he was bitten and died from the poison. The story unfolds when Sykes got home and verbally abused his wife, but she stood up and faced him without any fear in her eyes, that was the breaking point for Delia, despite all her hard work he didn’t appreciate her, so she decided to stand up for herself and no longer endure her husband’s abuse. Sykes character unfolds when the narrator painted a picture of what he really is and his thoughts against his wife, he was wicked and cruel against his wife but was sweet and caring towards his mistress Bertha. He would go all out just to get Delia out of his way of being happy with his mistress.
English notes Introduction- Introduce idea of loneliness and explain how there are many examples of loneliness throughout the book Talk about how most characters show signs of loneliness over the course of the storyline. Paragraph 1- Crooks Talk about Crooks loneliness Contain references to him being black, his story about his childhood and how he came to realize that he could never be friends with a white person. Refer to his confessions about 'just having someone to listen'. Mention how he regrets tormenting Lennie because he was the only person who would listen. Paragraph 2- Curley's wife Talk about how she is always hanging around on the ranch, finding excuses to get out of the house.