She is a very flirtatious and provocative lady. She is not allowed to be in the ranch workers’ bunk house and is also not supposed to talk to the ranch hands. She is practically owned by her husband, Curley. None of the workers pay attention to her because they know it will get them into trouble. Curley is very jealous and protective towards his wife.
However, this appearance is incongruous with her true emotions and is an attempt to mask her loneliness. As the only woman on the ranch, she is regarded as separate as opposed to an equal to the men on the ranch. Throughout the novella she is defined as a possession of Curley’s which is why she is never actually referred to by her actual name but rather as “Curley’s wife”. Friendless, she is seen throughout the novella looking for people to talk to under the pretense of “looking for Curley”(31). However, as the men are afraid of getting in trouble with Curley, they all turn her away.
When all of the men refuse to spend time with her because of the reaction Curley has on this, she goes to the one person on the ranch that she knows will talk to her, the mentally retarded man, Lennie. While talking to him she asks him to feel her hair, which he does and this leads to her death by breaking her neck. If it wasn't for Curley's Wife's loneliness, she would have never gone to Lennie for company and she wouldn't have died on that day in that way. Because this happens in the novel and there are so many other lonely characters in the novel, such as Curley, Candy, Crooks and George in the end, the theme of the novel Of Mice and Men is loneliness and the need for companions. The affects of loneliness on people are displayed in the poem "Eleanor Rigby" through the characters of Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie.
In my essay I will discuss the theme of loneliness in the novel “Of Mice And Men.” The essay will consist of information based on the novel towards minor characters such as Curley’s Wife, Candy and Crooks. This essay will state information about Curley’s Wife, Candy and Crooks’ loneliness. Curley’s Wife was probably one of the loneliest characters of all. She never talked to anyone and she never really liked Curley all too much. “Why can’t I talk to you?
In Of Mice & Men, the character Curley’s Wife is depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous, and insensitive. However, her husband Curley sees her as only a possession. Most of the workers at the ranch see her as a tart, whereas Slim, the peaceful and god-like figure out of all the men, see her as lonely. This answer will tell us to which extent, is Curley’s wife a victim, whether towards her flirtatious behaviour, or to everyone’s representation of her. The character of Curley’s Wife is very hard to unravel, as throughout the book, Steinbeck’s representation of women through characters such as George and Candy, is very harsh.
All of the men are to scared to talk to her in case Curley becomes jealous and wants to start a fight. She has no female friends on the ranch, so the men are her only option, but they do not want to become friends with her. She spots out Lennie and wants to start a friendship with him as all of the others fear Curley and will have nothing to do with her. She says to Lennie “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever once in a while?” This shows that she is trying to tell Lennie that she desperately needs to talk to somebody as she hardly does ever talk to anyone because they do not listen to her. The dreams that so many of Steinbeck’s characters have are ultimately covering pains and difficulties that they may be enduring.
Curley’s wife acts like a tart for attention because nobody talks to her. She isn’t allowed to talk to anybody and nobody at the ranch is allowed to talk to her, that’s what Curley said. Curley’s wife doesn’t like Curley that much because he only likes to talk about himself and how he likes to beat up people bigger than him. Curley doesn’t like anybody and is very arrogant and carless about others. “Sure I gotta husban'.
Curley, the Boss 's son, is also lonely; he attempts to fill that gap with a skin-deep relationship, but it was doomed to fail. At the same time Curley’s wife, who renames unnamed for the entire story, is in a similar state. She is the only women in the entire story, other women at a brothel are mentioned, but they are not really characters in the story. And seeing how John Steinbeck keeps her unnamed, she represents all women, and how they were treated. The fact that she is a person is an afterthought to even Curley; she is just Curley’s Wife.
Although, she is not, the workers on the ranch tend to think that she is attempting to flirt with them. They claim that “She got the eye… I seen her give Slim the eye.” Curley’s wife only acts this way because she trying to fix the void between her and Curley with someone else. Part of the distance between Curley’s wife and Curley is that his wife does not care for him the way he cares for her. She claims that she “wasn’t gonna stay no place where [she] couldn’t get nowhere or make something of [her]self, so [she] married Curley,” (88). When she says this, she implies that she settled for Curley when she could have been a huge star.
Candy ... ... middle of paper ... ...t she cannot talk to anyone “but Curley,” the reader can see that Curley’ Wife is an extremely lonely character, as she has no one she can talk to that she would enjoy having a conversation with. She also cannot talk to any of the ranch workers, as it is deemed unacceptable by society for a married woman to be conversing freely with men, and especially not flirting with them. This, together with her first hand complaint that she is “lonely” illustrates clearly to the reader how Curley’s Wife is a lonely person. Steinbeck successfully portrays Curley’s Wife in many different perspectives, ranging from a bitter, predatory woman, to a lonely, powerless girl. His clever manipulation of Curley’s Wife’s personality, and her actions and interactions with other characters manages to reach the reader, and conveys to the reader the complexity of her character.