Curley’s wife is the only woman on the ranch. She is married to Curley who is the Boss’ son. She is always dressed up. She is first described as ‘ a girl with full rouged lips, red nails and her hair rolled. ‘ She looks out of place in a society like this. Everyone else is hard working, so they are all wearing tattered clothes. We first encounter Curley’s wife, the afternoon George and Lennie arrived at the Ranch. She came into the bunkhouse where George and Lennie were. and started to ask where Curley was. She then stood at the door ‘tossing her hair’ and she put her hands behind her back and kept leaning forwards.
This is not the first time we hear about her though is when George and Lennie are talking to Candy when they first arrive at the ranch. This is where we learn that she is married to Curley. Candy thinks that she is a ‘Tart. ‘ The other characters describe Curley’s wife as a ‘tart’, ‘rattrap’ and ‘Jailbait’. Slim doesn’t say anything about her; he is the only one who doesn’t. He is superior to the others; he is respected and will never say anything about anyone unless it is to their face. All the men on the ranch think this of her because it’s the only way she knows how to communicate with men.
I know this because in Steinbeck’s letter he states ‘She’s a nice girl not a floozy’ It also says that ‘if a man were to love her she would be a kind and loving wife. ‘ Steinbeck describes her physically by saying that she has ‘fully rouged lips and red nails. ‘ Because she puts her hands behind her hips and leans forwards the men think that she wants something other than just a person who she can confide in. She needs this because she is incredibly lonely. There were a lot of lonely people at this time in America, as it was the great depression.
After the Wall Street crash many people lost their jobs, so they travelled around on their own looking for work. Families were split apart and many people were very lonely. The loneliest people were always the ones that were different in some way or another. The significance of Curley’s wife being in Crooks’ room with Candy and Lennie is because they are all outcasts. Crooks is an outcast because he is black, he has his own room, which is separate from everyone else’s. Candy is an outcast because he is old and only has one arm.
Lennie is an outcast because he is intellectually challenged. Curley’s wife is an outcast because she is the only woman on the ranch. She can also use this as her power, she says to Crooks ‘I could get you hung just like that. ‘ This shows that she has a bossy side to her. She was talking about if she was to cry rape everyone would believe her and they would probably kill Crooks. She reacts to Crooks the way she does because she wants to use the little power she has. She is also frustrated that she has been left at home whilst everyone else had gone into town.
During this Crooks sits completely still, there is no movement, not even an expression on his face, he just stares straight ahead of him. When she was in the barn talking to Lennie she had a different tone. It is more kind and flirting way of talking. We discover that she also has a dream – she wants to be ‘in the movies’ she tells Lennie that a man said she was going to be in the movies, he was going to send her a letter; she never got it. This proves that she is very naïve. Being naïve is the main reason why she married Curley.
We also learn in the barn that she is very lonely; she also dislikes Curley; she says ‘I don’t like Curley, he is not a nice person. ‘ The perception of her character changed because you can now understand that she talks to everyone because she is lonely not because she is flirting. Steinbeck’s description of her dead body makes you feel sorry for her because He emphasises that she has no name and that she is now lying there, ‘trouble free. ‘ Because she is just silent all the men wish they hadn’t been so nasty to her during her short and miserable life.
Steinbeck condones Curley’s wife in the novel, he mainly does this in his letter. It says that ‘she is a nice girl, not a floozy’ this means that she does not flirt with everyone, she only does it because it is the only way she knows how to communicate with men. She would always be faithful to Curley and this is the one thing that everybody, including Curley got wrong about her. Steinbeck alters our opinion about her from bad to good in his letter. This proves that Steinbeck condones Curley’s wife in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men. ‘
