In a way, the opposite of George and Lennie’s connection is the relationship between Curley and his wife. Curley is a very arrogant, jealous, and controlling man, while his wife - who remains unnamed throughout the novel - is gorgeous and flirtatious. She is a trophy wife for Curley, who is otherwise much more wealthy than all the other characters in Of Mice and Men because he is the son of the owner of the farm, and he treats her like one. Their relationship obviously lacks the mutual respect, love, and proper attention that marriages need to survive.
Curley is an insecure man, and that shows in his characterization. He is shown as being physically very small, and constantly brags about his expertise with women to all the men on the ranch. However, he is always worrying about where his wife is and who she
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is with at the time. For Curley, the reader can see that his bragging about his sexual prowess is a way of trying to overcompensate to prove his masculinity and stature over the other men. In a way, he tries to press the point that size does not matter. The problem with this is, to him, physical strength is key. And though he tries to hide it, everyone knows that he is very insecure about his small size. To try to make up for it, he puts himself in control of every situation that he is in. He fights people who are weaker than him, like Lennie. This show of hyper masculinity is what isolates Curley from the rest of the characters in the novel. On the other hand, Curley’s wife acts like she is very above all of the men on the ranch. For example, when she walks in on Crooks, Candy, Lennie, and George having a conversation and interrupts them, she says, “What am I doin'? Standin' here talkin' to a bunch of bindle stiffs—a nigger an' a dum-dum and a lousy ol' sheep … " (Steinbeck 103). She acts like she does not want companionship. However, we see a very different side of her when she talks to Lennie right before he kills her. She tells him about her old dream of being an actress, and when that didn’t pan out, she married Curley the first day she saw him. After she is killed, she is described in a very different light than what she was described during her life: “… the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face … her face was sweet and young” (Steinbeck 123). Curley’s wife is just as narcissistic as Curley is. She craves constant attention and love because of her profound loneliness at being the only girl on the farm.While she cuts down Candy, Crooks, and Lennie for their disabilities, she still wants them to listen to her. At any given opportunity, she will talk about how she could have been an actress. The loneliness that drives her to crave the attention from Lennie is what ultimately kills her, because she fails to notice the danger in him for the chance to tell her story. It is obvious that the relationship between Curley and his wife is not at all a healthy one. It is marred with Curley’s possessiveness and need for hyper-masculinity, and further tainted by his wife’s need for attention and narcissism. Both of these characters are incredibly lonely: Curley, again because of his need to prove his masculinity to compensate for his small stature, and his wife because she is the only female on the farm. Their relationship, unlike George and Lennie’s, is solely one of need. Both of the major relationships in the novel Of Mice and Men represent different aspects of the loneliness that came along with the pressures of the Great Depression.
Steinbeck’s point in exploring these relationships is to teach people about how the isolation drives people into forging relationships with each other. While it should be obvious that a marriage would result in a much more loving and caring relationship, in this story, that is not the case. As shown, Curley and his wife’s relationship is nothing but stressful and a burden on both of them. Neither people are helped at all by the marriage, as both of them are still very lonely, even together. However, the most unlikely of connections, George and Lennie’s, perseveres and is truly a mutualistic relationship. While their relationship is not fully of platonic love, it is clear that both men do care for each other. Steinbeck wanted to teach us that people need each other. We as humans crave social interactions and the feeling of being respected and wanted. Sometimes, conventional relationships - like those of husband and wife - do not provide that, while unconventional relationships can truly have
meaning.
Comment on how the character of Curley’s wife is portrayed in Sinise’s. 1992 television film version of "The Thriller" How is this characterization different? to that of the original novel by Steinbeck? Introduction The “Of mice and men” by Steinbeck was written in the 1930’s during the period. great depression Era which came about as a result of the Wall Street crash.
The first description of Curley’s Wife states that she gives multiple ranch workers “the eye” despite being “married two weeks.” From this we can instantly deduce that she is somewhat of a “tart” however if we evaluate further this could explain that she is lonely and not content with her new husband. The fact that she is giving other ranch workers “the eye” despite being married makes us feel no sympathy for her and instantly portrays her as endeavouring and potentially dangerous, although, on the other hand we can understand her restriction by Curley which makes us feel sympathy.
In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as a flirtatious, mischievous, and over all isolated woman. Steinbeck doesn’t give this character a name, yet she is one of the most important characters in the story. Curley’s wife first comes off as flirtatious to the main characters, George and Lenny, when they first hear about her from the character Candy . Candy is talking about how she gives men “the eye”. He also displays his feelings about her by saying, “Well, I think Curley’s married… a tart”(28). This is setting George and Lenny up to expect she is a flirt.. Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife in her first introduction as a scantily dressed woman.. Steinbeck writes, “Both men [George and Lenny] glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, roughed lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled cluster, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers”(31). The color red is sometimes considered for portraying a sign of danger or sex. This passage supports Curley’s wife as being flirtatious and also how she’s dangerous and can cause trouble displaying herself while she is married. Also, when George and Lenny are talking to Curley’s wife she tries to flirtatiously talk to them too. After their first conversation she re-adjusts herself. Steinbeck displays her with “She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward”(31). Steinbeck is explaining to the reader in detail that Curley’s wife is trying to show herself to Lenny and George to get thei...
“Nobody’d listen to us” (81) exclaims Crooks when talking about being ignored. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates the characters Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy experiencing loneliness and isolation while living on the ranch. These characters attempt to socialize, succeeding and failing. Loneliness and isolation of the characters results in yelling, bullying, and even a broken neck.
Life is full of choices: where to go to school, where to live, who to marry, and what jobs to apply for, and most of the time each of us control what happens with these choices. What if those choices brought someone to the point of being trapped and feeling helpless? In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the wife of Curley is in just that spot. She made the choice to marry a tyrant of a man and is now forced to live with the consequences of her decisions. Curley’s Wife is misunderstood due to the workers’ assumptions, Curley’s relationship with her, and her unclear background.
Curley’s wife shows her sympathetic side when she comforts Lennie after he kills the dog. She tells Lennie, “Don’t you worry none” (87). This quote demonstrates trying to connect with someone on the ranch; in this case it is Lennie. She tells him he is not a bad person and tries to keep his dream of tending the rabbits alive. She also says, “You can get another one easy” (87). This quote shows that she is a compassionate human being despite the constant judgment of her personality. Because Curley’s wife is comforting Lennie, he calms down and starts listening to her. Moreover, despite ...
How does the reader’s perception of Curley’s Wife change through the book? In Of Mice and Men the reader’s opinion of Curley’s Wife changes throughout the book, in the beginning of the book the reader looks at her as trouble. Near the end the reader starts to feel sympathetic towards her. Although all the characters look at her as a “tramp”, despise, and avoid her, the reader sees her differently. The reader sees how miserable she is, and how many other things she has to put up with everyday. She might not be the nicest person out there, but she is still a person with feelings. The reader’s feelings drastically change from the beginning of the book to the end. She is perceived negatively repeatedly throughout the book, by all the characters at many different times. She is known as the “tramp” at the ranch, the reader would obviously think negatively of Curley’s Wife when all the characters are talking trash about her. In chapter 2 George said to Lennie “I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.” After reading this how could the reader see Curley’s Wife in any other way. As the reader I also despised Curley’s Wife, I didn’t want her to get close to Lennie or George because I knew she would try and get them in trouble or something bad would happen with her being there. This quote specifies how almost every man felt on this ranch, and this was very early on in the book, George had not even had a decent conversation with her and he was already talking about her in this way. This was not only in the beginning of the book; at the scene of her death Candy was shouting “you got damn tramp” at her dead body. This shows even when she is dead, how little everyone cared about her. The r...
...ars for the fidelity of his wife as he believes there is a chance that Slim could be with her, despite his good nature. This makes the audience believe that Curley knows his wife is capable of anything, and that he would rather have her under his control. However, the poignant side to Curley’s Wife’s victimisation is when she is victimised due to the stereotypical image of women, either mother or prostitute. This adds a dark shadow over her complicated character, because the way she dresses, and the shoes she wears, especially at the ranch of all places, is unnatural. Also, her manipulative ways ironically cost her life, as she was probably toying with Lennie being mentally handicapped. Overall, I believe that the way that Curley’s Wife has cast her impression upon everyone, has eventually made her a victim of society, the ranch workers, and most importantly, herself.
In this essay I am going to examine whether Curley's wife is a tart or
Curley's wife is seen as a cheap possession, a toy that belongs to Curley. A possession that he gets to control. His lack of love, respect and attention results to her death in the end. By all the men she’s seen as a tramp, they think that she’s out cause trouble. But the truth is she’s desperately lonely. She just wants someone to talk to. She’s missed out on a wonderful life that could have been hers, and that hurts her.
Curley?s wife spent her whole life trying to grab attention. She was always labeled and ignored by everyone on the ranch, an example of this is when George tells Lennie that she was troubled and to stay away from her. Curley?s wife was ignored and used from early on, when she was given false intentions on being a movie star.
Curley has two companions: his wife (which doesn’t even like him) and his dad, which is forced to like him because Curley is his son.
Curley’s wife’s femininity may be seen as her greatest weakness or flaw to most, but she rapidly discovers that it is also her only weapon on the ranch and learns to use it to her advantage. Therefore, she puts up an alluring and sultry front in an attempt to receive attention, because she is aware that none of the men on the farm respect her because of her position as a woman. The men's blatant lack of respect for her belittles the miniscule amount of power she has acquired
Curley’s wife is probably the most loathed on the ranch. The way she looks and acts leads other characters in the novel to see her as a “tart”. George makes his opinions clear just after he first met her “Jesus, what a tramp”, and “So that’s what Curley picks for a wife”. She just wants some one to talk to. Males on the ranch don’t like her because they think she will get them into trouble. They make judgments without getting to know her first. They judge a book by its cover. Curley, her husband doesn’t trust her with the other ranch hands. She was just out of place on the ranch, and because of that, must have been a really lonely person with lonely feelings.
The way Curley’s wife was treated changed the responsibility she had, the views of her, and being alone all the time. In life, women and those who are different aren’t seen as equal. They all have harder lives than the typical man does. Unfortunately, one of the characters who were different was outnumbered and was seen on a lower