What Are The Similarities Between Lady Macbeth And Curley's Wife

How are women presented in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Macbeth’?
In ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Macbeth’ we are given the impression that women are bewitching and different to the typical Tudor/1930’s woman. They don’t abide by the same rules as other women. In the Tudor times women were less compelling and authoritative than men. Men treated women like they were ornaments or their possessions. Women were products of marriage hence the reason they were known by their husbands name. Curley’s wife was always being controlled by Curley. He was always searching for his wife. Lady Macbeth influences the reader into thinking that she is in administer of murdering King Duncan. She uses her femininity to convince Macbeth into murdering the king. In ‘Of Mice

and Men’, Curley’s wife also uses her femininity to receive all the attention that she needs from the other men on the ranch.

Both Lady Macbeth and Curley’s wife crave this power and attention. Lady Macbeth wanted to become queen and wanted to be thought of highly, whereas Curley’s wife wanted to become and actress and live a life of fame; she wanted people to think of her as star and to look up to her. Even before Curley’s Wife had lived on the ranch, she craved that attention. They are prisoners of their own ambition. Lady Macbeth ends up committing suicide because her ambition became too much for her to handle. Women were expected to stay at home, clean and prepare a meal for their husband for when he had returned home from a hard day of work. This didn’t apply to Lady Macbeth or Curley’s wife, Lady Macbeth would walk around manipulating her husband and Curley’s wife would walk around the ranch ‘not concealin’ anything. The only time that we saw Lady Macbeth cleaning was when Macbeth had returned from battle/the war. The views that people had of women, in the Tudor times and the 1930’s , links to both Curley’s wife and Lady Macbeth’s personality; temptress and evil. Curley’s wife tempted the men to stare at her with every chance

she could and Lady Macbeth had tempted her husband into murder.
The biblical story of Adam and Eve reinforces the stereotypical view of women. Eve had tempted Adam into eating the sacred apple with manipulation. She also uses her feminine traits to condemn him into eating it. Women have always been able to manipulate men using their femininity.
In ‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck introduces Curley’s wife through the eyes of another character.

This technique to create an image of the character before we actually meet her for ourselves. Steinbeck uses another character (Candy) to give us a small interpretation of what she looks like and what type of person she is. Candy is prejudicing us into thinking Curley’s wife is a ‘tart’. This technique is effective because it makes us have to create this image of Curley’s wife on our own. Her first appearance could lead us into believing that she was a ‘tart’. She wore a ‘cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers’. Her hair ‘hung in little rolled clusters’. Her lips were ‘rouged’; her eyes were ‘wide spaced’ and ‘heavily made

up’.
Steinbeck uses different techniques, pathetic fallacy being of them/ He uses this to create a negative atmosphere. He says how ‘the rectangle in the doorway was cut off’ as Curley’s wife enters the Bunkhouse. When we think of light shining through the window, we associate it with happiness and heaven, but Curley’s wife had caused the last bit of sunlight that shone through the door way to disappear and turn into darkness. When the sunlight is shut off we think about negativity and death. This could be used to indicate that Curley’s wife brings nothing but negativity and trouble to the ranch/ the men on the ranch. We receive predisposition views of Curley's wife.
At the end of the novella, when Curley’s wife lies there dead, sunlight is said to have shone into the stables. This is used to show us that now she’s dead all of the negativity and problems on the ranch have disappeared and the happiness is finding its way back. It was almost like Curley’s wife had taken all of her problems away with her, leaving the ranch a positive place. Whilst she was alive she had caused so many problems and arguments between the men on the ranch. Curley’s wife’s need for attention, lead to the death of Lennie Small (man on the ranch). She had brought nothing but trouble to the ranch.