Comparing Curley's Wife In Of Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

Steinbeck has created contrasting impressions of Curley’s wife.

“Of MMice and mMen” is the intriguing novella, set in the 1930’s, by John Steinbeck. He portrays various impressions of Curley’s wife using a range of literary techniques .

Curley’s wife is first introduced by Candy, the old swamper, who describes her from his view. The fact that Curley’s wife is introduced through rumours gives the reader an influenced opinion of her before she even enters the section. Candy states that she “got the eye” which we perceive as her being dishonest to her husband, Curley, as she is supposedly flirting with other men. The reader is introduced with the title “tart” which is later strengthened in the section when George and Lennie meet her.

Steinbeck creates an aura of Curley’s wife when she first confronts Lennie and George. She is being portrayed as a danger. Before she opens her mouth to speak she is given a perceived judgement. Steinbeck is possibly prejudicing the reader about Curley’s wife. The example of this is “The rectangle of sunshine from the doorway was cut off”. The way Steinbeck has introduced her is very different from how you would typically. Steinbeck has used pathetic fallacy to indicate her danger; using the word “sunshine” he has created an environment of peace and concord but when Curley’s wife

In fact, Curley regards their marriage more of a trophy rather than love. We can see this as we never learn her true name, but just the title of the wife of Curley. Her association with The Boss and Curley grant her relative power over the ranch, but that in turn brings her social life to a grinding halt. This extreme loneliness causes her to bring it down on others of lower status than her. We can see this when she enters Crooks’ domain and says “they left all the weak ones here” which suggests that she deems herself higher than Crooks, Lennie and Candyie