In the novella Curley’s wife’s appearance is described as, “Her face heavily made up. Her lips were slightly parted. She breathed strongly, as though she had been running.” The description above presents an alluring and tempting appearance as well as enticing body language. These depictions create a female character that is more focused on men than anything else. However, fitting with the time era women were not seen as anything other than a male’s companion and a house wife.
This proves that Curley's wife is weak and she is upset that the men won't talk to her. She uses her power against them to hide the fact that she is lonely and insecure. Secondly, Curley's wife sees herself as a tease to the other men although they want nothing to do with her. She uses her pretty face of makeup, nice body, and bouncy hair to show off to them. When she enters the barnhouse, Lennie is fascinated by her.
Curley’s wife unfortunately developed an interest in Lenny after that incident. She didn’t know just how dangerous Lenny was, but she wasn’t supposed to be an intelligent character. “The character of Curley’s wife has been toned down into a lonely cipher. She’s no longer the heavily madeup plot function she is in the book. She’s sort of sweet and none too bright, which is politically correct” (Canby).
Because Curley’s wife is so alone, she goes to find someone to talk to. While other men are out playing horseshoe, she finds Lennie in the barn by himself. She begins to talk to him because she doesn’t know what else to do with herself. She is not fully aware of Lennie’s mental illness, however; she knows he acts like a little child and she knows he has just killed a puppy. “You’re a kinda nice fella.
When Curley's wife tries to talk to Lennie he refuses to speak to her, and she says “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’”(Steinbeck 86). Everybody on the ranch sees Curley’s wife as “jail bait” or bad news because she is a woman. Curley is overly protective of his wife, which causes his wife to be lonely because no one will talk to her because she is “bad news”.
The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness. Of Mice and Men is a novella written by the author John Steinbeck. It tells a story of George Milton and Lennie Small; two displaced ranch workers, who are constantly searching for a new job during The Great Depression in California. John Steinbeck displays loneliness from the standpoint of average men living and working on a farm searching for friendship to escape their loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, other than the friendship, the story portrays people who are isolated and lonely like George, who has the responsibility of taking care of Lennie and keeping him out of trouble, Lennie, who is mentally disabled, and lastly, Curley’s wife, who desperately seeks for the
I never seen nobody like her. She got the eye going all the time on everybody. I bet she even gives the stable buck the eye. I don't know what the hell she wants” (Steinbeck 51). This author includes this to show that they thought Curley's wife only wanted something from the men.
She says, “ Well, I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?” By what she said here, you can tell that she felt very lonely. While she was talking to Lennie, you could tell she enjoyed the time that they took to talk. Curley’s wife felt lonely because people thought that all she did was cause trouble and she was bad news, when all she wanted is to talk to someone and socialize because she was lonely.
She is called names, described vulgarly, and is blamed for situations. She is a symbol of women during those times. The woman in the novel, Of Mice and Men, is Curley’s wife. She is married to a man of short stature who likes to fight taller men. Curley's wife since the beginning of the book is called a tart and is said to “have the eye” and that she gives the eye to the workers even though she got married a couple of weeks ago, according to the old swamper (Steinbeck 28).
She was not happy with her life before because she thought her acting dreams were ruined so she wanted to make changes so that she would be happy. She met Curley and thought marrying him was a chance at a good life. Instead of improving her life she fell into another big trap by marrying curley. Curley doesn 't give her any attention she is left alone at their house to take care of things and that 's all she is worth to Curley. Not to mention she is completely isolated by the workers at the ranch because of her sexuality and name as curley 's wife.