Of Mice And Men Analysis

Curley’s wife wished she could go to Hollywood and chase her dream of acting, the narrator wanted to was write. Curley’s wife had always regretted marrying Curley and was never satisfied with her role as a wife. Curley’s wife expressed this to Lennie, “I coulda made somethin’ of myself… maybe I will yet.” (Steinbeck, page 87) Similar to how the narrator was confined to her room, trapped by social expectations, unable to write or even fulfil her domestic role.

She has a tendency to resent herself too as she married Curley. She despises Curley and blames herself for marrying him and constraining herself to their house and the farm. Curley treats her like an object and she gets to a point where she is absolutely fed up with it but she still has no chance but to stay on the farm, her personal hell. She fails to form relationships with anyone and that eventually causes her death.

She is the only girl on the ranch, and because of this, she faces difficulties from the boys. Curley’s Wife was just trying to find someone to confide in, and Lennie was there, but because she could cause trouble, Lennie wasn’t allowed to talk to her. She says to Lennie, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’” (86).

This was symbolic to the narrator’s confinement within her own home by her husband. She clearly told John that this room is not good for her but he never listened. Due to this reason, the narrator does not feel like sharing the things that trouble her. Her condition was getting worse by the passing with

She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me" (130). Myrtle on the other hand is having affairs with Tom in order to feel the satisfaction of being in the upper class. Myrtle loved her husband Mr. Wilson when they got married, but she got very disappointed by her husband’s lack of money and the social status that she is suffering in for eleven years. Now she is regretting the day she married with him, her sister Catharine says “She really ought to get away from him.

The narrator is currently unable to take care of her own child, one of her main responsibilities in life, because of her postpartum depression. Motherhood has been the cause of her mental trauma, and said trauma makes it difficult to fulfill her maternal duties. With her inability to take care of her child, she has even less of a role in the family than she previously held. In “Woman,” Kate Austin discusses how men gained their higher standing because of maternity. She states, “ A woman will bear anything for the sake of her children.

Each of the character has a slightly different type of loneliness. Curley’s wife is lonely because she is all alone on the ranch; far away from her friends and any distractions in the town. Curley’s wife fits into this theme. She is isolated from the men on the ranch because she is female, but also because she craves attention and the men do not want to get in trouble with Curley by giving his wife the wrong attention.

“A Sorrowful Woman” examines the detrimental effects of the mother’s repressed sexuality on her small family, as well as how addiction and isolation hasten her descent into madness. The mother denies her sexuality for fear of retributions and judgements from her family and by society. Her repressed feelings have accumulated over the years and resulted in a subconscious hatred for her husband and son. Godwin communicates how little they mean to the woman by never even revealing their names.

The author uses this nameless narrator in attempts to gain her positioning against gender issues and break down the barrier of male domination. Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman challenge the lecturer to doubt feminist posture and gender limit of the 19th century. They worked mostly in the home, taking care of the family while their husbands were at work. Cleaning home were not considered able to perform task in the work place, and were not able to obtain their own careers. On the other hand, nowadays women don’t care about their husband.

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. Lennie smiled admiringly "Gosh, she was so purty".

Women back then went through lonely times. In Of Mice and Men Curly’s wife was stuck on the ranch with no other women to talk too. She moved out to the ranch with her husband, away from her family, and was expected to stay out there with him. (Pg 87) Curly’s wife says to Lennie, “I get lonely, you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curly⎯ .”

He ain’t a nice fella” (89). Previously, we learned that she impulsively marries Curley - after knowing him for just one night- to spite her mother. In other words, Curley’s wife is responsible for her own isolation because she chose to marry a man she didn’t even like. Additionally while talking to Lennie she exclaims: “Aw, nuts! What kind of harm am I doin’ to you?

Similarly to Lennie, Curley’s wife also feels left out and different from everyone else. She is not considered a “normal” wife, or have a “normal” hope for her future. Most people during this time hoped to get married and become a housewife; Curley 's wife aspired to be an actress and only married Curley when it did not work out. Curley’s wife told Lennie, “I ast her if she stole it, too, an’ she said no. So I married Curley (Steinbeck 88).”

By contrast, Whit, a character with such a minimal role in the novella that he only appears in a single chapter, is given a name. By leaving Curley’s wife nameless, Steinbeck demonstrates the idea that women are inferior to men. In the barn, when Curley’s wife confesses her true feelings to Lennie, she tells him, ““I get lonely. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.

In the novel one of the men, Carlson is annoyed by Curley’s outburst of trying to look for his wife and complains, “Whyn’t you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?” (62). Men didn’t like the idea that women could have the same rights as them and go around to places instead of staying at home. They believe that since women are meant to be housewives, they should stay in the house. From this quote, the reader perhaps, mistakenly agrees with Carlson, thinking that Curley’s wife is just a rebellious woman who isn’t there for her husband.