Essay On Curley's Wife

The only female character in the story, Curley’s wife is never given a name and is only mentioned in reference to her husband. The men on the farm refer to her as a “tramp,” or a “tart,” She represents the temptation of female sexuality in a male-dominated world. ‘She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.” (Steinbeck 29) Steinbeck depicts Curley’s wife not as a villain, but rather as a victim. She is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life.
Craving attention and knowing that the boys in the ranch go all
Lennie's personality is like that of a child. He is innocent and mentally handicapped with no ability to understand abstract concepts like death, nor when something is wrong. Curley’s wife only approaches other guys in the open, to make curley jealous and angry. Trying to get his attention, stir up trouble with the farm hands. She only approaches Lennie only when he’s alone. Curley's wife manipulates Lennie in the barn as she tries different ways to engage him in conversation. When these methods fail, she hears Lennie sadly mutter, "Jus' my pup" and she sympathies him, moving closer to him and speaking in a soothing, motherly manner. When she discovers that Lennie likes to touch soft things like velvet, she entices him into stroking her hair. (89)
Having never reached her full potential, and it appears to have no friend and her husband doesn’t give her the attention she desires. At first she is shown as a negative character and a villain and towards the end her positive features are revealed and she becomes more of a victim then a villain. In the end of “of mice and men” you learn that the story is about broken dreams and loneness. Both of which are curley’s wife and her life, showing the broken dreams just like so many other characters in the