Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Characterization of Curleys Wife of Mice and Man

Satisfactory Essays
378 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Characterization of Curleys Wife of Mice and Man
Curley’s wife has no name and seem to not be givien no importantance. As the only woman on the ranch, Curley’s wife is lonely and sad. In the novel they don't portray women in the best matters. They treat women with despite in the whole novel. Women seem to drive them mad and only bring trouble towards them. In curley's wife case she seem to be all those charactierisctics.

She reminices of unhappiness in her marriage because her husband seems to care little for her, and is really more interested in talking about himself than anything else. Which seems like something she is impossible to intake. She is so self-obessed and loves to talk about her self whenever possible. She flirts deliberately with the ranch hands and does little to hide these flirtations from her husband. Knowingly causing the ranch hands to suffer Curley’s hot-headed, glove-wearing wrath.

Even though she is a very pretty her attitude isn't close to it. She was very vulnerable always being seen and called a "tramp" and "tart" it must be hard to be her. Which is why I feel like she preys on weakness, it's the only time she feels empowered. She is always picking on Candy’s incapacitated age, the color of Crooks’s skin and Lennie's mental handicap. Curley’s wife, like Lennie, has no ability to self-evaluate. Unlike Lennie, she doesn’t have the excuse of being mentally slow.

She is a women who thinks of more than her surroundings has a dream even though she's deeply dissatified with her life. Curley’s wife likes to talk about her lost opportunities. She always tells about her encounter with a traveling actor who told her she could join their show. Also likes to talk about how she got an offer to go to Hollywood but swears on her life that her mother stole the letter. She would never realize that men weren’t really interested in her talent at all. She’s just self-obsessed, and unable to judge herself and her position honestly.

It is not coincidental that she ends up losing her life because she didn’t want Lennie to mess up her hair.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Curley’s wife is a villain because she shows some villainess signs that she had never shown before like say to Lennie that she was happy about it happening to him and let Lennie touch and feel her hair until her untimely death when Lennie grab her frightenly and twisted her neck so she would stop screaming. Here are some evidence that she is a villain…

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Candy tells George and Lennie, “Know what I think... Well I think Curley’s married a Tart.” Candy has this opinion because of how she looks. Just because she wears make-up and dresses nice doesn’t mean she deserves to be called names. George tells Lennie after they meet Curley’s wife, “don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.” George is talking about her behind her back and calling her names like “Bitch” without even knowing her. Curley’s wife doesn’t have a chance to make friends if everybody is hearing rumors about her. Curley’s wife is a victim but not totally…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1937 novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck there is a very powerful aspect of male dominance in the text. From a feminist’s point of view this story degrades women, and categorizes them as sexual objects.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why did Curley's wife have to that? Why couldn't she just let Lennie be? Well…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a “tart” and “tramp” according to the male characters in Of Mice and Men. She frequently flirts with the ranch hands on her father-in-laws’ farm. Even though she’s a trouble maker, Curley’s Wife experiences extreme loneliness and the hurt of her own broken dream. She explains on page 97 that she had a chance at an acting career but instead she was trapped into living an unhappy life with Curley. This proves that Curley’s wife is not a heartless “bitch” but actually a human being that has aspirations and…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although Curley is Always asking her whereabouts, but never interested in talking to her shows that Curley sees his wife as a possession rather than a person. Slim calls him out on this, saying “If you can’t look after your own God damn wife, what you expect me to do about it?” (Steinbeck, 62). This, of course, leads to the aforementioned encounter with Lennie. Furthermore, the relationship that Curley breeds with his wife is by no means a good one. They both harbor resentment towards each other, as shown when Curley’s wife says “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before…I don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” (Steinbeck, 89). She then goes on to talk about her dreams and aspirations, and then says that she merely settled for a marriage with…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley is trouble because he is always trying to fight the bigger guys like they have something on him.That is why he tried to beat up Lennie but he got his knuckles crunched and had to go the hospital. “Then Curley’s rage exploded. “Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella.”(31)Curley’s wife needs to be protect from all the other men because Curley is always assuming they are having some kind of affair with her under his nose but she is just flirting.“Well, stick around an’ keep your eyes open. You’ll see plenty. She ain’t concealin’ nothing. I never seen nobody like her. She got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody. I bet she even gives the stable buck the eye. I don’t know what the hell she wants.”The next person that needs protected from the sensitive people is also a sensitive person.Lennie needs to be protected from Curley’s wife and anyone else that could be trouble for him because when he gets in trouble so does George.”Well, look. Lennie—if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.”…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley’s wife is a pivotal character and central to the plot. Her role as a catalyst proves to be essential as it creates a chain of reactions within other characters, creating action for the reader. Even more tension is created as her downward relationship with Curley is full of conflict. She is not given an identity, and from this, we are led to believe that she has no status or power. She is called Curley’s wife and from this we assume she is a possession of Curley. This creates a distance between her and the reader. In the 1930's, throughout the Great Depression, the social status of women was quite low. Men did not take women seriously and the major role of women was to cook, clean, and raise the children. Curley's wife is a ideal example of how women were viewed in the early 20th century. With women having such a low social status during the Great Depression, Curley's jealously, and Curley's wife being portrayed as trouble, it becomes quite difficult for her to overcome her loneliness.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Curley’s wife talks to Lennie in the barn. While they are talking, she says “Lennie your crazy.” No one likes Curley’s wife, except for Lennie. George told Lennie not to talk Curley’s wife because it will cause problems if he does. Curley’s wife tells Lennie about how she could be in Hollywood working as an actress but her mom did not want for her to. She tells Lennie this because she longs for someone to talk to and to get a laugh out of his stupidity.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the ranch there is a well known woman merely referred to as ‘Curley’s Wife’. Her lack of identity could imply she is not woman but rather a possession of her husband. She is shown to represent the lost of identity after being associated with something or someone. That is why she has no name; her identity is being someone's wife. As this character develops we find that she is not in fact the unimportant, nameless character we first perceive her as, but rather she is a relatively complex and interesting character, with much more to her than we first gather.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On first appearances of the character, when she talks to, George and Lennie in the barn, she gives off the impression that she is a “Troublemaker” and a bit “Tarty”, her body language is intentionally provocative this is shown when she displays her body in a confident way when…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Constantly throughout the novel Curley's wife is always going around claiming she is looking for Curly, but in reality she's just trying to find someone to talk to or who will keep her company. Curley's wife feels as if Curley could care less about her, and only uses her. Therefore she goes looking for something more but gets rejected every time. She flirts with the workers but they feel as if she just wants to ruin other people's lives and drive them crazy. She admits her loneliness to Lenny, Crooks, and Candy at the barn saying, “Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”(38) She also confesses she is unhappily married as well. She admits to feeling a kind of shameless dissatisfaction with her life. She feels such a strong need for companionship that she even starts to cuddle up to Lenny in the barn. She seems to enjoy Lennie a lot because of his small mind and his ability to listen, just like everyone else. She confesses to Lennie that she could have been a movie star but never got a letter and instead settled for Curly. Knowing that she could have been something huge in the real world and loved by many defeats her. She's constantly craving for something close enough to make her feel like a star…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    She is newly married to Curley. Curley’s has no name on this novel because she wants recognition, attention, her own identity, and her own life. To emphasise how she has none of these things, Steinbeck doesn’t even give her a name. She is just someone’s “wife”. This shows that there is no identity of her own. Without him she would be nothing. She is young, pretty, wears attractive clothes and locks her hair. She seems flirtatious and is always hanging around the bunk-house. She is lonely - there are no other women to talk to and Curley is not really interested in her. The role of Curley's wife represents the loneliness of all the characters on the ranch. Even though she has a husband, she feels empty inside and feels very alone which suggests why she always hangs around the other men at the ranch. She doesn't necessarily try to talk to the men to start trouble but she just wants someone to talk to.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The other men call her and treat her like a tart. She is often demeaned and made to feel oppressed. One way in which I believe she is oppressed is by the way she’s not given a name, just referred to as Curley’s Wife, Curley’s property. “I ain’t used to living like this”, this quotation suggests that she is sick of being made to stay at home all day and just clean, cook and do all the chores around the house. I believe that Curley’s wife also feels demeaned by the way in which people call her names, like tart. “Married two weeks and got the eye”, this is an example of Candy judging her, even though he does not know the slightest thing about her. “They’s gonna be a bad mess about her”, this is an example of when George is speculating about what she is capable of, even though he has barely even met her by this stage.…

    • 555 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curleys wife

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Finally, Curley’s wife, like Lennie, has no ability to self-evaluate. Unlike Lennie, she doesn’t have…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics