Curley's Wife Feminist Analysis

The suppression against women is an extremely important issue to this day. Women have been treated as the inferior gender for almost as long as recorded history. Sexism was typical in the 1920’s, the time period in which this novel, Of Mice and Men, takes place. Though its frequency is familiar to Curley’s wife, it is quite damaging. She shows recurrent outbursts of distress and tells of decisions she has made in her life that tell the reader that she is strongly affected by this sexist phenomena. These factors show that she has changed her lifestyle and her attitude, due to society’s view of women. It is clear that Curley’s wife is a victim of sexism as evidenced by her shifting attitude and loss of identity. A man keeping his wife away in his house alone all day is definitely not the ideal marriage. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Curley does to his wife. Being alone, speaking to no
one, and taking orders from her husband is obviously very mentally draining. So, Curley’s wife goes out to the ranch, just to talk to someone, and she says, “Well I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to someone ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?” (Steinbeck 77). Based on this quotation, she is obviously feeling extremely restrained. Making conversation is deemed whorish by the ranchers, though. One rancher, Candy, says, “You gotta husban’. You got no call foolin’ aroun’ with other guys, causin trouble” (Steinbeck 77). She is seen as a “whore” for trying to leave the house and talk to people. It is evident in her quotation that she feels controlled by her husband, and she gets frustrated even speaking about it. This proves that her kind attitude is disappearing, and she is creating a more angry attitude, subconsciously. As she changes her attitude, we find out she has changed her whole life as well. She tells Lennie that a man wanted to put her in the movies, and was going to write to her about it once he arrived back in Hollywood. Unfortunately, she never received the letter, and she told Lennie, “I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters. I ast her is she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace” (Steinbeck 88). She had a chance to make a living for herself, but her mother ruined the chance. So, as a woman in the 20s who cannot work, her only option was to find a husband. She felt defeated, and conformed to this sexist order. She changes her entire life around, endures abuse from a narcissistic husband, and just becomes weak, because her society did not think a woman should be independent. It is evident that she was strong once, but now she is quite submissive, as she is forced to live in her husband’s shadow. The presence of sexism in this novel, unfortunately, should not shock the reader, due to its time period.
Likewise, it does not shock Curley’s wife, but it drags her emotional stability down tremendously. Being kept in isolation made her desperate for conversation, which made her hated by the ranchers, because she should not talk to anyone but her husband. They create lies that she is some kind of whore. All this becomes too much for her and she starts to become frustrated. She also turned her entire life around to marry a man she hardly knew. That was her only choice, as she could not work. Being a woman makes her life almost intolerable. In addition, though it is not directly stated, readers can imply that she is abused. She is called names and is treated much like an animal. Curley’s wife states numerous times that she does not understand why she is not allowed to talk to anyone and gets very upset. All of these factors prove that sexism has impacted Curley’s wife very negatively as a whole. Though this situation is fictional, it is the harsh reality for many
women.