A comparative study of Curleys Wife in Steinbecks Of Mice And Men and Sophy Twycott in Hardys The Sons Veto.
GCSE English Coursework Rory Franklin
C19th & C20th Prose Comparison 25/01/2002
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A comparative study of Curley's Wife in Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men and Sophy Twycott in Hardy's "The Son's Veto".
Of Mice And Men and "The Son's Veto" are two texts which share some very similar ideas, whilst, at the same time, beings very different in terms of location. Of Mice And Men is set in America during the period of the depression years and depicts the tragedy of two workers trying to fulfil the American dream of having their own house and farm. The story is set on a ranch in rural California which holds a small group of stereotypical characters. The character that this account will focus on, Curley's Wife, is presented to us with a little background but what information the reader is given, her background was tragic with a lost opportunity that she squandered when she was younger which led her to be cut off from society. It shows that she does not take the initiative to go out and follow her dreams. She is portrayed as being an isolated figure, trapped on the male-dominated ranch, with nowhere to go, and nothing she can do to try to improve her life due to the remoteness of the ranch.
She is separated from society, from the companionship of other women. Steinbeck puts the entire novella into a period of a few days. In this time he gives a large amount of information about the various characters through 'informants' who supply information to other characters, but at the same time to the reader. Curley's Wife plays a very subsidiary role for most of the novella, but becomes more important towards the final scene, during which she dies. Her role in the story is more subtle, with her being referred to by most characters, but taking a backseat role to the two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small.
Tomas Hardy's "The Son's Veto" is focused on Sophy Twycott, the lonely, country-bred girl brought to London. It is mainly based in London, with reminiscence's of her birth place in the countryside. Hardy provides lots of information about Sophy's background when she recalls how she came o be living in London. It is set in 19th century England in London and a small village called Albrickham. They are two contrasting settings, one an example of an urban dwelling, and the other a rural location. This short story examines the life of Sophy, an uneducated widow of a Reverend, surrounded by the sophisticated upper-class of London. She is trapped between the upper-class and her own son, who had the benefit of an excellent education. She is confined to her house by a crippled foot, forbidding any kind of release from the aristocracy and the dreary life of suburban London. The short story takes place over years, with Sophy's beginnings in Albrickham to her death in London.
Both characters are presented in different ways by the writes with Steinbeck giving a fragmentary account of Curley's Wife, and Hardy giving a full history. Steinbeck is very neutral in his account, whilst Hardy is less objective stirring greater sympathy in the reader. Hardy's account is much more personal, with him taking the role of narrator. He even takes a direct role as a narrator to show his sympathy:
"And she had done it herself, poor thing."
[Hardy, 1st page]
Steinbeck never takes such a role in OMM; all information is provided by Candy the ...
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Both characters are presented in different ways by the writes with Steinbeck giving a fragmentary account of Curley's Wife, and Hardy giving a full history. Steinbeck is very neutral in his account, whilst Hardy is less objective stirring greater sympathy in the reader. Hardy's account is much more personal, with him taking the role of narrator. He even takes a direct role as a narrator to show his sympathy:
"And she had done it herself, poor thing."
[Hardy, 1st page]
Steinbeck never takes such a role in OMM; all information is provided by Candy the 'informant'. Candy provides most of the information, and does this because he is the oldest on the ranch and has seen more than anyone else. Candy is a very important character because without him, there would be no way that Steinbeck could supply information, without actually having to tell it to the reader through the narrator.
"Well I tell ya what, Curley says he's keepin' that hand soft for his wife"
[Steinbeck Chap. 2 Pg 49]
Curley's Wife shows antagonism and scorn whereas Sophy shows angst and world-weariness. Although they are both in the same situation, isolated from society for being female, they have different views on life. Sophy does not feel that she has been wronged by anything; she knows that it was her choice to marry Reverend Twycott, and she knows that she cannot do anything to try and start a new life even though her deceased husband would most likely have wanted for her to re-marry. She knows that her son is acting in respect for his father and she cannot do anything to change his decision, so she is resigned to the fact that she is at the mercy of her son. Curley's Wife, however, believes that she had been wronged by her mother and that is the reason for being where she is, despite the fact that she herself is the cause, for not pursuing her dreams. She thinks that it was because of her mother that she did not get to go to Hollywood and become a film star, yet, It was her lack of commitment to go herself to Hollywood, and she would rather wait for things to come to her instead of taking her own initiative to see whether she can be a film star.
"'I never got that letter,' she said. '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.'"
[Steinbeck Chap. 6 Pg 124]
Here, Curley's wife says that she wasn't going to live in a place where she cannot make anything of her life, but instead, she married Curley and has become probably even more restricted by living at the ranch. She thinks that she has done the right thing by leaving home and marrying Curley, but she doesn't understand that she would have been much better off staying at home. She cannot see past her bitterness to realise that if she would have stayed, she could be doing much better than she is now, and not stuck on a ranch with no prospects.
The death of both women marks the final period of tragedy with the end to their suffering. There is a great difference in both of their deaths, with Sophy dying in relative peace, able to rest after years of widowhood, and unhappiness at the hands of her son who refused to allow her to re-marry. She was given a formal ceremony which passed through her place of birth, and given dignity in death.
Curley's Wife was less fortunate in death. She died as the result of an accident, and was killed in a barn, away from her husband and from any loved ones. Her body was abandoned by her husband who did not even shed a tear when he found out she was dead.
Both characters are better off in death than in life because of their circumstances, but Hardy invokes a greater sense of pathos for Sophy, whereas Curley's Wife is dismissed almost straight away and the story continues.
The different reactions to their deaths may be due to the environment that they lived in. Curley's Wife lived in a male-dominated surrounding, where there was not much compassion to Curley's Wife. She also had no family apart from Curley, and so her loss was not grieved by many members of the community. Also, she was perceived as having it coming to her because of her outrageous flirting with the workers at the ranch. She was said to have been giving "the eye" to a few members of the ranch.
"I seen her give Slim the eye. Curley never seen it. An' I seen her give
Carlson the eye"
[Steinbeck Chap 2 Pg 50]
Here, Candy is acting as the 'informant' again, providing George and Lennie information, and warning about Curley's Wife. Already she is made to seem dire in the eyes of the reader for going after the attention of other men on the ranch after just a couple of weeks of being married.
Sophy also attracts attention from the men of her birth place. Before she married Reverend Twycott, she had the attentions of Sam Hobson. She also acts flirtatiously, although she is not seen in a bad light for doing it. She is not married and therefore can still do what she wants to do.
" she discerned, without much surprise, the figure of a man standing
in the hedge, though she roguishly exclaimed as a matter of form, 'O,
Sam, how you frightened me!'"
[Hardy page 2]
Although little information is given to Curley's Wife's background, Steinbeck uses lots of descriptive language on her. He describes what she looks like in great detail, and what she wears. This is a contrast because so little information in given about her background, and so much about what she looks like.
"She had full rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up.
Her finger nails 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 Chap 2 Pg 53]
Hardy is different to Steinbeck in that he uses small images to build up a picture of Sophy. He provides more information about her background than he does about her appearance, but he does give a lot of information about her and what she looks like.
"The long locks, braided and twisted and coiled like the rushes
of a basket, composed a rare, if somewhat barbaric, example of
ingenious art."
[Hardy 1st page]
The description used is far more sophisticated, and is used because it applies to what seems like an important person.
Both texts share the theme of rejection, with Sophy rejecting marriage to Sam Hobson when she lived in Albrickham, and then is ultimately rejected by her son when she asks to re-marry. Curley's Wife was rejected by Hollywood and rejected the compromise of living in a ranch with Curley and the other male workers.
Both characters constantly reminisce about their past, and how things could have happened if they would have made a different decision either to marry Sam Hobson in Sophy's case, or to stay at home and not marry Curley. They endeavour to keep the image of their past, and in doing so, make it worse from themselves because the more they think about what could have been, the worse their situation seems to them.
Also, both stories share the theme of entrapment, with both of them being trapped by their isolation, and a male figure. Curley's Wife is on the edge of civilisation, too far away from anywhere to escape from the trivialities of her life, and is repressed by Curley, who doesn't trust her and is constantly searching for her to send her back to their house. She is caught surrounded by the working class, and she doesn't want to live like that, but there is nothing she can do to prevent it.
Sophy is ensnared by a crippled foot, which stops her from getting out of her house. She is also excluded from the upper class because she was brought up in a village, and only married into status, not born into it. In addition, she is trapped by her son who refuses to let her re-marry someone who is in the working class, the class she was originally from.
This entrapment has led to both women having monotonous, restricted lives, with no way out.
The two texts look at the clash between security and imprisonment. Both women looked for security and ended up trapped. Sophy wanted security from Reverend Twycott because of her crippled foot and she was scared that she would be left on her own, unable to manage for herself. However, she ended up imprisoned because of her son. Towards the end of the short story, she realises that she would have been happier if she would have married Sam and that she only married Reverend Twycott for security, not love.
Curley's Wife wanted security from her mother, who she believed was doing wrong to her, she saw that security in Curley, only to find out that instead the only thing Curley offered was imprisonment and once she was in, there was nothing she could do to escape it.