Curley’s wife married Curley to get back at her mother after her dreams had been broken because the letter, which she had been promised from Hollywood never, arrived. On the other hand the only reason Curley married her was for his reputation and we know that he is vein due to the way he keeps one hand in a glove in order to keep it soft for her.
Curley is also worried about what she may be up to when he is absent and therefore is always snooping around after her, which makes his wife feel trapped.
Nancy in much the same way is not loved either but she does really care about Bill Sikes.
Unlike Curley’s wife, Nancy is assaulted by Bill on many different occasions and is eventually killed by him. The main difference between the two characters is that Sikes is not overprotective of Nancy in the same way Curley is and will let her go out as long as he knows where she is going, the reason for this is that Sikes knows that Nancy is loyal to him.
When Nancy meets up with Rose and helps to save Oliver she also offers Nancy a new start but the offer is declined because Nancy does not want to leave Bill
Sikes and she says,
The main contrast between the two characters is that Nancy loves Bill, but Curley’s wife does not love her husband but she cannot leave him because she lives on the ranch and has no other place to stay.
The characters partner’s opinions compare because neither of them really care for their lover. Sikes treats Nancy like a ‘punch bag’ and she is scared of Curley because he has hit many other people and she is suspense waiting to see if he will lash out at her.
In ‘Of Mice and Men’ Curley’s wife is known to some of the other characters such as Crooks, George and Candy as a ‘tart’ or a ‘bitch’ and a good example of this is when she walks into the bunkhouse and George says, ‘Jesus what a tramp, so that's what Curly picked for a wife.’ As George is saying this Lennie is admiringly staring at her saying’ ‘She's purty’ in response to Georges insult.
Most of the men on the ranch try to stay clear of her and George warns Lennie about her too, ‘ Listen to me you crazy bastard, 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 piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be.’
Lennie refuses not to listen and ends up not taking any real notice of what George has says to him.
Oliver respects Nancy, like Lennie is fond of Curley’s wife and both of them seem to have child like qualities that judge the characters for who they are and not how they dress or look.
In the same way as Curley’s wife is despised by the ranch workers, Nancy is looked down on by the upper class people of the nineteenth century.
The main reason the upper class residents do not respect Nancy is because she is a prostitute and in the time of Dickens this occupation was the lowest of the low for a woman.
When Nancy goes to visit Rose, who is the adopted daughter of the women whose house Oliver broke in to, she is looked down on by the servants and thrown out of the hotel because of the way she looks. ‘Come!’ said the man taking her to the door, ‘None of this, take yourself off.’
The servants are not the only characters that look down on Nancy, Fagin and Sikes treat her badly and Dickens describes Sikes as using Nancy as his punch bag.
Bill Sikes persists this behaviour even though Nancy looks after him when she is ill and says that she would even walk around the jail if he was arrested, just to be with him, but Sikes replies that she would be useless to him unless she brought a file to help him escape.
On the whole I feel that neither of the character are loved and they are judged by the way they look, not by the people they really are inside. Each of the characters is special to one person, in Curley’s wife's case Lennie and in Nancy's, Oliver.
I feel that the biggest difference between the two books is the language and the reason for this difference is the time at which they were written.
In John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ the language is simple but strong, the reason Steinbeck’s characters speak in this way is because that's the way 1930s Americans would have spoken, for example, when George, Crooks and Slim are talking about Lennie, George says, ‘If that crazy bastard foolin’ around too much, jus’ kick him out, Slim.’
There is also a large amount of slang used between the characters, like when George and Curly are talking and George replies, ‘He was ‘gunna’ put some tar on a split roof.’
The language in Dickens’ time, the 1800’s, is completely different. It is complex
and there is no swearing unlike in, ‘Of Mice and Men,’ when the characters interact they refer to each other as, ‘Sir’ ‘Master’ ‘Miss,’ and ‘Lady.’ I think that this shows that they respect each other and look down on people who do not speak Standard English, like Nancy.
Dickens does not use slang in the book because this who be unrealistic and inappropriate for the time at which it was written. We can see that as time has progressed, the more Standard English is neglected and slang is used. Today, most people use slang and it differs around the country; for example, in the North, a word may mean something different that it does in the South.
Curley’s wife is not what people expect a woman to be like in the 1930’s; she does not cook or clean for her husband. In my opinion she sends out the wrong messages to other men, because I believe that she just wants to be noticed and she acts like she does for the attention Curly does not give her. I think that Nancy is a typical poor woman from the 19th Century who can make a living no other way so she has turned to prostitution, which some people still do today.
Nancy is beaten up by Sykes on many occasions but she persists to stay with him because she loves him but I also think that she is scared of him, just like Nancy. Some women today stay with their partners even though they treat them in a horrible way.
Curley’s wife is killed by Lennie, which I believe to be an accident. He grabs her hair and will not let go because he is terrified of what may happen and does not mean to commit the crime, which will eventually lead to his own death. Lennie is one of the only people who really understand how she feels and I believe that there was a possible friendship between them.
Nancy is killed by Bill Sikes, her lover, and he kills her in rage after finding out that she had betrayed him to Mr Brownlow and Rose by trying to save Oliver from Monks.
After the deed had been done, Sikes runs away and is haunted by Nancy in his dreams. Sikes later dies as a result of killing Nancy and I have come to the conclusion that both women have died because of men and then the murderer has died because of their actions.
Dickens describes Nancy's life as ‘squandered’, which means that Nancy was an important prospect for the future and her death was a waste of a life.
I feel that both characters have good points as well as some bad points, for example Curley’s wife is pleasant to Lennie, good looking and has had her dreams like most other young women, but I feel that her bad points out-weigh her good points, as she does not love her husband, and dresses like a tart to attract the attention of other men.
In the same way, Nancy has good points like the way she cares for Oliver and helps him escape. She is also very clever and an example of this is when Nancy puts her skirt over her head in order to disguise her shadow. I feel that Nancy’s good points are more valuable than her bad points, like being a prostitute.
My overall opinion of Curley’s wife is that we are not meant to like her and maybe even think she is a tart at first, but as the book continues, we are supposed to feel sorry for her, and the moral of the character is to not judge people by their looks.
In the same way as Curley’s wife, we are supposed to feel sorry for Nancy and think of her as a tart, and as the book continues we begin to respect her for saving Oliver. The moral behind both of these characters is the same and it is not to judge people by the way they dress or look.
Today there are still incidents involving women being abused by their husbands which I believe is neither right or fair but the women like Nancy keep their problems to themselves, resulting in no further actions been taken to help prevent this.
I feel that these problems will continue in the future unless further action is taken by the police in conjunction with the victims.
