Before Lennie and George even meet Curley’s wife they know of her, as at first Curley’s wife is described to the reader through comments of the men on the ranch, “well she got the eye” I think that this a very clever technique that Steinbeck uses as it carefully builds up the suspense of the three peoples first meeting and also gives a foreboding sense that things aren’t going to go well between them which is dramatically ironic considering Lennie eventually kills her. Candy makes George dislike her before he has even seen her, as he says even though she has only been married to Curley for two weeks he says that she is a “tart”. By doing this Steinbeck masterfully makes us the reader dislike Curley’s wife before we have even meet her as we have heard ample bad remarks about her and thus have a bias view. So, so far this description of Curley’s wife is yet to be justified and is just all-bad mouth.
The wait was over for they soon met Curley’s wife for the first time when she comes into the bunkhouse, when she is apparently looking for Curley but she already knows that new men have arrived. This openly displays her inquisitiveness and curiosity, and can also display her attraction for men as she automatically comes to “eye” Lennie and George. Steinbeck gives a very detailed description of her as she stands in the doorway of the bunkhouse talking to Lennie and George. He also says that she is “heavily made up” this could display her trying to the look good for the new guys with “full rouged lips” and “red finger nails” This is a very important part symbolically as red is known to stand for danger. This is like in “Far From the Madding Crowd” in which Bathsheba wears red when we first meet her. However in this case there are a lot more red items associated with Curley’s wife considering we are told she wore a cotton housedress and “red mules,”on the instep of which were little bouquets of “red ostrich feathers.” Her body language is also provocative as she positions herself in the doorway so that “her body is thrown forward.” She smiles “archly” and she “twitched her body”. The general impression the reader gains is of a young girl who is pretty and desires the attention of men.
George makes his opinions clear just after he first met her “Jesus, what a tramp”, and “so that’s what Curley picks for a wife”. However Lennie is ironicly defensive of her, saying “she’s purty” which is understandable, as he cannot understand the trouble she can cause. However, after reading the whole book and knowing what Curley’s wife is like, to me it just seems that on this occasion she just wants some one to talk to and therefore get to the know the new guys in a friendly way, but she knows the only way to be noticed is by is to act desirable, and I think that this goes down the wrong way especially with George. Males on the ranch don’t like her because they think that she will get them into trouble. And so George immediately warns Lennie to stay away from her so fiercely to make him understand “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”. But they seem to be to be just making judgments without getting to know her first. They judge a book by its cover. So it is unjustified in George therefore saying the things he does.
However, these opinions start to rapidly become justified later on in the book and it is especially highlighted in her lively confrontation with Crooks, when Curley’s wife is racist towards other people. She calls Crooks a “nigger” on numerous occasions but isn’t the only person to do that. It is not just ethnic racism but also physical, “they left all the weak ones here”, however this is ironic as when she says this she has also been left on her own. These racist comments could be seen as malicious, selfish and spiteful in vengeance just because the guys didn’t want to speak to her and because they had the one thing she yearned for, that being companionship. However, in defence you could so her remarks were to do with her upbringing. Curley’s wife may not think that is was wrong as racism was not considered a big thing at the time this novel was set, so people didn’t know any better. She also gets into a row with Candy, and it all stems from her trying to come up to Crook’s room and trying to talk to the guys. She constantly tries to work sympathy with them and speaks of her mystified past claiming she could have been in the movies, but when she doesn’t get the desired reaction she loses her head and insults everyone around her “a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep”. Her language is envious and hateful, and it seems to drone on to really try and cut deep in to the characters she s aiming it at, and us the reader also seems to fill their pain. Then unlike Steinbeck he through his character Candy creates a rapid raging dialogue, in which he throws her own words back at her, mimicking her “bindle stiffs”. He has this newfound confidence because of his dream and his hope, and it shows the effect of what the American Dream had on people in such drastic miserable times. This is the thing that Curley’s wife desires, for she has the money, status, husband and nice life-style. But no friends and hope, makes her the twisted person reflected by her hateful words.
Curley’s wife is probably the most loathed on the ranch. The way she looks and acts leads other characters in the novel to see her as a “tart”. There are no other females on the ranch that we know about. Half of the men rarely see other females and the ones they see are when they go into town to a “whore-house”. This shows the men’s stereotypical view on women as that of a “whore”. Curley’s wife says, “I never get to talk to anymore, I get awful lonely”. This shows that being the only apparent female leaves her with a lack of companionship, especially with the other characters attitudes towards her. And justifies what seems like some of her tarty actions, and through Lennie I think she found some one to spend some time with and when he hears her woes that and takes no notice of it, it is a shame for one must feel if it was someone different that she could build up a companionship with, we may have seen a much nicer Curley’s wife blossom. However it is ironic, as she also takes no notice of what Lennie says to her.
No one trusts anyone on the ranch. This is a way that Steibeck is critising the America he is living in and why people find it weird that Lennie and George travel together. Not even Curley and his wife. They are always looking for each other. He started a fight when he thought that there was something going on with his wife and slim. This shows very little trust, if he is going around making accusations. This shows that there must be some justification for being a piece of “jailbait” if her own husband doesn’t even trust her. When it comes to dreams of other people, Curley’s wife always puts them down “I seen to many you guys.” Curley’s wife said that after Lennie told her his and Georges dream, when hers of going to Hollywood was even more wild. Dreams are a major reoccurring theme in the novel “Of Mice and Men” and is the most controversial topic amongst the characters with them all having a wide variety of views. “Baloney” is what she says to Lennie for his dream involving George and Candy. But Curley’s wife herself dreamed of being a movie star and regrets marrying Curley. So Steinbeck cunningly paints this picture of a women who is stuck in an impossible situation and tries to now get us feeling pity for her by using colourful emotive adjectives, and this could be because he wants a grand mixed emotional ending. Soliloquies
