Candy is lonely because he has lived his life and the outcome of it is he being stuck on a farm. In the novel we are given the impression of Candy being old by
“The door opened and a tall, stoop-shouldered old man came in.”
He is 60-80yrs old or older and because of this his options are limited. For example, he is old and so he can’t travel much. He’s not able to leave his current job unless he had a job waiting for him somewhere else and if not then well him finding a job would be a stroke of luck. Reading the play I get the impression that Candy’s most faithful companion was his dog, and sometime during the play the dog is put down (shot) because the dog was as old as candy and some of the farm co-workers believed it was the right thing to do. You also get this impression because Candy begins to cry right after this event. From this I think that it made him realise that he could die at anytime and he did not want to end up like his dog, in this farm. I believe this is why he was so eager to join George and Lennie’s plan about the farm for the rest of his days. He persuades them that he could still be useful with all the little jobs (i.e. like cooking.)
George is lonely because even though he has Lennie by his side, Lennie doesn’t seem to be regarded as a person George could talk to. He is mostly regarded as a child or this is what he acts like therefore Lennie is incapable of taking responsibility for his actions. Also George can never really leave Lennie alone, even though he does in the play, because Lennie would do something wrong and not know it and he would go against George’s wishes and not be bothered. (I.e. Near the beginning of the play George warns Lennie off Curley’s wife and tells him not to even look at her, at first Lennie does as he is told. As the play progresses he gradually begins to go against George’s warning, like the puppy event in the barn house) Lennie is the reason why the two have to travel across America looking for work because he always seems to get himself in enough trouble causing them to leave. George is lonely because Lennie is not very articulate and so their conversations usually revolve around what Lennie wants to hear. Also Lennie is only one person and there is only so much you can talk about between two people. Also although George’s life would be a lot simpler with Lennie not being with him, George needs Lennie. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place… With us it ain’t like that. We got a future… because I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you.”
In the whole play, you never learn the name of Curley's wife, which shows how she is thought of in the farm. I think she is regarded as one of Curley’s possessions. She is always heavily made up and sometimes dressed up. Curley's wife is seen by some as jailbait. This means she is very provocative, she dresses herself up to attract some ranch workers “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don't care what she says and what she does, K I never seen a piece of jail-bait worse than her.” I think that she is very lonely. As she is the only woman on the ranch she has no one to talk or gossip to. She tries to talk to some of the workers but they are scared of what Curley would do to them. This definitely adds to her loneliness. She always claims to be looking for Curley, which I think, is an excuse to chat up the ranch workers. However for definite, the main reason she feels so unhappy and alone is because of her husband. He forces his wife to feel alone because he forbids her out of the house and, I am pretty sure he beats her. Also, he visits brothels and this makes her feel inadequate. For Curley’s wife Curley was second choice and he acts like it. She does have several dreams of a better life. When men promise her careers in acting and film she believes them but I think that they just wanted her to sleep with them.
Because her dreams fail she marries Curley. Now she is trapped on this ranch with no one to speak to apart from Curley. Who is not much comfort although he does try with his glove full of Vaseline. This makes her feel isolated and this is why she is lonely.
Loneliness is a disease. George had Lennie to and Lennie had George to combat the terrible affects of it. But there were other who were not so lucky Crooks was intensely unhappy, unconfident and seriously mentally damaged from the lasting affects of loneliness. Curley’s wife was killed essentially by loneliness it was that that made her talk to the farm workers and Lennie this lead to her death.
Loneliness is a part of human nature whether we like it not, as with everything, there are winners and there are losers.