Steinbeck gives us a more direct insight into Curley’s wife’s character in the scene when she meets Candy, Lennie and Crooks in Crooks’ room. She sneers at the men, telling them that men are afraid to talk to her when there is more than one of them present, “You’re all scared of each other, that’s what.” When she says, “They left all the weak ones here” she may mean it as an insult, but she also seems to accept that she is one of “the weak ones” who has been left behind, because she knows Curley has gone off to the brothel with the other men. She also reveals her loneliness: “Think I don’t like to talk to someone ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?” Her husband neglects her and she finds his boasting boring and thinks he deserves to be injured, “he got it comin’ to him.” In trying to impress the men, she also reveals that she her own unrealisable dream of becoming an actress. Nevertheless, she laughs at Candy and Lennie’s dream of owning their own ranch.
When Crooks tells Curley’s wife to leave, she immediately turns on him. She shows that she knows she has power over him and is prepared to use it, “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” and she calls him “nigger.” This shows an unpleasant aspect of her character, but Steinbeck makes it clear from Crooks’ reaction that this kind of racism and prejudice were normal in that society.
Steinbeck reveals more of Curley’s wife’s personality when she is talking to Lennie in the barn, just before she is killed. She gets frustrated at first, because George has told Lennie that he cannot talk to her and that she is trouble, “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.” In this scene she also shows that she can be gentle and comforting, firstly when Lennie is upset about killing the puppy and secondly when she lets him stroke her hair. She talks again about her dream, “I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself.” Steinbeck reveals her almost pathetic need for someone to talk to, “her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away.” This shows how desperate she is for someone who will listen to her thoughts and feelings.
Many of the other characters in the novel certainly have contempt for Curley’s wife. They feel she is a troublemaker. Candy calls her a tart and even when she is dead he says to her “you god-damn tramp…Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no good.”
However, I feel that she deserves pity rather than contempt. Her husband is insensitive and aggressive. Although they have only been married for a fortnight, he is already visiting a brothel. She admits to Lennie in the barn “I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” He is also very possessive, which adds to her loneliness. As she tells Lennie, “I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad” so she has no alternative but to try to be friendly to people behind his back, which the men interpret as flirting. Steinbeck repeatedly refers to her loneliness. Not only does she admit it herself, “I get awful lonely,” but the situation she finds herself in is very lonely and isolated. She is the only woman on a ranch full of men, and so in a way, is as much of an outsider as Lennie.
In my opinion, Curley’s wife strives for attention simply because she is lonely. This is why she always wears a lot of make up and bright clothes, as it is the only way she knows to get noticed. Although she flirts and teases the men, there is no direct evidence in the novel that she has any evil intentions or wants to cause trouble for the men. Most of the negative things we learn about her come out of the men’s gossip. The only time we actually see her alone with a man is when she is with Lennie in the barn. She does not seem to be trying to seduce him but just to be friendly. She is kind to him. When she invites him to stroke her hair she does not do it to seduce him, but rather as a gesture of friendship because he has told her that he likes to stroke soft things.
Curley’s wife is nasty towards Crooks, revealing her racism, but I feel that this can be explained by the fact that she is so insecure and vulnerable herself that she makes herself feel better by showing her power over the only person on the ranch more powerless than she is. Steinbeck also makes it clear that her attitude towards black people is no different from the way that Crooks is used to being treated. It would therefore be harsh to condemn her for this because it’s a result of the society she has been brought up in. She is not nasty towards Lennie even though he is simple and it would be easy to tease him, but rather is friendly and talks to him like an equal. She responds positively to his own kind nature.
I believe that Curley’s wife deserves pity because she seems to have no life of her own. Neither Steinbeck nor any of the other characters in the novel ever refer to her by her own name, only as “Curley’s wife.” This is significant because it reflects the fact that she is seen as one of Curley’s possessions rather than a person in her own right. Even the black stable hand, Crooks, who one would imagine would be given less respect than anyone else on the ranch, is referred to byname. Her attention to her appearance and attempts to make an impression on the men could be seen as a way of trying to get back her own individuality. She tries to impress Lennie with her talk of the chance she had of becoming a movie star but it makes the reader feel sympathy towards her because it was obviously an unrealistic ambition. One pities the fact that all her dreams are in the past with no prospect of coming true, and all she has to look forward to is loneliness and disappointment. Even George and Lennie’s dream of their own ranch, although unrealistic, is more likely to come true than hers.
In conclusion, therefore, in my opinion Curley’s wife deserves pity rather than contempt. She does have human failings but she certainly did not deserve to die. Above all, she was a deeply lonely person and her “ache for attention” led directly to her death. If she had met the right man she might have become a loving wife and mother, but the situation she found herself in led to tragedy.
Bettina Saunders
