Curley's Wife
Discuss/ Write About the Significance of a Character of Your Choice: Curley's Wife Of Mice and Men is not kind in its portrayal of women. In fact, women are treated with contempt throughout the course of the novel. Steinbeck generally depicts women as troublemakers who bring ruin on men and drive them mad. Curley's wife, who walks the ranch as a temptress, seems to be a prime example of this destructive tendency-Curley's already bad temper has said to be only worsened since their wedding. Most of the ranch workers brand Curley's wife as a "tart". In fact she is portrayed as such whenever she appears, obviously playing up to and teasing the men. She is cruel to Crooks, Candy and Lennie in Crooks' room, and later on she tempts Lennie, letting him stroke her hair in the barn. She walks round the ranch dressed inappropriately and seductively. She admits to Lennie that she doesn't like her husband and regrets marrying him. She seems to be of limited intelligence, as she was taken in by other men's promises of film parts. She is frequently associated with the colour red, a colour symbolizing an impure woman, as well as one calculated to enrage a "bull" such as Lennie. It is partly her desire to be petted and admired and allow Lennie to stroke her hair, which in turn leads to her death at Lennie's hands. Throughout Steinbeck's novel, she is only ever known as "Curley's wife" who