“Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off” is the description used to describe her first appearance in the novel. It suggests that she has obscured the light, and darkened the room with her presence. The image created is dark and threatening. She is also not really inside the room or out, which may be to show that she is an outsider, and does not feel like she fits in with all the men. She is alone, as she is a lot of the time. I think this shows she is very lonely because even though she is always asking where Curley is, they are never seen together. Her stance also seems quite provocative; “her body was thrown forward,” she smiled “archly” and “twitched her body”. The impression she gives is that of a young girl, pretty and desperate for attention, not caring what sort.
In a letter to the actress Claire Luce, who played Curley’s wife in a theatrical production of “Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck described her to be a woman who had grown up in an atmosphere of fighting and suspicion, and she learned that the only thing that would get her a husband, was her virginity. Steinbeck helps show her desire to seem sexually attractive by her long red fingernails and short skirt, which seem quite vulgar, but may also seem to be conveying the idea that she is dangerous, in that she tries so hard to be noticed.
Her voice is said to have a “nasal, brittle quality.” I think the word brittle suggests vulnerability and also shows that she is also quite an unstable character who has dreams of being elsewhere. It may also be used to suggest that she is fragile, and could be indicating what is going to happen to her.
Virtually every time we see her, she is asking after Curley. It seems that she feels this is the only connection she has with the men, and even when they have answered her queries, she tries to make conversation so she can stay. She is presented as a social misfit; the men don’t want her hanging around, because she causes trouble, in their eyes. George is wary of her at once, he warns Lennie that she is dangerous, and can get them into trouble, but Lennie just seems taken with her looks, and even when George calls her a “tramp” “bitch” and “jail bait” Lennie just says admiringly: “she’s purty”. I think that Steinbeck uses these two responses to show us that George realises the dangers of letting Lennie get close to Curley’s wife, while Lennie doesn’t understand why George is so anxious.
Steinbeck emphasizes her flirtatious behaviour when he describes her speech as playful. Slim, who has been at the ranch for quite a long time seems to know this because he flirts back at her when he comes in; “hi good lookin’”. I think Slim, who is good at understanding other people, realises that all she wants is a few kind words, and he tries to give her that. This also shows how she thrives on attention. When Slim tells her that he has just seen Curley in her house, it says she became “suddenly apprehensive”, and then she leaves immediately. It seems that she is afraid of her own husband, and that he wanted her staying in the house. If that is true, then it might imply that he thinks her to be unfaithful and does not trust her around other men.
In the novel as a whole, I think she represents the marginalized and disempowered part of society. The black stable buck Crooks is the only person she has power over on the ranch. The power she has, she uses very unkindly, threatening to have him lynched when he asks her to leave his room. She is also the main cause of Lennie’s death, so is important to the plot in that way.
Overall I think that Curley’s wife is presented as flirtatious, lonely young woman who is not really happy where she is. The frivolous red mules she wears perhaps symbolise the life she would have liked to have. She is also presented as a threat to Lennie and George, and a source of gossip for the rest of the men. I think that sympathy for her is evoked in the reader though, because of her sad situation and cruel husband.
