shows her discontent for Curley, and suggests the possibility that she forced herself into
marriage with Curley.
As discussed in the previous point Curley’s wife’s promiscuous ways are due to her
disappointment with her husband.
“I don’t like Curley. He ain't a nice fella.” (Ch5: page125)
Her husband doesn’t live up her expectations so she finds solace in the other men on the
ranch. There is no love in their relationship, at least not in the eyes of his wife. So she goes
looking to the ranch hands for affection.
As she was so young she had dreams and aspirations, including her dream of being an
actress, which she expressed to Lennie.
“He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.” (Ch5: Page124)
She obviously felt she could talk to Lennie, because unlike the other guys he was willing to
give her a chance, and he too was a dreamer, like her.
Unfortunately her dream didn’t come true and she had to settle for marrying Curley, leaving
behind her youth as she did so. Unlike most people, she wasn’t given the chance to pursue
her dreams because of her strict mother and her hard husband.
Curley’s wife was one of many characters who felt lonely, due to the prejudices against
them. I think she realised this on the night after the fight, when all the guys went into town
and she was left behind with Crooks, Lennie, and Candy.
‘And her eyes travelled from one face to another.’ “They left all the weak ones here”
(Ch4: Page110)
When she went into Crooks’ bunk, she was just looking for people to identify with. Their
obvious repulsion of her made her angry and put her on the offensive. She then realises that
they will never accept her and she will remain lonely except she finds and ally.
Whenever Curley’s wife appears in the novel, she is only referred to as his wife. She
doesn’t have a name and Steinbeck doesn’t give us any clues as to what her real name was.
“Wait’ll you see Curley’s wife.” (Ch2: page49)
In this passage, Candy could’ve called her by her real name or Mrs…
This shows what little respect she had on the ranch. Not knowing her name is like not
knowing part of her personality.
How terrible for a person to be lacking in personality because of how other people view
them, whether right or wrong.
As the wife of the boss’s son, you would think Curley’s wife would be treated with respect.
Yet, this was probably the very reason many of the men felt they could speak to her
however they wanted regardless of the consequences.
“You gots no rights coming in a coloured mans room. You gots no rights messing round
here at all. Now you jus’ get out, an’ get out quick. If you don’t, I'm gonna ask the boss
not to ever let you come in the barn no more.” (Ch4: page113)
They wouldn’t dare talk to Curley this way as he could get them fired, but his wife had a
lower social status being a woman. Also being the only woman on the ranch meant she
didn’t have any support, so they felt free to vent out their discontent with Curley on her.
Although somewhat ‘shallow’, the last point I will make about the injustices that Curley’s
wife suffered, is that of her beauty.
‘Purty?’ he asked casually’ (Ch2: page49)
When George first heard of Curley’s wife the first thing he asked about her was whether or
not she was purty (pretty). Why couldn’t he ask if she was nice or a good housekeeper
etc?
The sad reality Is that if his wife had been ugly, she would have been virtually ignored by the
men on the ranch, and her flirting justified to the fact that she trying to make up for her
ugliness. Yet because she was pretty, she was quickly labelled a tart, and ‘undesirable’.
Overall my sympathy for his wife is because she was never given a chance to prove herself
to anyone. Her mother wouldn’t let her be an actress, and Curley suffocated her with his
jealousy and rage. When she tried to turn to the guys in the ranch, they rejected her and
called her names like tart and jailbait. She was never given the respect she deserved. She
had to harden her heart to survive, and when she finally let someone in (Lennie) it cost her,
her life. None of this is very fair. Throughout the novel she was never truly happy. She
was ridiculed, taunted, insulted, and treated like a low life. All she wanted was to be
accepted and find love. She never got any of these instead hatred and jealousy. In the
novel the only time when Steinbeck wrote of her looking peaceful was when she was dead.
It’s not right that she had to die so horribly and feeling so alone.
