® ENGLISH GCSE – OF MICE & MEN
Curley’s Wife
® Curley’s wife represents all women on the ranch and the abuse she
takes from the ranch workers symbolises the abuse and mistreatment
of women in 1930s America and is no doubt a criticism from
Steinbeck.
® Curley’s wife is around 17 years old and so actually is only still a child
compared to the ranch workers – she has hopes and dreams but
instead due to her gender they were squashed and so she ended up
on the ranch and she isn’t happy with her life or Curley.
® Women are treated with worthlessness throughout the course of the
novel and Steinbeck seems to suggest they are a waste of space and
just there to reproduce.
® 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 only worsened since their
wedding.
® Steinbeck uses rather misogynistic, descriptions of women who are
either dead maternal figures or prostitutes representing feminism at
the time.
® Despite this Steinbeck clearly opposed sexism as Curley’s wife’s
character had more to her that met the eye and Curley’s wife is one
of the most complex and interesting characters.
® She symbolises potential danger for many of the characters in the
novel – she could lead Lennie to do something similar to Weed, and
she causes trouble for the other ranch workers because Curley could
easily get them fired for being involved with her. We only start
sympathising for her in section five.
® In this section she directly shows that she doesn’t like her husband and
she reveal her hopeless dreams of becoming an actress. Only in her
death do we really empathise her character and realise the irony in
her character.
® It isn’t Curley’s wife who changes and develops throughout the play
but instead our opinion on her changes as we are caught out by
Steinbeck who leads us into the trap of judging her for her
appearance.
QUALITIES:
Lonely:
® Curley’s wife, despite having a husband can be depicted and
argued to be the most lonely character in the novel. Not only is she
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
, ® ENGLISH GCSE – OF MICE & MEN
the only woman but she’s the only character not to be given a name
➝ showing her lack of importance and portrays her as Curley’s property
as she’s just his possession but ironically enough even though these are
the only two characters with an human to human relationship they
can’t be seen together(when alive) at any one point in the novel –
➝ It seems like they are playing a game of hide and seek throughout the
novel(except they are both seekers).
➝ She openly admits that she gets ‘awful lonely’ as she isn't allowed to
talk to ‘nobody but Curley’. She also says that she doesn't ‘like Curley’.
➝ At this point we start to understand Curley's Wife so we are able to
sympathise for her because we have just met Curley and know his
character and so actually we sympathise with her but still have a
dislike for her because we’re told by the protagonists she is ‘jail bait’
but she says ‘I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’
➝ Curley’s wife’s statements here are short and simple, reflecting her
sparse and limited life on the ranch. She is shown to use only a few
words here, in the same way as she speaks very few words in her day-
to-day life.
➝ The word awful is used like we would use ‘really’ to emphasise how
lonely she is, but the word awful also shows how sad her life is.
Misunderstood:
® Curley’s wife is very attractive. She is called ‘purty’ by numerous
characters and even Slim says ‘hi good-looking’ to her.
® She is very proud and she wears a lot of makeup and to the ranch
workers, and the reader this is all because she wants attention.
® To some extent this is true because we learn that she dreamt of being
a movie star and she escaped control of her mum but never ended
up making it to Hollywood, even though being promised, she was
misled.
® We then understand that she wears the clothes she does to pretend
to live her dream just like George and Lennie repeat their dream as a
bedtime story it’s the same concept and when we realise it evokes
guilt from the reader as we’ve completely misunderstood her
character and motives.
® Note we also misunderstand her flirtatious tone and believe her to just
be a ‘tart’ when actually she’s lonely and wants companionship.
Flirtatious:
® ‘But just let two of the guys get together an’ you won’t talk’ shows the
damaging effect that loneliness can have on a person as it’s only
through her isolation that Curley makes her feel that she acts in a
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
Curley’s Wife
® Curley’s wife represents all women on the ranch and the abuse she
takes from the ranch workers symbolises the abuse and mistreatment
of women in 1930s America and is no doubt a criticism from
Steinbeck.
® Curley’s wife is around 17 years old and so actually is only still a child
compared to the ranch workers – she has hopes and dreams but
instead due to her gender they were squashed and so she ended up
on the ranch and she isn’t happy with her life or Curley.
® Women are treated with worthlessness throughout the course of the
novel and Steinbeck seems to suggest they are a waste of space and
just there to reproduce.
® 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 only worsened since their
wedding.
® Steinbeck uses rather misogynistic, descriptions of women who are
either dead maternal figures or prostitutes representing feminism at
the time.
® Despite this Steinbeck clearly opposed sexism as Curley’s wife’s
character had more to her that met the eye and Curley’s wife is one
of the most complex and interesting characters.
® She symbolises potential danger for many of the characters in the
novel – she could lead Lennie to do something similar to Weed, and
she causes trouble for the other ranch workers because Curley could
easily get them fired for being involved with her. We only start
sympathising for her in section five.
® In this section she directly shows that she doesn’t like her husband and
she reveal her hopeless dreams of becoming an actress. Only in her
death do we really empathise her character and realise the irony in
her character.
® It isn’t Curley’s wife who changes and develops throughout the play
but instead our opinion on her changes as we are caught out by
Steinbeck who leads us into the trap of judging her for her
appearance.
QUALITIES:
Lonely:
® Curley’s wife, despite having a husband can be depicted and
argued to be the most lonely character in the novel. Not only is she
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
, ® ENGLISH GCSE – OF MICE & MEN
the only woman but she’s the only character not to be given a name
➝ showing her lack of importance and portrays her as Curley’s property
as she’s just his possession but ironically enough even though these are
the only two characters with an human to human relationship they
can’t be seen together(when alive) at any one point in the novel –
➝ It seems like they are playing a game of hide and seek throughout the
novel(except they are both seekers).
➝ She openly admits that she gets ‘awful lonely’ as she isn't allowed to
talk to ‘nobody but Curley’. She also says that she doesn't ‘like Curley’.
➝ At this point we start to understand Curley's Wife so we are able to
sympathise for her because we have just met Curley and know his
character and so actually we sympathise with her but still have a
dislike for her because we’re told by the protagonists she is ‘jail bait’
but she says ‘I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’
➝ Curley’s wife’s statements here are short and simple, reflecting her
sparse and limited life on the ranch. She is shown to use only a few
words here, in the same way as she speaks very few words in her day-
to-day life.
➝ The word awful is used like we would use ‘really’ to emphasise how
lonely she is, but the word awful also shows how sad her life is.
Misunderstood:
® Curley’s wife is very attractive. She is called ‘purty’ by numerous
characters and even Slim says ‘hi good-looking’ to her.
® She is very proud and she wears a lot of makeup and to the ranch
workers, and the reader this is all because she wants attention.
® To some extent this is true because we learn that she dreamt of being
a movie star and she escaped control of her mum but never ended
up making it to Hollywood, even though being promised, she was
misled.
® We then understand that she wears the clothes she does to pretend
to live her dream just like George and Lennie repeat their dream as a
bedtime story it’s the same concept and when we realise it evokes
guilt from the reader as we’ve completely misunderstood her
character and motives.
® Note we also misunderstand her flirtatious tone and believe her to just
be a ‘tart’ when actually she’s lonely and wants companionship.
Flirtatious:
® ‘But just let two of the guys get together an’ you won’t talk’ shows the
damaging effect that loneliness can have on a person as it’s only
through her isolation that Curley makes her feel that she acts in a
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
