The Ways Curlys Wife Is Presented in Of Mice and Men Essay

Curleys wife is never given a name and this makes her sound as if she is curlys possession throughout the novel. She is constantly defined by other individual as a flirt, temptress, poisonous influence and sexual object; reducing her sense of identity Curleys wife is aware of her sexuality and parades around the ranch in inappropriate clothing that is seemingly designed to attract the maximum amount of attention, although she always claims to be looking for her husband. She wears the colour red most noticeably, which is symbolic, of passion and sexually proactive. This symbolic colour acts as a red flag to a bull in the case of Lennie.her flirtatious, which ultimately causes Lennies demise, cannot be denied. However, in reality, this is her way of gaining comfort, affection and attention, all of which is starved of her in her relationship with curly, who only sees her as a trophy to stroke and parade. This is why she becomes so close to Lennie in the barn as she empathises with his loneliness and sees in him another isolated figure abandoned by men. Equally, this way in which she joins Candy, Crooks and lennie in the barn links her with these three characters, making her appears yet more of a victim due to her loneliness despite her obvious cruelty and bitterness to them in this scene where she attempts to dominate these seemingly weaker characters and crush there dreams.

She also has her own dreams and ambitious to become a movie star and claims that she once had the opportunity to do so, but her mother prevented her. These dreams are spurred on by a desire to leave the harshness of ranch life and loneliness, as well as her vanity. Her dreams and belief that she could be a movie star enhance the impression of her innocence and gullibility. She does not understand how the real world works, much like Lennie. Moreover, the way in which Steinbeck only enables the reader to perceive her true nature in the final scene with lennie enables us to see her as an object as the men on the ranch initially do.

Her marriage is cold and sterile. She avoids Curley and seemingly only enterers into the relationship in order to leave an unpleasant, constraining home life, although she now regrets it. She does not belong on the ranch, however, and is ill at ease and out of place in this violent, brutal world that is dominated by men. Her death, even if we argue that is partly her own fault because she leads Lennie on allowing him to pet her hair, makes her yet more of a tragic victim. Whilst the men want revenge for her death, no one mourns for her and she is left alone in the barn with Candy, who is equally angry with her for spoiling his dreams. The final description of Curleys wife suggests that in death she is finally at peace as she is abandoned like a rag doll in the hay, which is truly tragic and pathetic.