Essay
Of Mice and Men Curley's Wife GCSE
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An essay on the character Curley's Wife from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Written for GCSE.
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How is Curley’s Wife important in the novella Of Mice and Men?Curley’s Wife is important in the novella as she represents women in 1930s, and how they were
treated. Being the only women in the novella who actually speaks and takes an actve role, she
shows the audience how there was no place for women on a hardworking ranch, and how gender
equality was far from being achieved.
Curley’s Wife seems like a possession. Her name is the most obvious example of this “Curley’s Wife”,
Steinbeck never gives her a name but is referred to under the name of her husband and is always
called “Curley’s Wife”. This suggests she is a possession of Curley’s and she belongs to him, like you
would say Curley’s hat or Curley’s shoes. Steinbeck may have chosen to never give her a name as it
represents the treatment of women in 1930s America and how they were not treated as equals to
men. Despite getng the vote the decade before making them legally equal, women were stll
treated far from the same as men and Steinbeck shows just how diferently a woman is treated on a
typical ranch in the dirty thirtes. The lack of Curley’s Wife’s real name is shown again through other
women. We hear of Lennie’s Aunt “Clara” and a “Clara” who owns a brothel, it is unusual for two
characters to have the same name in a book, but I think Steinbeck may have included this to remind
the reader that women are all viewed as the same. However, other readers may say Curley’s Wife
does not have a name as she is not a signifcant enough character, as the main story is about George
and Lennie and Steinbeck did not give her a name to show how she is only there for plot
development. The treatment of Curley’s Wife as a possession and not a person is emphasized as
Curley may use her as a trophy. Curley wears a “glove fulla Vaseline”. This suggests Curley wants to
show of to the other men, using his wife to make him seem bigger and above other men. Candy tells
George that Curley is “keeping that hand sof for his wife” which illustrates Curley openly tells the
other men about as he wants everyone to know. However, we see that their relatonship is not as
Curley portrays it to be as he makes obscene illusions about his wife but stll goes to brothels. Curley
treatng his wife as a possession and a trophy suggests she is only there for social status, like one of
his boxing trophies and is not viewed as an equal on the ranch.
Curley’s Wife wears make up on the ranch. She is said to have “heavily made up eyes” and “full
rouged lips”. Steinbeck could have chosen to paint Curley’s Wife as wearing make up to show how
diferent she is on the ranch, and has very litle in common with the hard working ranch workers.
The red lips she is described to have could symbolise blood and passion, foreshadowing she will be
the cause of some danger. However, this may not be the only reason Steinbeck gave her this
appearance. Curley’s Wife may be putng on a front, and her make up represents how she is hiding
her true self beneath a layer of something and feels insecure about showing her true personality, a
like how she does not want to show her true face. Although, other readers may think that there is a
diferent reason for the heavy makeup Curley’s Wife is wearing, and she may be being beaten Curley
and the makeup she is described to wear is covering bruises. This is emphasized by Steinbeck writng
she has a “britle nasal tone” when speaking which could be because she has a broken nose afer
being abused. Finally, the “glove fulla Vaseline” Curley is said to wear may be covering bruises on his
hands from hitng his wife.
Throughout the novella we discover that Curley’s Wife is a victm and not a foozy. Curley’s wife is
lonely on the ranch. This is shown as she says “I get lonely”, which emphasizes the unusual
relatonship between her and her husband, as you would not expect her to get lonely as she has her
husband. This is again emphasized as Curley’s Wife is looking for husband and says “You can’t blame
a person for looking” and Slim says “You ain’t trying very hard I seen him go in your house.” This
suggests that Curley’s Wife is not actually looking for husband, but is looking for her other company.
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