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Class notes English Of Mice and Men -Curley
The document does a character analysis on Curley in Of Mice and Men - linking themes and quotes.
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How is the Character of Curley’s wife presented in the novel:Curley’s wife is the only woman in the novel. She represents an emotionally and physically
neglected housewife who is shown no appreciation nor good and wholesome attention. She
can be considered the crux of the novella as due to her, the novel reached it’s climax and
her death also triggered a series of events which changed the readers perception of certain
characters in the novel; such as Lennie.
During this time in society, women weren’t well-respected or given any major roles. In this
case, Curley’s wife was completely deprived of any respect or esteem. We see this is an
extremely prominent theme of prejudice in the form of sexism. We only meet one woman
who is Curley’s wife, who has no name and is only associated with her husband. She could
be considered as his property and without him she is nothing. They had no individual
identities which we can see in Curley's wifes’ case where the reader doesn't ever learn of
her name. She; like many others, aren't given the privilege of have their name mentioned.
To society and in order to follow the social norms at the time, women were not individuals
but rather, they were owned. She is presented as irrelevant due to the disregard she is
shown through her name however this actually contradicted as she is highlighting the
extremes of sexism which women faced in this era. She is deliberately presented in this
manner by the author so as to present to the reader that he was aware and was using
underlying messages to inform the audience of this social issue.
As she is only referred to as Curley’s wife we also begin to recognize just how much sexism
she faced. When she is first introduced in the novella, she is only described by her facial
features. She had 'rouge lips and a heavily made up face' and looked quite like a 'tart'. The
colour red or 'rouge' is usually a colour which signifies danger or sexual desire/lust. 'Rouge’
could perhaps be foreshadowing the events to come such as: Curely's wife is in danger and
killed by Lennie’s hands or the ranch workers being pressured by Curley due to his wife's
unmet sexual needs. The word 'tart' extremely sexualises Curley's wife, making it seem as
she was only there for pleasure rather than being an actual human ion the ranch. This
relates back to prejudice as they have no reason to believe she is acting in a sexual manner
except for society's standards and expectations of women at the time. Those in society had
no choice but conform to those social norms.
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