'Of Mice and Men' Revision: Curley's wife (student notes)

Curley’s Wife

Misogyny on the ranch

-          Trapped in the context of the Great Depression (1.5 million women abandoned by their husbands in 1930’s America): fierce competition for employment and instability meant that women were marginalized (as were any other ‘second class’ citizens) because they did not offer practical labour.

-          Source of gossip and ridicule on the ranch – ‘I think Curley’s married a tart’; ‘she’s got the eye’. We are introduced to Curley’s wife through the sexist, derogatory remarks made about her by the ranch workers, and then later through her physical appearance.

-           Unlike with Slim, whose character is shaped by his personality and abilities, the reader’s opinions are shaped by the negative opinions of the ranch workers without Curley’s wife being allowed to assert herself until the very end – ‘she’s a rattrap if I ever seen one’

-          Her promiscuity poses a threat to the ranch workers - the disdain they show towards her is a form of self-preservation. They need to hold onto their jobs, so become very guarded against any form of temptation that may compromise their positions: ‘Don’t you even take a look at that bitch’.

-          The ranch workers are afraid of the position they may find themselves in with Curley’s wife – partly because of her promiscuity, but partly because of their own desires as lonely itinerant workers. They do not allow themselves to relax around Curley’s wife because they do not trust themselves (eg. migrant workers spending their earnings at whorehouses). This sexual restraint is expressed as vehemence towards Curley’s wife.

Physical – objectification & sexualisation

-          ‘A rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off’ – Curley’s wife is physically introduced as a threat that ‘cuts off’ the light of the potential American dream. Automatically, her character is associated with shattered dreams – this creates a sense of foreboding and the reader becomes wary of her character before she does anything.

-          The colour red – ‘She had full, rouged lips’, ‘her fingernails were red’, ‘she wore…red mules’, ‘red ostrich feathers’. Emphasis on body parts that may cause destruction – lips represent temptation, nails represent violence and struggle (Lennie), shoes are the same as Curley’s – the threat of their protective relationship. This use of colour both sexualizes her character and symbolizes her lewd self-obsession, which will result in the shattering of George and Lennie’s dream later in the novel.

-          ‘Her body was thrown forward’ – She uses her femininity to gain attention – she likes to feel watched and desirable, despite the hatred it provokes from the ranch workers. Indicative of a neglectful relationship with her husband Curley.

-          Name – ‘Curley’s Wife’ – she is merely an object, a man’s possession who must spend her days ‘searching’ for her husband without forging relationships or an identity of her own. This explains her destructive actions later in the novel (she is ‘lonely’).

-          ‘She’s purty’ – George reacts aggressively towards Lennie’s attraction to CW – he has not learnt to protect himself against temptation – ‘you keep away from her’.

-          Her sexuality is the only weapon she has and has been forced to conform to feminine roles to be acknowledged (albeit negatively) at all on the ranch– ‘She was standin’ in the doorway showin’ her legs’.

Destructive Nature

-          Reader has little sympathy for Curley’s wife until chapter 5 (the scene of her death) because she is only described from the guarded perspectives of the ranch workers.

-          ‘I’m tryin’ to find Curley’ – her loneliness can be observed throughout the novel as she spends her days ‘searching’ for her husband, but becomes ‘apprehensive’ at the thought of coming into contact with him.

-          She is constrained by her role as a ‘wife’ and her husband’s protective yet neglectful approach to their relationship. This explains her attention-seeking and belittlement of the ‘weak’ characters in the novel – she feels small and unnoticed, so asserts her femininity and ‘power’ in order to feel significant.

-          ‘They left all the weak ones here’ – she preys on the weaker workers for attention, satisfying only her own desires without taking into consideration the implications of her actions.

-          She is unintelligent and a bad judge of situation – partly, her virulent nature is a result of her near-sightedness. She is a victim of gender stereotypes, honestly believing the man who claimed he could ‘put (her) in the pitchers’, when this is a common chat-up line. She is ‘breathless with indignation’ because she cannot see a situation for what it is – just as she cannot see that Lennie is unstable when she tells him to stroke her hair.

-          ‘You keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’ – she is vindictive and will use any power she has to assert her authority. This makes her character very disagreeable, but stems from her own marginalization as a woman during the Great Depression.

-          ‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’ at the heart of her final destructive action is her sadness as a character who is isolated on the ranch and whose dreams have been shattered.

-          ‘I coulda made something of myself…I coulda been in the movies’ – she is bitter about her shattered dreams, and Steinbeck uses her virulence as an example of the ‘meanness’ that stems from being alone and disappointed.

-          ‘Fell right aroun’ their an’ see how soft it is’ – In the instance of Lennie’s death, her actions are selfish but she does not intend to cause harm. She is simply quenching her thirst for attention through unsuspecting Lennie.

 

Redeeming Qualities

-          She is a victim of situation and disappointment as a marginalized and unfulfilled character. Can she be blamed for her actions when they stem from her own shattered dreams?

-          She is gullible and ignorant – she does not fully understand her situation and acts only to make things better for herself (emotionally and situationally).

-          She comforts Lennie after the death of his pup – ‘Don’t you worry none’ – she is one of the few characters who is not desensitized to human emotion – she is dismayed at the death of the dog “‘why, he’s dead’ she cried” and does not have the same ruthless approach to ranch life as Slim, who drowns puppies for practical reasons without remorse.

-          After death, she is described as being ‘very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young’ – all the negative aspects of her character disappear. This suggests that all the ‘meanness and planning and the discontent and the ache for attention’ that shaped her character were a result of the life she was living, rather than any genuine malice.

-          Curley’s wife is a victim of her situation and survives her loneliness in the only way she knows how – through her promiscuity. At the crux of her threatening, vindictive nature is her own disappointment as a marginalized character whose dreams have been shattered.