Curley’s Wife Character Profile
Curley’s wife has no name and is seen as the possession of her husband. She is also a pretty lady who wears makeup, dresses, and ostrich feathered-high heels. As the only woman on the ranch, Curley’s wife is lonely and sad, something her marriage to Curley only makes worse. She reveals throughout the story that she is unhappy in her marriage because her husband seems to care little for her, and is really more interested in talking about himself than anything else. Further, she highlights her lost potential, she details twice that she could’ve been a Hollywood movie star, though the chance was taken from her by her mother, who worried she was too young.
Quotes | Explained |
“hand soft for his wife” | Curley portrays that he is saving his hand for her meaning that she must be sexually active with Curley at first. |
“wait’ll you see Curley’s wife” “she got the eye” | Others think she is a wild one who flirts with anyone and anything. |
“Full, roughed lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up.” “fingernails were red” | All made up when she is only on a ranch because that’s all she has and she has to look nice for Curley and keep up her appearances so Curleys’s reputation doesn’t get ruined. |
“hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages” | Childlike language as if Lennie is imagining her hair as sausages. Senses. |
“Wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquet or red ostrich feathers” | Dresses as if she was a movie star and wishes she was betty boop (famous Hollywood star) when the reality is that she is a housewife who devotes her life to her husband. |
The Essay on How much sympathy does the reader feel towards Curleys wife?
Curley’s wife is a character in the novel “Of mice and men” set in California and written in 1937 by John Steinbeck. She is the only woman on a ranch of itinerant working men, and because of this she gets treated by each man in a different manner. Most of the men treat her in a negative way, therefore causing different degrees of sympathy from the reader. Sympathy implies that the reader feels an ...
“Voice had a nasal, brittle quality.” | Hollywood accent |
“Puts her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward” | She is pushing all her assets forward like a film star would or a singer when they are performing to try and look their very best. |
“Playfully” “hurried away” | She is always rushing around trying to dodge Curley around the ranch to entertain herself as she has little to do so. |
“Sure that’s what Curley picks for a wife” | She is always nutty and girly trying flirt with anyone to get to talk to someone as she is very lonely and every moment she gets she lets everything out because that is probably the only chance she’ll get in a while. |
“Ain’t she a Looloo” | |
“She ain’t concealin nothing” | |
“She got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody I bet she even gives the stable buck the eye” | She is so desperate to get someone’s attention she even flirts with the stable buck who no one talks to as he is a “Nigger” and she is so lonely and just wants a friend. |
“Ever’ time the guys is around she shows up. She’s lookin’ for Curley…..she can’t keep away from guys an Curley’s pants is just crawlin with ants.” | Both of the married couple put on a show that they are all there in the bedroom when the reality is that nothing has gone on and Curley is waiting to do something but it’s not happening. |
“She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger” | |
“Her face was heavily made up, her lips were slightly parted.” | Film star |
“She dropped her fingers and put her hands on her hips.” | She is trying to show off and highlight all her body and show her flirtatious and provocative attitude. |
“Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” | She is very lonely and all she wants is someone to talk to. |
The Term Paper on Mothers Day
When I was first asked to give a talk on mothers, since it would be mother’s day. I started wondering how Mother’s Day came to be. I was surprised to discover that Mother’s Day has a history longer than Christianity! Ancients celebrated Isis (Mother of the Pharaohs), Rhea (Greek Mother of the Gods), and Cybele (The Great Mother). The worship of these ancient goddesses is similar to the reverence ...
“Swell guy ain’t he?” | She doesn’t have much liking for Curley, he puts on this show he is a big fella but he never acts on what he says he is going to do and she sees that. |
“You know what I can do to you if you open your trap? “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” | She gets her streak of power by showing crooks just what she can do. She maybe a woman but she is married to the boss’ son whom gives her the power to get one over on anyone she likes and especially the stable buck. |
“slipped out” | She slips around the ranch silently and just shows up every now and then looking for Curley. |
“She came very quietly.” | |
“ I get awfully lonely” | She has a husband but has no one to talk to. Irony. |
“spoke soothingly” | She is the woman figure of the ranch and when she speaks she speaks with care and comfort like a mother yet it’s ironic that she isn’t a mother yet. |
“Says I could go with the show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me.””gonna put me in the movies” | She acts like she has been asked to be in all the movies and pictures yet she is stuck on a ranch. She tries to make people feel sympathy for her that she is stuck on the ranch when she could have been in the pictures. |
“I never got that letter…I always thought my ol’ lady stole it….So I married Curley.” | She blames her mother for being stuck on this ranch as she stopped her from going to her dream. It was a second resort marrying Curley as she felt she had to because she couldn’t be on the movies she blames her mother for everything bad that happens to her. |
“She jerked her head sideways, and lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on.” | |
“her body flopped like a fish” | Lennies prey is caught as he is a bear and the fish are there prey. She is nothing more than an animal she is just a meal that lennie has devoured. |
“half covered with hay” | Lennie is treating her like he did with his pup because she is not named and nothing more than an animal to lennie. |
“She whimpered and cringed to the packing box, and jumped in among the puppies.” | The dog’s mother has witnessed the murder and feels the danger and goes to protect her puppies. Irony that she couldn’t have children and will never have them now. |
“And the meanness and the planning’s and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted.” | She is finally alive when she is dead. She has died happy as she was realising her dreams and knowing that they would never come true but now she is dead it stops the pain that she would have to torture through. She is finally living her five minutes of fame and getting the attention she desired as a movie star and famous. |
The Essay on Ranch Hand Lennie George Dream
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck Setting: South of San Francisco in the Salinas Valley of California; probably during the depression of the 1930's; three locations-along the banks of the Salinas River near the ranch, in the ranch bank house, and in the barn. Background info: George Milton has cared for his mentally slow friend. Lennie Small, Since the death of Lennie's Aunt Clara. They travel ...
