Curley’s wife
By Rachel, Alice and Ria
Behaviour
• Flirtatious- Curley doesn’t give her much
attention
• Dangerous- Likes people looking at her
• Lonely- only woman on the ranch
• Attention seeker
• Desperate
Appearance
• “ A girl was stood there looking in. She has full
rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made
up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in
little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a
cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps
of which were little bouquets of red ostrich
feathers… her voice had a nasal, brittle quality.”
• “she wore her bright cotton dress and the mules
with the red ostrich feathers. Her face was made
up, and the little sausage curls were all in place.”
Key things they say:
“Nobody can’t blame a person for lookin’” – in the
barn, excuse to flirt.
“Well I aint told this to anyone before. Maybe I
ought’n to. I don’t like Curley. He aint a nice
fella.’ – admitting to Lennie she doesn’t like Curley
‘Baloney’, she said. “I seen too many guys. If you
had two bits of the worl’, why you’d be gettin’
two shots of corn with it and suckin’ the bottom
of the glass. I know you guys.” – talking about Lennie
and George’s dream.
Key things over people say about
them
Candy: “Jesus Christ, Curley’s wife can’t move quiet. I
guess she had a lot of practice, though.”- quite sarcastic.
George: “She’s gonna make a mess. There’s gonna be a bad
mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. That
Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of
guys on it ain’t no place for a girl specially like her’” – she’s a
trouble maker and is going to cause harm.
Lennie: “she’s purty” – likes the look of her.
George: “Listen to me, you crazy bastard. Don’t you even take a
look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she
does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail
bait worse than her. You leave her be.” – warning Lennie to stay
away from her.
Their purpose in the book
• Curley’s wife is an outcast, and is the only
woman on the ranch. She is the only
woman because ranch life was a very
masculine environment which shows
sexism. She wants to feel loved and
wanted so she tries to get attention from
all the men but nobody wants to know her!
How Steinbeck portrays them
• He portrays her as a flirtatious character
seeking attention from the other men on
the ranch because she is lonely and wants
company and somebody to talk to and to
love her. She wants friendship and
companionship.
The significance of her name
• She doesn’t have a name, because she’s
not important enough and this also shows
sexism in the 1930’s when the book was
wrote.
Her dream
• To be a movie star, and to be in the
pitchers and to be noticed. She thrives on
attention and wants to be looked at and
wants to feel special, loved and wanted.
Key events they are involved in
• She goes in crooks room and ruins their dream –
end of chap. 4
• Always goes in the barn to flirt with the men –
chap. 2 and onwards
• She talks to Lennie after he says he can’t speak
to her, she tries to be friendly which leads to him
stroking her soft hair but then she panics and
Lennie wouldn’t let go, which caused him to
break her neck until she dies – chap. 5