Olivia byrne
Write about the ways in which victims are presented in the texts you
have studied, of mice and men and the inspector calls
Both Steinbeck and priestly present victims in their work to cause an emotional and
sympathetic feeling and response from the reader or audience. Curley’s wife and Eva smith
were both used to represent and symbolise how women were treated in the 1930’s
America. Curley’s wife is trapped and lonely and represents the need for the American
dream. The other characters in the novel are very judgemental of her and think of her as a
“tart”. She suffers a tragic end and death, Steinbeck encourages the reader to feel
sympathetic towards her and her circumstances. We, as a reader, know she will never get
what she wanted, which was to escape her boring unfortunate life to be starring in the
Hollywood movies. Curleys wife’s death came before her dream happened which makes her
death even more tragic. Eva smith also represents how women of a lower working class
were treated and the struggle they went through, in 1912. Looking at Eva smith and her
horrible circumstances, us as a reader can see how little choice women at that time had,
and how much society lacked in supporting people. Priestly is very critical of this. The older
generation in the play are very against Eva smith, and show no emotion towards her. Eva
smiths death also came before her dream happened which was to better herself and get the
“American dream”. You can see these tragic opinions of women carry on for many years as
the inspector calls happens in 1912 and of mice and men happens in 1930 and curleys wife’s
death is just as bad as Eva smiths even though a lot of years have passed. Priestly message
was that we need to think about the rest of the people still suffering and we need to
support and help them in any way we can.
Steinbeck presents Curleys wife as a victim through the use of the men on the ranch as a
critical voice. This is demonstrated through the line, “why don’t you tell her to stay the hell
home where she belongs”. This implies the men on the ranch strongly dislike Curley’s wife
because you can clearly see they don’t want to be in her company this could be because
they think she’s danger to them and because they think as she’s a women, “she belongs” at
home. This could also show that maybe the men don’t trust her or themselves around her.
This could suggest the men on the ranch strongly about the stereotype of the “perfect”
women in the 1930’s and how they could only stay at home. They are also very aggressive in
the way they speak about Curleys wife this is shown when candy uses the word “hell”. The
words “her” and “she” are effective in this text because it shows how little respect they
have for Curley’s wife and makes her sound worthless as it suggests she doesn’t even
deserve a name from the men on the ranch and it also implies that she is curleys property
because they call her by curleys wife or “her” and “she”. The writer may have done this
because he wanted to depict how life was for women in the 1930’s and to make people see
how things have changed now, he mainly wanted to show the reader how badly men
treated and judged women at that time, and if they didn’t fit the stereotype of the perfect
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Olivia byrne
women who is someone that stays at home all day, cooks, cleans, and takes care of
everything, they would become a danger to everyone.
Priestly also presents Eva smith as a victim through the use of Mr. Birling as a critical voice.
You can see this when refers to ‘that wretched girl’s suicide’. This suggests just because Eva
smith is a women from a lower class she is referred to as ‘wretched girl’. Also, it shows that,
just like candy, Mr. Birling reacts in a very aggressive way using the adjective ‘wretched’.
This could also imply that he feels no sympathy for Eva smith as he has just been told tragic
news and has little to no concern for her as you can see when he calls her ‘wretched’. Like
Curley’s wife, Eva smith too wants to better herself but none of the men respect that.
Similarly to Curley’s wife, Eva smith too gets rudely disrespected as she is too not referred
to with a name by Mr. Birling. He uses the pronoun ‘girl’ and ‘that’ which shows he has no
consideration and can’t even remember or can’t be bothered to say her name. She is just a
lower class woman to him. Maybe priestly did this to suggest that women of the working
class got no respect or sympathy from men of a higher class. Eva smith was not cared about
by anyone just because she was in the working class. Just like candy, mr.birling feels as
though women should know where their place is and that it should stay this way.
Steinbeck portrays Curleys with as a victim through his reflection of her tragic
circumstances; this is shown through the line ‘think I don’t know where they all went’. This
is said by Curley’s wife when all the men on the ranch go to the ‘cat house’. Curley’s wife
reacts to this in an emotive way. She states that she knows where they all are because she
feels that Lenny and crooks are laughing at her. She is left alone and isolated whilst her
husband along with everyone else are allowed to do as they please but she doesn’t have the
power to stop him. It could also imply she is quite a lonely character that isn’t allowed to do
anything but get walked all over by her husband, Curley. Also she can’t do anything herself
as she is forbidden by Curley. The phrase ‘all went’ highlights her circumstances and how
there’s no one there for her not even Curley her husband. She’s a women who doesn’t fit
the stereotype of the ‘typical’ women, she has no children, no job and she is an annoyance
to everyone one around her. Everyone’s left her which shows how tragic her life was and
when she says ‘I could have made somethin of myself’. This shows she gave up everything
she could have had to become a housewife and have children which haven’t happened but
now there’s no way of getting out of it. But what’s tragic about this is that we, as a reader,
know there’s no way out which makes us feel sympathy for Curley’s wife because she never
achieved her dream and never will. The writer may have done this to create sympathy for
her. Perhaps Steinbeck did this to show the reader how hard it was for women at that time.
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Priestly also presents Eva Smiths tragic circumstances through the quotation, ‘she was here
alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate. And you slammed the door in her face’. This
quotation shows just how hopeless just like curley’s wife was, you can see this also through
when the inspector reveals how lonely she really was and how she had no one to turn to at
her time of need and there was no way of escaping the mess and disaster she was already
in. Eva Smith and Curley’s wife are both extremely lonely characters who have no one to
help them or to care about and for them. It could also imply Eva Smith similarly to Curley’s
wife had been too pushed into this situation and didn’t have the power as a woman to stop
it. It says in the quote she was ‘desperate’ which everyone could see, but the men still
continued to treat her badly and take advantage of her and her circumstances. Mr.Birling
fires her, Gerald leaves her and Eric gets her pregnant even though he knew he couldn’t
marry her or support her. The phrase ‘slammed the door in her face’, not only suggests how
terribly the birling family treated her but it also reflects what society done to Eva Smith. The
verb ‘slammed’ is effective because it shows how aggressive and violent the situation was
and also how the upper class (the birling family) reacts to this news and how they feel about
the lower classes such as Eva Smith. Perhaps priestly, like Steinbeck wanted to make the
reader feel sympathy for a women in this position at that time. Eva Smith just like Curleys
wife had no power or choice in what happens in her life. Both women are lonely and both
get turn away when they are in need of help.
Steinbeck presents Curleys wife as a victim through the tragic ending. This is shown when it
says ‘now he light was lifting as the sun went down, and the streaks climbed up the wall’.
This implies that Curley’s wife is the victim, as her death happens before she could achieve
anything in life and so we feel a lot of sadness and sympathy for her. It can also suggest that
any dream or hope that Curleys wife wanted to for fill is now lost. The ‘sun’ represent her
life and what she wanted to achieve and as the sun slowly goes down it shows her dreams
dying with her, you can see this when it says ‘went down’. The darkness represents the
characters being trapped in their awful situation; it also gives you the impression that
everything is silent and peaceful. The darkness after the sun went down could imply how
the men on the ranch are feeling after her death and how not only Curley’s wife’s dreams
are gone but also George and Lenny’s dreams are gone because of this as well. In one way
Steinbeck cold of done this to make the reader feel happy because at least now she’s
escaped and doesn’t need to live that life anymore, but it shows the only way out was
through death, that was the only way to be free from her circumstances and society. What
makes this ending more tragic is that we, as a reader, knew her dream and the
circumstances she was in would mean she would never get her dream or escape from
society in a peaceful way. Perhaps Steinbeck wanted us to feel sympathy towards Curley’s
wife. We knew Curley’s wife would never be given the happy ending that she wanted;
through the whole of the play we have witnessed and felt the loneliness and depression
that she has been suffering with, and seen her hope to achieve the American dream but,
however hard she tried she’d never get it as the American dream was almost impossible to
achieve especially for a women at that’s time. Steinbeck could have been putting the
message across that no women of that time would ever get what they wanted in life.
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Priestly also presents Eva smith as a victim through the tragic ending. This is shown when it
says ‘one Eva smith has gone-but there are millions…still left with us.’ Like of mice and men,
this could imply that Eva Smiths death was inevitable and she was never going to get her
happy ending. It was because of her horrible circumstances that she is now gone. I think the
inspector said this to make birling family and the reader to realise she wasn’t the only one
going through that and how bad it got that she had to end her own life in such a dreadful
way. Priestly just like Steinbeck, wanted to make the audience feel sympathy towards Eva
Smith, because similarly to curleys wife Eva Smith just wanted to better herself and get a
high role in a job she could stay at but in both stories there’s always people getting in the
way of their wish and dream. It’s also very sad how her death came after the revelation,
even though everyone knew about her circumstances but she still died. The word ‘millions’
is very effective because it tells us (the reader) that she’s not the only one living with these
terrible circumstances and having to deal with the situation she got in, on her own. It could
have been used to show just how many innocent people are just like Eva Smith and Curley’s
wife. Perhaps priestly like Steinbeck wanted to convey just how awful and difficult it was for
not only the working class women at that time but how hard it was for women in general to
escape these circumstances. Priestly and Steinbeck both felt a big disapproval of the
capitalist system; this quotation could represent a link to how priestly felt about the
capitalist system. Priestly felt that we should all look after and think about each other and
we should remember and care about the ‘millions’ that are still going through this and are
‘still left with us’.
Perhaps Steinbeck wanted to present Curley’s wife as a tragic character to show how
women were not allowed to do anything and how women were treated. She feels as though
she ‘coulda made somethin’ of herself but what makes it all even more sad is that we, as a
reader, know that no women at that time would ever get what they wanted, it was almost
impossible. Every character in, of mice and men are more than desperate to get and achieve
the American dream but however hard they worked it was one of the hardest things to do
and Curley’s wife as we know would never achieve this. Curley wife’s death could represent
her becoming free from society and free from her struggles. Priestly could have wanted to
present Eva Smith not just to represent one person’s struggles but the working class
women’s struggles in general and what they had to live with. Perhaps priestly wanted to
represent the inspector as their guilty conscience because the phone call came of her death
came after the inspector questions them, the birling family could just be feeling guilty for
the little things they have done to Eva Smith
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