How Is Curley’s Wife Presented †Victim or Villain? Essay

Curleys wife is the further wo workforce at the ranch in Of Mice and Men. She is gener solelyy portrayed as a young, l acely, bored and childish girl. Baloney is her word. This single word shows that she withdraws she is a film sense impression. No one really talks like this. All the way through the book, it is evident this is how she sees her life unreal, like a movie and dramatic. Curleys wife is talked well-nigh before she is seen in the book. The first actual mention of her is wife. already it has been established that she has no name, she is just Curleys wife. The men see her as a women, not as a real person. The swamper gives his opinion straight away on her. He immediately agrees that she is purty moreover has got the eye. This shows that the men see her as just a pretty girl, who means noaffair. The situation that they mention she has the eye gives the ideal that the men eat been watching her, and ar curious about her, as they have noticed this. This withal shows th at the men see her as provocative, and the swamper gets this impression over to George straight away, so all the book he treats her in a biased way, because of what was utter then. He then describes her as a tart. This is very antiblack and shows what most of the men think about her.They do not earn her, so she must be a tart The swamper alike invited George to look her over. They are treating her like a possession, not a gentle opus beingness. Curleys wifes first appearance happens soon after George and Lennie hear about her. She stands in the doorway looking in. This puts her immediately in place as the outsider, always looking in, never intermit of the action. She is described as heavily do up and this tells you a lot about her. There is no reason to be heavily made up on a ranch, so she must have to a lot time on her hands. The fact she is wearing so much makeup tells us that Curleys wife is bored. also her hair is in little rolled clusters, something which takes an ex treme amount of time, pointing further to the fact that she is bored. Her cotton house dress and red mules are entirely inappropriate dress for a ranch, and are in truth quite expensive, film star clothes, great(p) us the impression that she thinks a lot about herself. When she speaks, it is evident she is socially awkward, as she doesnt introduce herself or even say hello, just states that she is lookin for Curley. Her joint is nasal, brittle, which is not sexy, even though this is how she portrays herself through her makeup and clothes.When George arranges her,she doesnt leave, but asks Your the new fellas aint you? This shows that she wasnt real looking for Curley, she is just essay to start up a convocation and doesnt really make out how to do it, further pointing at the fact she is socially awkward. Also she moves so her body is thr consume forward, trying to show off her best assets to the new guys, so she thinks a lot about herself and is a immense flirt However, this idea as changes when she bridles under Lennies eyes. This shows that she doesnt actually like being looked at, and is disquieting with men looking at her. Therefore, surely this points to the fact that she isnt a tart When she offers to go someplace else, she says it playfully as if she is wishing the men will ask her to stay, as she wants the company and again is flirting. passim this, George has hinted that he wants her to go away four times, but she is either ignorant and has not got the message or is just plain lonely and doesnt finagle if they want his company or not. Her next sentence, zero cant blame a person for lookin is very staged.Again, this wording is only used in the movies and her line sounds fake and practised. It is almost like she is play acting, and unreal. When Slim arrives, and tells her straight that she cant be looking very hard she turns apprehensive and hurries away. This shows that she is actually quite scared that the Slim knows what she is up too, a nd also that she is quite scared of Curley. Her first appearance confirms the stereotypes that were placed on her before we met her. However, these stereotypes do not employ up through the book. Her second appearance is in Crooks barn. She straight away gives her usual excuse for being around the men any of you boys seen Curley? It is obvious that she again is not really looking for Curley, just wants the company. Also the word boys shows that she doesnt really considers Crooks Candy and Lennie men, as they both have what she considered bad qualitys therefore they are not real men. She again is heavily made up, which shows that she is bored and has too much time on her hands. She calls Crooks, Candy and Lennie the frail ones, even though Lennie is obviously far from promiscuous. She identifies them as weak because they are the unpopular ones, she knows how to hurt them, but is only doing this as she is angry at being odd behind herself.By saying this she is also identifying hers elf as weak, this is why she really said they left the weak ones behind, she is including herself in that. Also by saying sheknows where Curley is, I know where they all went, she is admitting that she is not in Crooks manner to look for him and that she is just craving company. She regards them amusedly showing that she has no respect for these weak men, before giving her popular opinion on mankind. When Crooks mentioned her husband, she really lets off what she feels for him, Swell guy, aint he? She brings up Curleys hand, as she wants the gossip, as when she asks her face is interested. When she doesnt view his answer she says her favourite word, Baloney This, as I said above, is a childish and movie star attitude, showing that she thinks she is living in a fairy tale. Next, she shows us how much contempt she feels for her life, An what am I doin? She knows that she regrets marrying Curley and feels her life is going nowhere. She then decided the only way to interest is to ins ult, and called the men nigger, dum dum and lousy old sheep. She is taking out her anger at her man being in the cat house and her life going down the toilet and the men, who cant do anything about her.She doesnt even care when Candy tells her where to go, just replies in her film star way with Baloney showing she doesnt care a jot She barely flinches when Candy insults her, and turns her attentions to Lennie, where Lennie makes a fatal slip up. The way she just turns her attention to Lennie shows that she is actually hurt by what Candy has said, but is trying to hide it. She is quite sensible with Lennie, but flips her anger on Crooks and threatens to get him strung up on a tree. The fact that she needs to throw her anger on to someone shows how reckless she is, and completely not in control of her own emotions. When Lennie threatens to tell she says that Nobodyd learn to you. She knows the mens weak points and are using their weakness to keep herself safe, a bad quality in a pers on showing she is selfish. She leaves when Crooks says the guys are back, further showing how scared she is of Curleys wrath. Her final appearance is in the barn with Lennie, the place where she dies. She came into the barn very quietly, showing she is sly and sneaky. She is yet again heavily be wearing the cotton dress with the mules. Again, this is completely unsuitable for the ranch and shows she has too much time on her hands and she thinks she lives in a movie, where she always has to be made up. She was quite near to Lennie, showing she has no recognition for personal space and is awkward with people.She calls him sonny boy which is again only a thing a movie starwould say, and is very patronising towards Lennie. From this you can tell that she really is selfish, and doesnt get in how much her words can hurt people. She laughed when Lennie refused to talk to her, she is either ignorant, completely stupid, or doesnt care if Lennie wants her there or not When he refused again she knelt beside him she will not take no for an answer She uses emotional blackmail on Lennie, as she says she gets awful lonely, which shows she is very crafty and actually cleverer then she is made out to be, though she doesnt use her intelligence for positive things. When she sees the puppy Why, hes stone-dead we see that she is chocked, and wary of Lennie now. This also shows us that she has got a heart When she starts telling her story, neither of the two listen to each other. She doesnt seem to care though, and refuses to see that Lennie isnt interested. We find out the reason for her movie star addiction, and see her naivety as she actually thinks the man wrote to her I never got that letterI always thought my ol lady stole it. We find out she married out of spite So I married Curley. This explains her constant flirting with men, she does not love Curley in any way.She is very worldly-minded as she wants them nice clothes like they movie stars wear instead of the actual fa me. This shows she doesnt really understand what being famous is and thinks its all about nice clothes. When she realises Lennie isnt listening she turns angrily on him. She thinks her story is amazing, and that she really could be famous, and that everyone should think her life is the most interesting thing in the world. She actually moved away from him a little when he moves close to her, giving us another soak up of her, that she is not a tart, and doesnt actually like men being close to her Overall, she dies because of her vanity. She invites Lennie to feel her hair. She dies of her own stupidity, as she is too scared to shut up. She dies because she is too naive, to trusting, and much too vain. Let go, you let go Steinbeck portrays her as a girl throughout the entire book. Everytime he mentions her he calls her a girl giving us a contrast between the sexy arrogant woman and the young naive girl. lots of how he sees her is portrayed in death.He says that all the meanness, plann ings, discontent, and ache for attention, are all gone. This shows us that all of her bad qualitys have been made by life, life has made her bitter. He says that her rouge cheeks and reddened lips made her alive in away.This gives the impression that she is inculpable in death, that she is almost a quiescence beauty, and that she is now at peace with herself. In death, she is the poster girl she always wanted to be, and this is how Steinbeck sees her. I think he sees her as a dupe, as in death we see a poor innocent girl, not a heartless selfish women. I personally think Curleys wife is a victim in Of Mice And Men. Life has been hard for her, she has been overcome with pride, pity, lies, stupidity and vanity. She actually died because of her own stupidity, and her death was partially her fault.I feel that her victim qualities outweigh her villain qualities. Yes she always found others to blame, found the bad in people, and criticised everyone in sight. She was lonely, and her mist akes in life backfired on her. I think that the part of the book that shows us she was a victim was not where she was murdered, but actually, was before we even met her, when the boys were talking about her in the barn. When George and Lennie immediately believe what Candy says and immediately stereotype her. The sentence which most classes Curleys wife as a victim were the words I think Curleys married a tart.