Analysing the character of Curley’s wife in the “of mice and men book” will be done by assuming two prospective that can agree or not.
Curley’s wife First opinion
Curley’s wife gave me the impression of a person that likes to play around with men too much for her conditions.
In fact she is already married but it seems that it does not make a big difference to her as pulling the strings with the other workers seems her favourite hobby.
We first met her or at least had a description of her character on page 49 when George was talking with the cleaner.
From the cleaner’s observation it seems that Mrs Curley after two weeks of marriage stared playing around with the workers in the place without a lot of discretion, which is why she managed to create a certain reputation between them.
They all think the same thing, which is that she is a horny wife who is never satisfied with she has got.
We can see this from the way in which the cleaner talks, it seems as if he is not the only one who has noticed. The cleaner will also say that he saw her giving a certain eye to Slim the jerk-line skinner as well as Carlson.
Always by following what he said in page 50 it would look like the husband knows nothing about the whole story as the enormous amount of work that he has is almost completely making her wife blind at his eyes and she is contentedly profiting of the circumstances.
Later in the book at round page 53 the girl will appear maybe coincidently in the place where George and Lennie are talking and she will give them both a nice view of herself. Lennie however unlike George will not be able of ignore it and will keep staring at her dreamingly until she will leave. This is a further prove to the fact that Curley’s wife likes man so much that she does not care who they tare, as long as they are males they are okay for her.
Curley’s wife second opinion
Curley’s wife seems to like men too much, so much that even though she is married she keeps seeking for new ones.
Most of the workers have experienced her playful attitude and probably thought of why a man like Curley would marry such a prostitute although they appreciate her as the cleaner said in page 50 defining her as a tart.
On page 49 George asked if she was promiscuous the cleaner firmly agreed and he even added more to it. He told George that Mrs Curley has got the eye, the provocative one. The cleaner swore to have seen her giving it to the jerk-line skinner, Slim, after only two weeks of marriage which tells us a lot about her.
In addition to that she did the same thing with Carlson, but most important of all is the fact that she did everything at the shoulders of her husband as the cleaner said that Curley has never seen it.
Later on she will do the same thing with George, who will idiotically fell for it unlike Lennie who will bring him back to his senses, for then leave apprehensively after been told by Slim that her husband was going to her house.
The only reason for which it seems that her husband hasn’t noticed of her weird behaviour is the fact that he has too much work to do and therefore it is already hard enough for him just to stay with her for a few hours.
In conclusion Curley’s wife although is married to Curley has no name for the ranchers. Her name has never been told and therefore is presented merely as Curley’s property. This makes her sad and as young and pretty she wears attractive clothes to attract other men. This proves that she is flirtiest and keeps hanging around with the bunkhouse. She the only women in the ranch, which makes her, depress since there is no one to talk with. Is na�ve and its proved with her dream of going to Hollywood. She is not attracted to Curley since if Hollywood had accepted her she would have left him long time ago.
