Curley's Wife Flashcards
What are the 4 qualities of Curley’s Wife?
Promiscuous
Lonely
Oppressed
Dreamer
What 4 quotes demonstrate Curley’s wife being promiscuous? State them and what they mean.
“tart”, “she got the eye” - first presented through Candy as licentious
“her body was thrown forward” - seductive posture displays her curves
“rouged lips” - draws attention to a sensual part of her body, red symbolises passion and lust but also danger, foreshadowing the trouble she will bring
“jail bait” - George sees her beauty as something that could get men into trouble, appears to be a femme fatale: lures men into disaster, parallels with Eve as symbol of temptation
What is the context behind Curley’s wife being promiscuous?
Raised in a patriarchal society where women’s worth was derived from their physical appearance
She heavily makes up her face to imitate Hollywood stars (she dreams of becoming one) and to live up to society’s standards
Cannot win - called ‘purty’ and ‘good-lookin’ but she is labelled as a ‘tramp’
Term “jailbait” excuses men’s behaviour, assuming they can’t control their urges so women are blamed for their beauty
Steinbeck gives greater attention to her appearance than any other character - further exemplifying objectification
What 3 quotes demonstrate Curley’s wife being lonely? State them and what they mean.
“I’m lookin’ for Curley” - repeated throughout the novel, them never being together emphasises distance between them and her isolation
“looking in”, “she stood still in the doorway” - symbolises her marginalisation, a man and woman’s world were seen as separate, not welcomed by men
“I never get to talk nobody. I get awful lonely.” - reveal of her real plight, she has nobody when the men have each other, humanises her
What is the context behind Curley’s wife being lonely?
Married women were encouraged to stay at home to protect male work - working women were blamed for preventing men from providing for their families
She has nobody if she doesn’t have her husband
What 5 quotes demonstrate Curley’s wife being oppressed? State them and what they mean.
“Curley’s Wife” - we never learn her name which indicates her little agency, referred to by possessive pronoun to emphasise her lack of identity and objectification
“Why’n’t you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?” - representative of patriarchal world where men are fixated on dominating women in every aspect
“they left all the weak ones here” - knows her weak position on the ranch, belongs to the outcasts
“I could get you strung upon a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” - seeks out greater weaknesses in others to feel an ounce of power: power grows from weakness
“you goddamn tramp…you done it, didn’t you” - Lennie’s petting issue highlighted throughout novella but Candy still blames Curley’s wife, lack of emotion highlights lack of worth and normalises violence against women
What 3 quotes demonstrate Curley’s wife being a dreamer? State them and what they mean.
“movies” - ironic since she dreamt of making a name for herself but we don’t know hers
“He says I could go with that show”, “He says he was gonna put me in the movies” - both instances involve depending on men to make her dreams come true, highlights limits women had over their futures
Likely that all these men were lying to her to be in her favour, mirrors how the weak were exploited in all aspects of society
“the meanness… the discontent…the ache for attention” - her dream is her mental escape from a cruel world, is futile so her only escape becomes death
What are the 3 components of the message Steinbeck tells through Curley’s Wife?
She represents the struggles of women in a misogynist society
How the Great Depression forced women into loneliness
Comment on human nature: power is born out of weakness
