Curley's Wife Flashcards
- Introduced by reputation (3)
• “wait’ll you see Curley’s Wife”
“ she’s purty…but…she got the eye”
“I think Curley’s married…a tart”
- Highly sexualised physical entrance into the novel (6)
• “the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off”
“She had rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up”
“Her finger nails were red”
“Red mules, on the insteps If which were little boquetes of red ostrich feathers “
“Leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward”
“She said playfully”
- Subsequent ranch hand comments on her (5)
• “so that’s what Curley picks for a wife
“Don’t you even take a look at that bitch
“I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her
“A lulu” - same name as Slim’s dog
“A tramp”
- Rumours about her and Slim (3)
“Where the hell’s Slim?”
• “he thinks slims with his wife”
“Course Slim ain’t. Least I don’t think Slim is”
- George’s impression of her (2)
• “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch”
“She’s a rat trap if ever I seen one”
- Disrespect towards her own husband (2)
“ the girl flared up, ‘Sure I gotta husban’. You all seen him. Swell guy ain’t he?”
• “Curley started som’pin’ he didn’t finish. Caught in a machine - baloney!”
- Aggressive behaviour towards Crooks - tonal shift when she enters the barn (3)
• “candy smiled => Curley ain’t been here candy said sourly”
“Candy and Crooks sat there scowling”
“She turned to him in scorn, ‘Listen, Nigger,’ she said. ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?”
- Seemingly self-centred pride in her husband’s position (1)
• “ i tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this”
- Subsequent harsh opinions of the very fibre of the character oh her husband (2)
• “I don’t even like Curley”
“He ain’t a nice fella
- Opening up to Lennie about her dreams (3)
• “I coulda been in the movies”
“Well i ain’t told this to nobody before”
“This guy says I was a natural”
“Her words tumbled out in a passion of communication as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away “
- Melancholy impersonality of her death (3)
• “Lennie pawed up the hay until it partly covered her”
“5 taloned jackson fork
suspended on a pulley”
The meanness and the planning and the discontent and the ache for attention we’re all gone from her face”
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. Gradually time awakened again and moved sluggishly on”
- Characters’ reactions to her death (5)
• “You god damn tramp!”
“Oh, Jesus Christ!”
“ I should of knew”
“You an’ me can get that little place, can’t we George?”
“They all stopped and stood and looked…the spell was broken”
