Curley's Wife Quotations Flashcards
1)
We see Curley’s wife through the lens of the male characters. They talk about her before we meet her. They view her as a ‘tart’ and a ‘looloo’. George refers to her as a ‘rattrap’ and ‘jail bait’.
2)
The first physical description of Curley’s Wife, when she stands in the doorway, furthers this misleading impression, ‘A girl.. heavily made up’ whose ‘Fingernails were red’ and who has ‘Rouged lips’. She wears ‘Red mules’ with ‘Red Ostrich feathers’. The repetition of red signals danger and passion
3)
She is never actually given a real name showing how she is just seen as ‘Curley’s Wife’, showing she is Curley’s property
4)
Lennie says to her ‘George says I ain’t to have nothing to do with you - talk to you or nothing’
5)
She is the only woman on the ranch so she has no one to talk to and is isolated because of her gender: ‘I get awful lonely’
6)
Curley’s Wife craves attention from other men on the ranch due to her loneliness: ‘Any you boys seen Curley?’. She asks in the hope that it would then lead on to more detailed conversation
7)
Curley’s Wife knows she has power over others because of her marriage. She knows this when she says to Crooks: ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap? I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’
8)
Curley’s Wife believes she was cheated of a successful movie career: ‘He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural’
9)
She only married Curley to get away from home: ‘I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere”
10)
Despite being his newly wedded wife, Curley’s Wife doesn’t like Curley. She says to Lennie in the barn: ‘I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella’
