Is Curleys wife a tragic figure? Essay

Throughout the book ‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck portrays the character of Curley’s wife as unfortunate and a bit of an outcast. ‘Well you keep away from her, cause she’s a rattrap if ever I seen one’. But to what extent can she be regarded as a tragic character? The first time we hear about Curley’s wife, she is described as a ‘tart’ by another farm worker. This is because she is lonely so she hangs around the other farm workers wearing ‘red mules’ with ‘red ostrich feathers’ and ‘red finger nails’. Steinbeck uses the colour red to show she is dressing like a ‘tart’ because the colour red at the time was associated with prostitutes. ‘I ain’t never seen nobody like her’. The ranch hands, however, want nothing to do with her, so they ignore her, and so she becomes an outcast. ‘Curley’s wife can sure move quiet. I guess she’s had a lot of practice, though’. The reason they do not want to be seen with her is because she is married to Curley, a ‘pugnacious’ little man, who is very possessive. ‘†Have you seen a girl around here?† he demanded angrily’. The fact that Steinbeck never gave Curley’s wife a name other than ‘Curley’s wife’ is to show that she belongs to Curley. It shows her as his possession rather than a separate person. To get attention, she dresses up and hangs around the workers when Curley is not there. However, none of the farm workers want to fight with Curley, because he is the boss’ son and could get them fired. ‘She looked from one face to another, and they were all closed against her’. Curley’s wife seems unhappy in her marriage. ‘I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella’. He treats her badly, and even though he is married, he still goes to a ‘cathouse’, and she knows this ‘Think I don’t know where they al went? Even Curley!’ She also admits she is happy that Curley got ‘bust up’, because she resents Curley for the loneliness and for being ‘stick in that house alla time’. Curley’s wife has no children to keep her occupied or keep her company, and she has nothing to do with her time. Steinbeck uses language to show how frustrated she is at being unloved and unwanted. ‘Wha’s the matter with me?’. Even when she is dead she is unloved by Curley, who is more angry that someone â€Å"broke† HIS possession than the fact that his wife is dead. ‘I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch!’ Curley’s wife spends most of her time scheming ways to get attention and company from the other men. There are no other women on the ranch, and this is because men’s lifestyles at the time meant they were always travelling and never settled down and got married. This is why none of the other ranch workers have wives for her to talk to, and therefore no one else on the ranch understands her, or her situation. ‘Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her!’ Throughout the book, the reader does learn a little about Curley’s wife’s past, and about how a guy ‘who was in the pitchers’ said he was ‘gonna put [her] in the movies’ once he was back in Hollywood, and how she never received the letter. Curley’s wife says that she thought her ‘ol’ lady stole it’, and this shows the reader how naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and easily led she is, and also the reason she was so desperate to leave home, and why she married Curley. Even though Curley’s wife is so lonely and craving attention, she is still rude and has a short temper, and throughout most of the book is not liked by the reader. ‘ you keep your place then nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easily it ain’t even funny’. ‘She demanded, â€Å"You listenin’ to me?†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. When she is left alone with the ‘weak ones’ she treats them badly, as if she is taking out her frustration on them. ‘ Standin’ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs – a nigger, an’ a dum-dum an’ a lousy ol’ sheep, an’ liking it cause there ain’t nobody else!’ She is jealous that even though she counts them as the ‘weak ones’, some of them can talk to the other men, and are not all forced into the same solitary confinement that she is in. Steinbeck shows just how tragic this character is, by the fact that she has to take her anger out on people she herself counts as ‘weak’, and that is how bitter her lifestyle has made her. Finally once she has died, Steinbeck uses language to show just how tragic she is, even in death. ‘All the meanness and the planning and discontent and the ache for attention’ were all gone from her face. This extract gives us clues as to what Curley’s wife what thinking while she was alive, and how much of her life these things took up. It explains her behaviour and finally makes the reader feel sorry for her, because in the rest of the book this is difficult, despite her tragically horrible situation. I think that Curley’s wife is an incredibly tragic character. The fact that she was so desperate to escape from home that she married Curley, and she was so naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and had no one to tell her and advise her that it was such a bad idea. Also she had no purpose in life, no one to talk to, or to love and treat her well, that she turned so sour and bitter that she ruined the few moment s of company that she could snatch at. Even the fact she is not loved and wanted by the reader and is seen as ‘trouble’. The only time her worries and problems are over is in death! These are all reasons to show to the high extent that Curley’s wife was shown to be a tragic character.