Female Character In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Superior Essays
Steinbeck’s novel “Of mice of men”, has portrayed different aspects of life in 1930’s America. The wife of Curley, the owner of the ranch, was the only female character in the novel. Her character has played a significant role to relate to how women were treated in the society, and reflect upon the inequality shown through how people perceived her. Through this, we can state that women in that century were idealised very lowly and as men’s possession. Different aspects of her personality was portrayed, the beginning of the novel expresses her strength against others at the ranch, and discriminated by others as “tart”. She wasn’t respected by others or neither she tries to show her kindness in the beginning, as suggested by how George convinces …show more content…
She is first introduced by Candy, who mentions that she “got the eye”, suggesting that she is flirtatious around men. People calls her “jail bait” and “tart”, and dresses like a “whore” from her overly excessive appearance. By her flirtatious characteristics, also suggests that she dresses provocatively and wants to draw attention of men. As we know that she isn’t treated well by others and she feels being objectified and undervalued, she wants to proclaim herself as a person by dressing nicely and impressing people. In relevance to today’s society, women are pushed towards roles that are entered at home and are discouraged from having jobs. As she dreams to be an actress, but discouraged by her mum, and how she fails to attain her dream career, that she had to end up marrying Curley for the rest of her …show more content…
She has been marginalised as a role of a women and Steinbeck shows that by not giving her a name, that though she is the wife of the son of the owner of the ranch, worker who are poor and has disabilities still deserve a name. Secondly, to contrast the idea, she is the only female character on the ranch and does not have a name, in fact, she is named as Curley’s possession. This shows that she has no freedom and has to be with him for the rest of her life. She is often seen lonely at the ranch, everyone dislikes her and calls her by “tart”. She isn’t respected by everyone of how she wears other than her personality. The society that she lives in, women are perceived as prostitutes or housewives and has very limited freedom of rights in

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