How Does Steinbeck Present the Character of Curley’s Wife? Essay

Steinbeck presents Curleys wife as vulnerable as she has the power as she is married to the owners male child and she is not afraid to exercise that power. But also she is a dupe of loneliness as Curley is not that interested in her and she has to stay on the ranch doing nothing but wondering around looking for company. This makes Curleys wife both guilty and innocent. Steinbeck uses candy to forewarn the reader nigh Curleys wife in their first meeting, this is significant as it shows that Curleys wife is interpreted as jail bait as George says. The fact that George is pre-warned about this potential danger is ironic as despite the monition she is the problem that ends up getting Lennie killed. Steinbeck describes her physical appearance first, she is described as very sexually attractive and uses this to bait guys in. she uses her physical appearance as her main weapon, and in the end of the book Lennie gets in trouble because she tempts him to knock her soft hair.Steinbeck sh ows moments of her being overly cruel. She gets lonely and looks around for people to blabber to but when she realises that the guys dont want to talk to her she turns on crooks relation him that she can get him hanged because she would accuse him of rape. Steinbeck uses her talk with Lennie to make you sympathise with her. She talks about how she could have been in the pictures but she thought her mum threw onward the letters about it and that how she is now stuck on a ranch were everyone ignores her and she is lonely. Steinbeck finishes by saying that she is a nice, good person but the completely route she could get noticed was if she expressed her sexuality to the guys on the ranch, thats the only way they would pay attention to her.