Curley's Wife

Cards (41)

  • 'Rouged lips...fingernails were red...red mules' Description of danger
  • "Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever' once in a while? Think I like to stick in the house alla time?" Shows her loneliness & painful irony
  • "I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." Cruel & abuses her power
  • "He says he was gonna put me in the movies." Naivety, didn't achieve her American Dream
  • "You God damn tramp... You done it, didn't you? I s'pose you're glad. Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You wasn't no good." Candy completely dislikes her and knew it would all end badly because of her
  • Candy: "Well I think Curley's married... a tart." Women were sexualised by men at those times
  • "A girl" Implies that she is more innocent than what is assumed
  • 'eyes heavily made up' Women were expected to look pretty
  • 'Her voice had a nasal, brittle quality' Links to her innocence
  • 'She said playfully' Innocence
  • "Jesus, what a tramp!" Objectified & sexualised by George
  • 'Her face was heavily made up' Trying to attract attention
  • 'as though she had been running' Lonely because she hurried to be among people
  • "They left all the weak ones here" She is also one of the weak ones due to being the only woman on the ranch
  • "I know where they all went" She knows Curley is out cheating on her - trapped in a loveless marriage
  • "Sometimes I'd like to bust him myself" In a very unhappy marriage - doesn't love Curley
  • Candy: "Jesus Christ, Curley's wife can move quiet. I guess she had a lot of practice though." Used to sneaking around Curley a lot
  • "Wha's the matter with me?" She's a woman so she is rejected by all men
  • "seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live" True because no one cares about her because she's a woman
  • 'She came very quietly' She is used to sneaking around Curley a lot
  • 'She hurried before her listener could be taken away' Desperate to talk to someone because of her loneliness
  • 'She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him' Trying to make a friend
  • 'She struggled violently under his hands' Adverb used to connote violence & pain
  • "Well I ain't told this to nobody before" Trying to befriend Lennie by sharing secrets
  • "but mine is soft and fine" Desperate for human interaction that she ignores possible danger
  • 'Curley's wife moved away from him a little' Feels threatened but her loneliness overpowered her fear
  • 'Curley's wife' Doesn't have an identity of her own
  • George: "jail bait" Uses her sexuality to cause trouble
  • "I tell ya I could of went with shows" Unattainable American Dream of hers
  • "I get awful lonely" Illustrates that she is the only woman on the ranch
  • 'How it reflects women of the time' Represents women of the time - shows how they were treated as possessions
  • 'the meanness and the planning and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face' In death, she lost all of the things that made her mean
  • 'pretty and simple' Readers can now see her simple side, not her manipulative side
  • 'sweet and young' Innocent
  • 'rouged cheeks' No longer associated with danger but with death
  • 'reddened lips' No longer associated with danger but with death
  • "bitch" Referred to in terrible ways
  • "rattrap" Referred to in terrible ways
  • "Sure I gotta husban'. You all seen him. Swell guy, ain't he?" Sarcastic - dislikes her own husband (Curley)
  • George to Curley: "She said - she was lookin' for you" Her excuse to talk to men without getting caught