1. Dislike her:
We should dislike CW because she is horrible to other people, especially those who are weaker than her. “what am I doing standing her with a dumb-dumb, a nigger…” For example, she says to Crooks “you know what I can do to you if you open your trap.” which shows her using her power against him as she has the power to get him hung.. When she tells him to get back into his place she is reminding him of how low he is because he is black. He is less important than a white woman.

2. We should dislike CW because she is a bad influence on people : “I never seen such a bad piece of jailbait as her.” This is shown when she stands provocatively against the door and Lennie stares at her despite being told by George not to talk to her. And she goes to Lennie to stroke her hair and starts shouting at him to stop which panics him and he kills her. This gets Lennie into lots of trouble – and she caused it.
Plus, everyone else in the books portrays her as a bad person before we meet her: “I think Curley’s married a tart.” so they must be right, especially because her appearance and behaviour backs up what they think as soon as we meet her: “she put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward.”

3. We also dislike her because she dresses inappropriately for everyday life on a ranch: “cotton house dress, red mules, heavily made up, her fingernails were red.” Its like she is trying to use her appearance as a weapon to hurt Curley because he’s horrible to her; she tries to make him jealous by dressing attractively. If she was committed to Curley and her marriage she would dress like a housewife and cover up.
She also flirts with all the men: ” its like she can’t stay away from them” and “gives them the eye”. This causes us to dislike her because she is married and so is being disrespectful to her husband, or it could be that she is trying to get back at Curley for going to the brothel – she wants his attention.

4. Feel sorry for her:
There are a number of reasons why we should feel sorry for CW. One of these reasons is because she is treated as a possession rather than a person. We know this because we don’t find out her real name and she is always referred to as ‘Curley’s Wife’. This shows she has hardly any power and has to ask Curley’s permission for everything. The fact that CW is portrayed as an object not a person means the reader can’t interact with her character and feel for her. It must be horrible to always be referred to as someone else’s - we never find out her name throughout the whole story

5. We feel sorry for CW because her husband cheats on her: “think I don’t know where they all went, even Curley. I know where they all went.” This makes us feel sorry for her because they have only been married a few weeks and he has cheated on her already. So he’s not paying her attention, instead he’s out at a brothel. Even though some people might say its her fault because she rushed into marriage, it still doesn’t give Curley the right to cheat on her. Knowing he is cheating with a whore would make her feel really rubbish, unloved and unworthy as not only is he cheating on her but he is doing it with someone he doesn’t even know.
They also have a marriage without love and Curley spends no time with his wife: ‘I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.’ She also has no female companionship on the ranch as she is the ONLY woman, so has to spend all her time with men who don’t want to talk to her.

6. We feel sorry for CW because she is lonely: “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?”. She tries to talk to Lennie but he is unsure because of what George says so doesn’t really talk back. The only people she can talk to are the weak ones. She has no friends. When she tries to talk to anyone they don’t listen to her and no-one replies. “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.” She only talks to people to get friends.

7. We should feel sorry for CW because her dreams of being a film star have been crushed because of marriage to Curley. For example, I says ‘I couldda been in the movies’. This shows that she has always had a dream, just like George and Lennie, but an unloved marriage got in the way of it. It must bee absolutely sickening to wake up every morning and realise that you could have been a movie star but instead you are only the wife of Curley living on a ranch. This may be the reason why she dresses inappropriately.

8. We should feel sorry for CW because she is very lonely on the ranch and this is what causes her to flirt with the men – she wants attention: ‘she put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door so that her body was thrown forward.’ This shows that she doesn’t have a good relationship with Curley (and is lovely) because she wouldn’t be acting the way she is and disrespecting him by doing this if she felt loved. It shows how desperate she is to have someone to talk to because she is so lonely.

9. One of the biggest reasons why we should feel sorry for CW is because she dies in the book and didn’t deserve to. She was lonely and so went seeking someone to talk to and found Lennie. She didn’t know about his past so wouldn’t have known not to offer him something soft to stroke. She died unhappy as well which makes us feel sorry for her.
Another big reason is because Steinbeck deliberately sets out to make us dislike her as she is the only character who is described by other characters before we are given a chance to meet her ourselves. She is described negatively by Candy as ‘purty’, ‘a loo loo’ and ‘having the eye’ before we get to meet her so are influenced by his opinions. She therefore doesn’t have a fair chance of being liked by the reader. Why has Steinbeck done this?