 Now Curly's wife is a really interesting and integral character in the novella and as such You do need to remember key quotations relating to her character Now what you need to understand when it comes to Curly's wife is that she's a very complicated and complex figure and Steinbeck deliberately presents her as this complicated figure because on the one hand We see her in many ways being the only woman on the ranch as a victim of the really Misogynistic patriarchal structure on the ranch in other words what I mean by that is she's a victim of Beliefs particularly at the time that women were basically inferior to men There were less than men and also women were basically just objects there to just cook clean for you They don't really have anything else going for them. Okay, that's what I mean by a very patriarchal structure a structure That's dominated by men and misogynistic just simply means not liking women in other words Hating women and seeing women as less and lower than men So on the one hand Curly's wife stands as a very sympathetic figure and we even see this highlighted through the fact that She's seen as so lower and so inferior that she doesn't even deserve a name. We never learn her name She's just called Curly's wife. She's defined by her marriage to Curly However, she's a complex character because on the other hand She's presented as a femme fatale a woman who uses her sexuality to get her head But equally whilst she's the victim of a structure of a US society at the time in the 1930s that saw women as less She also helps it supports some of the other things that are part of that same society and structure So she's also depicted as very racist particularly when it comes to how she addresses crooks The African-American the black stablebuck and she threatens him So whilst on the one hand we see Curly's wife as a very sympathetic figure as readers on the other hand We also see her as guilty of upholding the same structures the same ideas that put people like her down as a woman But she upholds it when it just applies to black people for instance, okay Now there are a few quotations that you need to remember for her character And so essentially you want to always remember that you want to do word-level analysis and hear the word-level analysis That you should do for each of the quotations now the first quote relating to Curly's character or rather the Curly's Wife's character is firstly She's described the description that we get of her even before we meet her and of course This description is given to George and Annie to be told be careful of her and she's described as a gel bait ellipsis rat trap now these two are metaphors So that's the word-level analysis you want to do here now these metaphors are really powerful because firstly especially when you look At rat trap she's been described almost as an animal or rat and she's being dehumanized She's described in a very animalistic way And of course this shows just how women at the time were seen in you know in very animalistic terms Almost as objects to just give men sexual pleasure But equally on the other hand of course what this illustrates is Curly's wife is the femme fatale when I say femme fatale It's a woman Historically especially in Hollywood films and in stories a woman who uses her sexuality to mislead and misguide men and Ultimately gain something from them, okay So this quotation is really powerful in illustrating just how Curly's wife on the one hand is Seen in a very animalistic very dehumanizing way, but the other hand it also establishes her as a femme fatale of the story The second quotation relating to Curly's wife is when she says and we get the notion and this is now where we feel empathy and sympathy for her I get awful lonely and here the word-level analysis you want to do is lonely Which is an abstract noun remember an abstract noun is a noun that we can't touch taste feel or see okay And this is emphasizing just her abject loneliness She's completely alone even if she's married newly married to Curly Curly only sees her as yet another possession that he owns Another possession that he can use to show off his status But really there's no love on any connection in their relationship, but hence why she feels really lonely The third quotation to remember for Curly's wife's character is when she's described again almost as a femme fatale She got the eye going all the time on everybody now this quotation of course is tying into the Warning that Jordan Lennie are getting the idea that Curly's wife. She basically uses her sexuality She's trying to sleep around basically now the word-level analysis here Which illustrates her as being the femme fatale and of course if you're not sure if you want kind of more detail on femme fatale I have done another video which you can check out where I go into detail on femme fatale and important contextual factors Okay, so do make sure you check that out However going back to this quotation the first word-level analysis you want to do here is the metaphor talking about how she's got a roving Eye she's always checking out other men the second word-level analysis you want to do here is hyperbole all the time and everybody again She's so unable to control her sexuality. She just wants to sleep around with everyone Okay, the other quotation to remember with Curly's wife's character is when she's now Confessing to Lennie she's talking to him about her dream and the dream of course was to be in the Hollywood movies Okay, and she has almost this adolescent rage at not being able to fulfill her dreams And she says that she met somebody he was in the pictures ellipses. I was a natural ellipses. I never got that letter This is describing a man that she met who was in the Hollywood films He was somehow connected. He then told her. Oh, you know, you're a natural you you can be such an amazing actress And then he promised her when he went back to Hollywood that he would write a letter to invite her over And of course she confesses that she never got that letter her dream was crushed Okay, now the word level analysis you want to do here is firstly the declarative sentence I was a natural, okay And of course also maybe you can focus on the fact that the way The the phonetic way in which Steinbeck describes pictures or rather spells pictures, right p i t c h e r s This illustrates just how to some degree uneducated Curly's wife is but equally just how innocent She really is she believes that you know if it wasn't for maybe her mom hiding a letter Which of course never arrived. She would have been in Hollywood films Okay, she really believes as an outsider that she was destined for greatness But of course the irony is that she never does ever get, you know famous She never becomes an actress and of course we never even know her name The other key quotations to remember with Curly's wife's character is when she states So I married Curly in this case. She confesses that she basically just Settled she didn't have very many options And of course what this is being used to show is just how few options and alternatives existed for women in 1930s America and of course the word level analysis you want to do here is the verb married The second to last quotation want to remember for Curly's wife's character is now this is the dark side of her nature She upholds the very same structure that keeps her down and this is when she threatens Crooks the Negro stable buck. She says I could get you strong up on a tree And the word level analysis here you want to focus on is strong, which is a violent verb And this is an illusion to how women in America during the segregation period when Black people were kept separately to white people. They would often as a way to try and maybe control black men and Of course black men are also seen as threats to their virginity and their purity if they accuse them of rape The men would get summarily executed. There would be basically hung on trees They would be lynched and so Curly's wife is basically telling crooks that he's spoken out of turn when he asked her to leave His room and she tells him and threatens him that I could get you strong up in a tree And of course is what makes her a bit of a complicated and complex figure She says this and maybe this news is a bit of our sympathy for her The final quotation is the description of how she looked her innocent appearance once she's died So once Lenny has smothered her and how she looks after she's died and the quotation here is she looks pretty and simple ellipsis Curls tiny little sausages and here you want to focus on the in terms of word level analysis You want to focus on the metaphor her curls her hair being little tiny sausages tiny little sausages now here This metaphor is showing that Curly's wife at heart is a very innocent woman Who's been corrupted and betrayed by such a difficult ranch atmosphere and of course again This makes her seem like a very sympathetic figure in death So that's it when it comes to Curly's wife and the key quotation to remember for her character