John Steinbeck Essay

Comparison surrounded by the portrayal of women in The Ostler by Wilkie collins and in Of Mice And custody by John Steinbeck In both the stories The Ostler by Wilkie Collins and Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck the authors have used the females, who are Rebecca in The Ostler and Curleys wife in Of Mice and Men to play authorised roles in developing the plot. Both of them considerably shape and alter the lives of those different characters around them. In The Ostler Rebecca is a young lady who meets Isaac and by and by marries him. She totally changes his life.However she has a darker side and later plots to kill him leave Isaac living in fear for his life. Similarly in Of Mice and Men Curleys wife ends up causing the death of maven of the principal characters, Lennie. So we can mold that in both stories the women either threaten or cause the death of a main character. Both the stories were written upright about time ago, the Ostler being the older of the two, written in 18 55. So the Ostler was set in the puritanical age. We know that in the Victorian age there were little opportunities for unmarried women. Rebecca is a good sheath of this.Before she met Isaac she was dependant on drugs. This is suggested on page 11 when Isaac meets Rebecca in the Chemists whilst he is buying medicine for his over comfort. The chemist verbalize Its my opinion theres something wrong with her. Shes been inquire for Laudanum to put on a bad tooth Its a case of suicide, sir, if ever there was i yet. Of Mice and Men was set in the great depression in America. Still there was little fortune for women and most were unfairly treated. Curleys wife is depicted as a l unmatchedly, isolated character who longs to be free from the tight reigns of her husband Curley.She spends ofttimes of her time flirting with the other men on the ranch, hungry for conversation. So in both stories the writers have portrayed the women as unfairly treated. Whether it was one of their aims to make their readers aware of the situation or whether the suggestion is just through their realistic reflection on the society they lived in we cannot tell. Although I wouldnt say that a strong emphasis is placed on the discourse of women and therefore I would argue that it was not their target but just one consequence of the story line.Rebecca is first introduced to us in the poop paragraph on the first page, although we dont know who she is at that point. A detailed definition is given of her, but she is not named. combust grey eyes and a droop in the left lid Flaxen hair with a gold streak in it Fair, etiolated arms with a down in the little ladys hands, with a reddish look under the fingernails However after this description which Isaac is telling us in his sleep, then has a narrative guidepost suggesting that this women is trouble. and the knife always the cursed knife first on one side, then on the other. It is suggested that there will be murder in the story and conveys a horror genre, a style very pop at that time. Similarly, In Of Mice and Men Curleys wife looks are portrayed as dangerous. Although we haer a description of Rebecca, it is only a feature of Isaacs nightmare. The same decription of Rebecca is then repeated when Isaac returns home to his mother and tells her of his intake. His mother writes the inside information down so that she doesnt forget them. His mother seems to be a suspicious women who believes the dream had a deeper significance and that it was a prophecy that Isaac would one twenty-four hours be killed by the women of the dream.It isnt until some time later, when his mother falls ill and he goes to the chemist, that he meets a lady who we begin is called Rebecca, although Isaac doesnt recognize her from his dream. He thinks she will commit suicide so in an attempt to prevent her taking her life and also because he is strangely attracted to her, he plans to marry her. When he introduces Rebecca his mother recog nizes her to be the women of the dream and tries to call off the marriage. However the marriage goes ahead. So you can see what a big part her looks played. It was her looks that first caused conflict in the marriage.Rebecca, who is revoke that Isaacs mother, Mrs. Scatchard, does not like her, tries to be friendly towards his mother. However the kinship between Isaac and Rebecca deteriorates and when Isaac discovers Rebecca has bought a new knife, one like that of the dream and demands that he keeps the knife. This further upsets Rebecca and they get into a fight and she leaves. Isaac lived in fear wonder if she return and try to kill him like in the dream. He takes precautions to protect himself. Then one day she returns and tries to kill him. So he leaves. From that day forward he lived in fear.