, rouged lips her fingernails were red wore a cotton house dress and red mules, " The way Steinbeck describes how Curley's wife is dressed suggests she is promiscuous, since her characteristics of clothing and cosmetics might be worn by a prostitute; some of her movements also reinforce the idea of her being promiscuous, such as ". leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward." which she does to attract them and call their attention. This scene adds up to the feeling of danger from Curley's wife's character because it submits that she is going to be trouble for Lennie; we see he can't control himself from looking at her "Lennie watched her, fascinated.". Danger is confirmed when George says "Jesus, what a tramp" (32) and follows on by telling Lennie: "Don't you even take a look at that bitch.". The image received from Curley's wife is of a tramp and we perceive her as danger.
Further on in the novel we can see Curley's wife's insecurities. She threatens Crooks when she's in the barn in presence of Candy and Lennie: "Listen, Nigger You know what I could do? I could get you strung upon a tree so easy it ain't even funny" (39) This can also be a reflection on how Curley acts over his wife, which is not completely visible in the novel but we can deduce this by how angry Curley is all the time and how overprotective he is with her. The way Curley's wife acts over others inferior to her, such as a black person suggests that she wants a feeling of superiority and also consolidate her position in society, making her feel superior to Crooks. We also get an insight of how lonely she is in this scene "Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever' once in a while?" (38), we can also see how some characters such as Curley's wife takes her loneliness up on others such as Crooks by threatening him, while Crooks, who is also extremely lonely, swallows his feeling of loneliness.