Three traits of Curley's wife (with quotes and explanation)
1) Flirtatious / attention-seeking
"She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red."
Steinbeck’s physical description (Chapter 2) shows how Curley’s wife presents herself to get attention from the ranch men. Her clothing and makeup mark her out as someone who wants to be noticed; the men repeatedly respond to her as a sexual presence rather than as a person, which shapes how readers interpret her behavior.
2) Lonely and isolated
"I get lonely,' she said. 'You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad."
This admission (spoken to the men in the barn) makes explicit why she seeks conversation and attention: she is isolated on the ranch and controlled by Curley. Her flirtatiousness is partly a symptom of genuine loneliness — she wants human contact and someone to listen.
3) Regretful / ambitious (dreams of a different life)
"I coulda made somethin' of myself."
When she tells Lennie and others that she "coulda" had a different life — even a career in the movies — she reveals ambition and deep regret. This line shows she is more than a stereotype: she once had hopes and recognizes how limited and trapped her current life is on the ranch.
How these traits matter
Taken together, the traits explain her actions and her tragic role: her need for attention and her loneliness drive her to seek company in unsafe ways; her regret and trapped status make her more sympathetic and humanize her beyond the men’s crude judgments. These features of her character also help set up the novel’s climax, when her attempt to talk and be noticed has catastrophic consequences.
Tip for essays: Use one quoted passage per paragraph, explain how the language (words, imagery, or dialogue) shows the trait, and then link that trait to the plot or theme (isolation, the American Dream, powerlessness).