Summary: The Purple Rose Of Cairo

In literature there are a lot of themes, some more noticeable than others. One very important theme that is prominent in a movie and two short stories: The Purple Rose of Cairo, Of Mice and Men, and The Necklace, is being a female in a male-driven and controlled society. In ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’, Cecilia is married to Monk, who is an abusive alcoholic as well as a cheater. Monk doesn’t let her have a say in anything and demands that she give him every penny she makes from waitressing, so he can lose it while gambling. In the beginning of the movie, Cecilia leaves Monk and makes it to the city tavern only to go home once she sees a group of women standing outside of it, talking about what they could do to the guys that night to make some
Her character is constantly seen as a hoe or slut because she was always seeking attention or companionship from the ranch hands, who were the only other people available to her. On page 33 when she came in claiming to be looking for Curley and obviously just hanging around out of boredom, George became really rude and brushed her off. When she had finally exited the room he said to Lennie, “Jesus, what a tramp.” Another incident similar to that was on page 51, when George and Whit were playing solitaire and the topic of Curley’s wife came up. After Whit explains the situation between Curley and his wife, George responds with, “She’s gonna make a mess. They’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, ‘specially like her.” George is implying that because Curley’s wife is a woman she can’t control herself when it comes to being around other men. When Lenny and Candy were sitting around in Crooks’ room, Curley’s wife stopped by to ask if they’d seen Curley, knowing full well that he’d gone to Susy’s place with the other guys. Candy tried to accuse her of cheating by saying, “You gotta a husban’. You got no call foolin’ aroun’ with other guys, causin’ trouble.” Given the fact that Curley’s wife didn’t have a name, goes to show how women were basically
In the story it says, “With no dowry, no prospects, no way of any kind of being met, understood, loved, and married by a man both prosperous and famous, she was finally married to a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education.” Your family’s financial status determined your future; if you had a lot of money you’d have a rich husband, if you didn’t have a lot of money you’d be married off to a man of the same status. Mathilde didn’t like where she was at on the social ladder and “she grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living”. She couldn’t control where she was at though because, as stated before, your status was based off of your husband’s. “For women have no family rank or social class.” The women like Mathilde, trapped in a class they didn’t like or felt they deserved, had no way of changing it or moving higher up. Once you were born into the class you more than likely didn’t make it out, unless you were a lucky one and married your way