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... Lennie makes the mistake, which leads to his death. He strokes the hair of Curley's wife, at her invitation, but does it too roughly; she panics and tries to cry out, and Lennie shakes her violently, breaking her neck. There is no proper asylum for Lennie: Curley is vengeful, but even if he could be restrained, Lennie would face life in a degrading and cruel institution - a mental hospital, prison or home for the criminally insane. George's killing of Lennie, supported by Slim is the most merciful course of action; You had, George. I swear you had.
Page 113, Arrow Classics In the novel's final subdivision we have an interesting insight into Lennie's thought. Until now we have had to read his mind from his words and actions. Here, Steinbeck describes how first his Aunt Clara and second an imaginary talking rabbit, lecture Lennie on his stupidity and failure to respect George. From this we see how, in his confused fashion, Lennie does understand, and try to cope with, his mental weakness. George is called a smart little guy by Slim, but corrects this view, as he also corrects the idea that Lennie is a cuckoo: a lunatic - Lennie is quite sane; his weakness is a lack of intelligence. George's modesty is not false - he is bright enough to know that he isn't especially intelligent.
If he were smart, he says, I wouldn't be backing' barley for my fifty and found (which means $US 50 per month, with free board and lodging). George is not stupid, but there is no real opportunity for self-advancement, as might be achieved in the west today by education. He is, in a simple way, imaginative: his picture of the small-holding he and Lennie will one day own, is clearly-drawn and vivid, while some of the phrases have a near-poetic quality in their simplicity, as when he begins; Guys like us... are the loneliest guys in the world. Page 14, Arrow Classics Lennie is a burden to George, who frequently shows irritation and, sometimes, outright anger to him. But it is clear that George is not going to leave him.
What began vaguely as a duty, after the death of Lennie's Aunt Clara, has become a way of life: there is companionship and trust in this relationship, which makes it almost unique among the ranch-hands. George confesses to Slim how he once abused this trust by making Lennie perform degrading tricks; but after Lennie nearly drowned, having (although not able to swim) jumped, on George's orders, into the Sacramento River, George has stopped taking advantage of Lennie's simplicity. At the end of the novella George confronts a great moral dilemma, and acts decisively, killing Lennie as a last act of friendship. We can see between the two novels friendship is a key theme. If we neglect friendship, the novels and characters would not be able to assimilate with each other. Great Expectations would end in loneliness, and the failure of Pip, without the aid of the kind and benevolent Joe.
Of Mice and Men would end in tragedy and the guilt of George for allowing Lennie to be handed over to the authorities. The next similarity in the themes, is the nature of different characters, disregarding the four main characters already discussed over the two novels. Across the two novels where there are heroes, there are oppressors. In Great Expectations Mrs. Joe is somewhat of a caricature: even Joe, her husband, admits that she is rather bony and red-faced. She is a busy housewife, but her exertions are made it seems mainly to satisfy her own inflated notions of her status, to make Pip and Joe suffer, and to seek credit for bringing Pip up "by hand." Her presence makes the forge a less welcome place.
Her sharp tongue provokes an apt comment from Orlick, and indirectly leads to her injury at his hand, and early death. In terms of the plot, she brings Joe together with both Pip and Biddy, before obligingly dying. She is not much missed. In Of Mice and Men, Mrs. Joe Gargerys equal is Curley. Curley, husband to Curley's Wife, is a rather two-dimensional villain.
Conscious of his own failings, he tries to earn respect by picking fights, but is vain, boastful and aggressive. He suspects everyone of laughing at him. His wife's behaviour ensures that they do laugh, even Candy. Curley can only communicate through aggression. He marries to impress the men with his sexual prowess and to boast to his wife about how he will give the ol' one-two to his opponents.
All the other characters are important for their dealings with George and Lennie, but some are worthy of comment in their own right. Unlike all the other characters, however, is the broad-minded Slim. This man is not just a hired labourer, but also a craftsman as he drives a team of horses. He is the prince of the ranch and he is regarded as an authority. For most of the novel he is a detached figure who observes Lennie and George's relationship. At one point he is called to make a judgement, when he decides that Candy's dog should be shot.
By listening to George in the ranch house, Slim allows him to reveal a great deal about his relations with Lennie, and to describe incidents from their past. The sagacious and truthful character can be somewhat equated to Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations. He himself can be used to compare the kindness of Biddy to Joe, as he is to Pip in Great Expectations. Herbert, like Biddy, is somewhat idealized in Dickens' portrayal. He is, like Biddy, deferential and considerate. When we meet him, he is seeking employment, and "looking about him" for an opening.
In this he seems rather ineffectual, perhaps he is not assertive enough, but given the opening in Carrier's House. Here we can see some affability has come from Pips fortune. Herbert works with great industry, and fulfils the Victorian dream: a little capital creates a business, trading in the east, which eventually brings moderate wealth to Herbert and to Pip. Herbert's courtship of Clara is a conveniently ideal relationship against which to judge Pip's problems with Estella, and Clara is somewhat of a clich, with her mild manners and her tyrannical father, who dies at just the right time.
Herbert is important to the plot, as a link with Miss Havisham and Pip's past, in his loyally helping Pip with Magwitch, and in his rescuing Pip from Orlick. In London he becomes Pip's intimate confidant, as Biddy has been hitherto. An important trio in Of Mice and Men is Candy, Crooks and Curley's Wife. For these characters, dreams and hopes are the only positive notion they have in their life.
Candy is an old man, reduced to cleaning the bunkhouse after losing his hand in an accident at work...
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