Curley’s wife’s internal conflict is that she is lonely, and her external conflict is with the men who ignore her.
Curley's wife really does not do anything bad to anybody. Her biggest sin is that she is a tease. However, part of what the men see as her being a tease is just her desperation for any human contact. She is very lonely. What is her name? We don’t even know. It symbolizes her voicelessness and powerlessness.
The swamper stood up from his box. “Know what I think?” George did not answer. “Well, I think Curley’s married . . . . a tart.”
“He ain’t the first,” said George. “There’s plenty done that.” (Ch. 2)
Curley’s wife tries to talk to Candy, and Lennie. She is constantly walking around looking for her husband, but just because it gives her an excuse to talk to people. She is irritated with the men because they avoid her. She feels like she deserves to have people to talk to.
Curley’s wife had dreams. She wanted to be a movie star. She even got a man to convince her that he could get her into movies. It didn’t happen.
“’Nother time I met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. … He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.” She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him. “I never got that letter,” she said. (Ch. 5)
In the end, Curley’s wife meets an untimely death. I guess you could say that her internal conflict put her in danger. She had an external conflict with Lennie because he killed her, but he did not mean to. He just wanted to stroke her soft hair, and pushed so hard he broke her neck.
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