The fact that Curley's wife is not given a name foreshadows her own isolation.
In fact, probably reason why she is not given a name, is because she is totally
hidden from the world and nobody knows her as anyone else. She is always
referred to as Curley's wife, a ghost to the world. This emphasizes her complete
isolation form the rest of the characters in the novel. She is a character
without sympathy, but she can be vicious. She is a victim of an empty life, and
a meaningless one. Meaningless due to the fact that she discovers that her
husband "ain't a nice fella," and that there is no one to care for
her. She has wonderful dreams of being a Hollywood star, but all her dreams are
crushed by the insensitivity towards her shown by the other characters. She is
forever isolated on a ranch with a "bunch of bindle bums," to live out
her days as a slave to loneliness. However, her loneliness and boredom lead her
to discover that Lennie is the one responsible that broke Curley's hand. She
approaches Lennie several times, and Lennie tries to avoid her, but later
sympathizes with her over the loss of his pup. At which point a terrible
coincidence appears. They both like soft things; this is when Lennie is invited
to feel how soft her hair is. This invitation seals the fate of a lonely girl's
soul to an early death. Now the novel takes a step toward a tragedy. With the
killing of Curley's wife, Lennie has signed his own death warrant. At the end of
the novel, loneliness is displayed one last time. I believe, now that Lennie is
gone; George is doomed to suffer the same fate as Curley's wife. A life of
complete isolation, both from his new friends and the world. George will
disappear, just as his dream of his own ranch did when Lennie was killed.