What are the differences and similarities between Lennie and Curley's wife in "Of Mice and Men"?

I had to cut down the original question text, as there
were multiple questions present.  They are all real interesting and I encourage you to
repost them separately.  In my mind, I think that Lennie and Curley's wife being along
at the start of Chapter 5 is significant because it brings together two fairly sad
creatures in one instant.  Lennie's hopes of a life where he can "tend the rabbits" and
be surrounding with creature that allow him to enjoy a state of being in the world are
set against Curley's wife's dream of being in "pitchers" and being someone of importance
and significance.  In this particular instant, the striking similarity of their dreams
and their own potential for loneliness because of their dreams' denial is brought out in
full force.  At the same time, the differences between them is also present in that
Lennie does not possess bitterness about the deferral of his dreams.  Perhaps, this is
because he lacks the capacity for it.  Yet, Curley's wife is bitter and she is
distraught that her own dreams were not recognized.  I think that another significant
difference that is evoked in chapter 5 is how Curley's wife lives her life with the
consciousness of her dreams being negated, while Lennie possesses the childhood
innocence that at some point, in some way, his dreams can be fulfilled.  The moment
where both of them interact through touch is one where neither one understands the
vulnerability of the other, and where Steinbeck might be asserting that the cost of the
denial of our dreams could be our ability to understand another person's own pain when
they experience what we have.