Abuse Of Women In Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

One out of three women in the U.S. will be abused. These women are most likely abused in a relationship with their significant other. The abuse can be verbal, physical, or mental. After building a life with someone for so long it’s quite often hard for these women to leave the abusive relationship. According to Psychology Today, women stay in abusive relationships because they are trapped in dependency, lack funds and need support systems. Zora Neale Hurston is a short story writer, whose works of fiction focuses on the mistreatment of women. In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, the dynamic protagonist, Delia Jones, decides whether she should continue to live miserably with her abusive husband or claim newfound freedom without him.

They’re an unhappy, black married couple that would fight all the time, sleep and eat in silence. All the while, Delia attempts a “timid friendliness”, but because of the way Sykes treats her, she’d become “repulsive each time” (Kennedy and Gioia 282). For example, when Delia is resting in bed, her husband “announces his presence in bed by kicking her feet and rudely snatching the covers away” (279). Sykes abused Delia in ways such as tormenting her by throwing a bull whip at her as his way of scaring her. “A great terror took hold of her” as this bull whip symbolizes a motionless version of a snake, its “long, round, limp, and black…slithered to the floor beside her”, revealing her fear of snakes (277). Sykes is the antagonist – the character in the story who has conflicting impulses with the protagonist. He taunts her physically as well as continuing to abuse her mentally by acknowledging that she is afraid of snakes when he says, “Course Ah knowed it! That’s how come Ah done it” (277). However, Delia, the dynamic character – a

Into the first year of their marriage, Delia had experienced her first brutal beating. This “old” Delia was “young and soft then” (279). She realized then that she had truly loved the man she married and instead of leaving, she just tolerated him. Fifteen years later, Delia developed this new attitude that showed when a woman is fed up, she is really fed up. Sykes had gone too far bringing his mistress, Bertha around causing Delia to stand her ground. As usual, Sykes tries to pick a fight with Delia, but it was to his surprise when she finally lashed out on him. She lets him know “Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ fur fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!” (278). In this quote, she stresses the amount of time and effort she put into this relationship that had been broken for a while now. In her defense, she wasn’t the only one who recognized Sykes, the sorry excuse for a man. Everyone in town talks about how Delia works so hard to make a living for Sykes and herself, while he’s out chasing other women. For example, Jim Merchant, a minor character in the story says, “Did Ah tell yuh ‘bout him come sidling’ roun’ mah wife – bringin’ her a basket uh peecans outa his yard fuh a present… She [Merchant’s wife] tol’ him tuh take ‘em right straight back home, ‘cause Delia works so hard ovah