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Character Analysis Of Delia In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

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The measure of who you are is what you do with what you have. So having freedom is measured by the number of things you can walk away from. A person can be forced to change in a way his/her life becomes more tolerable. In Zora Neale Hurston’s "Sweat", there are many conflicts exhibited in many of the moments between Delia and her antagonist husband Skyes. Having an internal dynamic transformation, she turns from a submissive person to an aggressive behavior then to a defiant, strong woman showing that she's not a victim anymore but a survivor.

In the beginning, Delia is a likeable and hardworking woman, but unfortunately faces hardship with her abusive husband. The story opens up with Delia washing clothes as she usually does on Sunday's for work as a wash-woman. So Skyes walks in with a whip knowing she's afraid of snakes and puts it on her shoulder. “She lifted her eyes to the door and saw him standing there bent over with laughter at her fright. She screamed at him."Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me …show more content…

Sykes brings in a real snake and plans to poison Delia by planting a snake in her washing basket knowing that she has a fear of them. “There lay the snake in the basket! He moved sluggishly at first, but even as she turned round and round, jumped up and down in an insanity of fear, he began to stir vigorously” (Hurston 8). She got away and fall asleep in the barn. Not knowing the snake’s whereabouts Sykes walks in and gets bitten. “Fifteen years of misery and suppression had brought Delia to the place where she would hope anything that looked towards a way over or through her wall of inhibitions” (Hurston 7). “She saw him on his hands and knees as soon as she reached the door. Orlando with its doctors was too far” (Hurston 9). It was her way out and karma came into

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