Sweat Summary & Analysis

This scene introduces Delia as a hard worker. Sykes’ cruelty to Delia sets the tone for their relationship throughout the story, showing Sykes to be abusive and sadistic. The specific trick he plays on her, using his whip to mimic a snake, sets up snakes as threats and associates both the snake and Sykes’ abuse with the Christian concept of sin.

Sykes continues his abuse of Delia by expressing frustration with her work, although her work reminds him of their position as poor black people in a racist and segregated society. His effort to twist Delia’s Christian belief against her fails because she is more interested in behaving virtuously and making ends meet than in his opinion.

While Delia usually embodies meekness as a virtue, she is no longer willing to accept Sykes’ threats towards her. Her years of hard work to build and maintain their home have brought her a sense of well-earned pride. Sykes, not knowing how to deal with a victim who fights back, flees the situation. His cowardice contributes to his negative image as a domestic abuser. His flight to somewhere Delia “knew” begins to subtly introduce the idea of knowledge as tied to negativity and sin, as it is implied that Sykes has gone somewhere unpleasant and upsetting to Delia.

This passage explores the effects of abuse on its victims—in Delia’s case, it has harmed her both physically and emotionally. Sykes took advantage of her love and has tried to take everything away from her. Her only hope left is to enjoy the fruits of her many years of hard labor.

Delia’s thoughts in this moment elaborate her Christian belief that Sykes will eventually be punished for his sins. This belief brings her comfort and the ability to emotionally withdraw from the relationship, thus protecting herself from the emotional harm of further disappointment.

Here readers see that Delia’s hard work and Sykes’ abuse are both well known in the community. Further, the villagers confirm the moral values set up in the opening scene of the story: Sykes’s behavior is unacceptable, and Delia is simply doing her best. Although these men live in the same poor black town as Delia, not everyone here has to work quite so hard. Sykes has made her life exceptionally difficult.

The men in this conversation do not consider domestic abuse to be normal, and they struggle to understand why Sykes would disrespect Delia so thoroughly. Joe Clarke’s explanation illustrates the way that abusers may treat their victims as objects rather than people. This group of men appears to see both infidelity and abuse as worthy of punishment, as might be consistent with a Christian moral framework, since they include Sykes’ mistress in the call to action.

Despite their good intentions, even people who see the wrongness of abuse are often unwilling to intercede. Instead, they decide to reap the benefits of community collaboration in the form of a shared melon. Although they are living under the same conditions of poverty and segregation as Delia, they are able to rely on their social bonds to access things they might not be able to afford on their own. They express their disapproval of Sykes through social exclusion rather than direct action.

Sykes demonstrates that his taking a mistress is, at least in part, simply one more way of being cruel to Delia. He also seems to enjoy playing the role of the benefactor in his relationship, suggesting that Delia’s independent income from work may be threatening to his ego. Once again, the village men’s disapproval of Sykes becomes disapproval of his mistress.

Here readers see that Sykes’ abuse of Delia has shifted towards trying to get rid of her. He considers himself entitled to the house, despite all the sweat the she has poured into its maintenance. The fact that only one boarding house in town will take Bertha further drives home the community’s disapproval of Sykes’ abuse and infidelity.

Delia continues to struggle against poverty as well as the emotional difficulties of her position. The mentions of suffering at Gethsemane and Calvary connect Delia to Biblical accounts of Christ’s suffering prior to his crucifixion. She unquestionably has the moral high ground in this scenario, while Bertha and Sykes’ attempts to torment her are morally reprehensible.

The rattlesnake represents an escalation of Sykes’ abuse of Delia, from a false snake to the real thing. All the people around Sykes warn him of its danger, but he will not listen, In Christian iconography, snakes are associated with the Devil and with temptation towards sin. In the book of Genesis, for example, the serpent tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, leading to Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden. By recalling this story with the snake as a tool for Sykes’ cruelty, Hurston foreshadows a coming downfall.

Both the snake and Delia “warn” Sykes to change his behavior in their own ways. Like Delia shedding her meek demeanor, the snake awakens from its sluggish state and starts to rattle. Sykes continues to demonstrate his cruelty and cowardice by fleeing rather than doing anything that might actually resolve the situation. Delia’s righteous anger is enough to chase him off for a while, but not to inspire him to change his ways. The snake as a danger and as a symbol of sin remains.

Delia continues to find comfort in Christianity, and her lightness of heart brings a renewed hope for positive change. Perhaps the snake (and the evil abuse that it symbolizes) is really gone! Her long experience of Sykes’ behavior, however, brings Delia back down to reality.

As always, Delia wants to return to her work, which brings her comfort and stability in the midst of a difficult life. In a horrifying mirror of the opening scene, she is interrupted by a real snake and forced to flee to safety. The danger may have been invisible at first, but it was still there.

Delia has to process the latest deadly manifestation of Sykes’ abuse. Much like her experience of building a “spiritual earthworks,” she returns to the conclusion that none of this is her fault, with the implication that Sykes will have to deal with the consequences of his own actions. On some level, Delia knows that something bad is about to happen.

Instead of going out to meet Sykes, Delia simply watches him arrive. Part of her calm seems to include the decision to let Sykes confront what he has done on his own.

Delia knows that the snake is in the house, but she has given up on trying to do anything for Sykes. Finally he is the one afraid. This moment is, in many ways, a reckoning. After many years of bringing Delia fear and pain, Sykes is now the one to suffer.

Sykes’ confrontation with the rattlesnake is also a moment of coming face to face with the abuse and sin it represents. He brought all of this into the house, damaging his own soul and humanity. Although she knows that Sykes has brought this upon himself, Delia struggles to turn aside because she is a compassionate person at heart.

By the time Sykes is bitten by the snake, Delia cannot change course. She has left him to “reap his sowing” as she thought early in the story, and both of them have come into horrible knowledge. The emphasis on knowing in this final scene once again evokes the Book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve’s fall from God’s grace. By eating the forbidden fruit, they gained the knowledge of good and evil, and thus could no longer be innocent. In Delia and Sykes’ case, a snake has also brought knowledge and a downfall. While Delia will now be free of Sykes’ abuse, witnessing his death is its own loss of innocence, and she is pained by it even while she knows she was justified in not intervening.