The Problems Of Marriage In Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

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Recommended: The impact of gender inequality

Marriage is problematic for women more than it is for men. Women are submissive while men dominant. This dominance given to men give them total control over the activities in which their wives participate. Women often occupy their time with activities in their homes and family. During the early 1900s, women are discriminated against; they aren 't expected to work. They aren 't allowed to talk finances or to make financial decisions. Women are to depend on the men in their life. Women are not independent, the jobs they have are their motherly and wifely duties. With these duties, men are available and able to have an extramarital affair. Therefore, women face more difficulties in a marriage because they never had the chance to be heard. …show more content…

Sykes, Delia 's husband, doesn 't care about her feelings. “Anything like flowers had long been drowned in the salty stream that had pressed from her heart.”(Hurston 177). She has no good memories between them, all she could remember are the assaults which affect her physical appearance and breaks her emotionally.Their marriage is loveless, with the constant abuse Delia has given up on love. She is more interested in having a bond, but her husband just wants power over her. Delia will try to avoid arguments by being nice, but inevitably Sykes will always get his way. “ Kill 'im Sykes, please. Doan ask me tuh do nothin ' fuh yuh. Goin ' roun ' tryin ' tuh be so damn astorperious.Naw, ah ain 't gonna kill it."(Hurston 181). Sykes doesn’t respect Delia or her house. He wants to have control over Delia 's house, and for her to leave so his mistress could move in. Sykes got a snake, which gives him control over his wife since she fears them. Sykes isn’t responsible for Delia 's finances so he lost his masculinity in their marriage. Males are seen as authoritative; They are usually the ones who would work. Delia has a sense of independence because she works, which seems as if she is degrading Sykes since he did not have a job. His abuse doesn 't make Delia respect him any more than she did before nor did it make her want to leave her

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