What Are The Similarities Between Sweat And The Story Of An Hour

“There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they had a right to impose a private will upon a fellow- creature,” quoted from The Story of an Hour written by Kate Chopin. The stories being compared are Sweat, written by Zora Neale Hurston and The Story of an Hour, written by Kate Chopin. The stories have similarities and differences, but Sweat and The Story of an Hour both have the same underlining theme. Both stories reveal relationships with one person having more power over the other. In this essay, I will be arguing the story Sweat has a better developed theme than The Story of an Hour.
First,

I will discuss how Sweat developed the theme of power struggle and gender roles in human relationships. In the opening paragraph of Sweat Delia, one of the main characters is doing laundry, her husband Sykes comes up behind her with his bull whip. Sykes knows this action will scare Delia because Sykes bull whip looks like a snake and Delia is afraid of snakes. Delia says to Sykes, “Sykes what you throw that whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me – look just like a snake, an you knows hows skeered ah is of snakes.”
In contrast, the author of The Story of an Hour did not reveal enough about the characters’ lives.

The author vaguely shows Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s relationship. As a reader of this story I know Mrs. Mallard thinks her husband has died from a train accident. When Mrs. Mallard received the news she felt grief and relief; she loved her husband but she was happy because her life would be her own. The author says, “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” In Sweat the power struggle between Delia and Sykes is seen through all the vindictive things that Sykes has done to Delia. In The Story of an Hour the power struggle is not seen, readers must draw their own conclusion, as to how Mr. Mallard treats Mrs.

Mallard.
In the middle of the story, Sykes brings home a raddle snake.

Delia did not notice the box with the snake in it at first, once Sykes points it out Delia was instantly afraid. She asked Sykes to get rid of it but he said, “Ah ain’t got to do nuthin’ uh de kin’-fact is ah ain’t got tuh do nothin’ but die.” The people in town later heard about the snake and soon came to see and ask questions.
In Sweat, Delia and Sykes are always having problems with power struggles and good verses evil. Sykes has a mistress named Bertha, and he always shows her around town. Sykes tells her he owns the town and he can get her anything she wants. Meanwhile, Delia sits back and watches as Sykes treats Bertha like a queen. In the story, Sykes says, “Sho’ you kin have dat lil’ ole house soon’s ah git dat ‘Oman outa dere. Everything b’longs tuh me….”
In the final analysis, the author of The Story of an Hour did not reveal enough evidence of a power struggle between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard. Both stories discussed in this essay were written during times when women were treated as property, they had to: cook, clean, and do whatever their husband told them to. Women’s roles have drastically changed since the publication of these stories, women can run there own businesses, and make their own decisions. while some husbands’ roles have changed to become, a” house husband”, they cook, clean, and tend to the

children.