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Sykes, Delia’s husband, is a proud, cruel, and fickle man. He beats Delia, cheats on her with Bertha and others, and takes pleasure in terrifying her with snakes. Not only does he rely on Delia to pay for the house and living expenses, but he also undermines her work at every opportunity. Sykes is selfish, taking the matches needed for the house to Bertha, and leaving only one for Delia to use to light her lamp. He treats Bertha nicely, paying her rent, taking her to dances, and buying her treats at Joe Clarke’s store, but according to the men outside the store, he treated Delia well in the early days of their relationship, too, only turning mean once he had tired of her. 

Sykes has a childish need to be the center of attention, kicking over Delia’s laundry piles to start a fight with her and bragging to the other men about his skill at snake handling. Even the gifts he buys Bertha seem less an effort to please her than to anger Delia. Sykes’s pride leads to his downfall, as he dies after being bitten by the snake he has brought into the house to intimidate Delia. He believes he can control the snake just as he has spent years controlling Delia, but in the end he cannot control either of them.

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