Sweat: Themes | SparkNotes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Rights and Responsibilities Within a Marriage

Through Delia and Sykes, Hurston provides an example of a marriage that is broken because the husband demands his rights without meeting his responsibilities. Sykes believes he is entitled to a wife who submits to his will. He tries to control Delia, insisting in the opening scene that she not work on Sundays and later in the story that she live with the rattlesnake he has captured. He also believes he is entitled to control over their house, despite the fact that Delia has earned the money to buy and improve it. He feels that he is owed these things as the husband, but being the husband also comes with responsibilities that Sykes fails to meet; he does not earn money to help support them and is both brutally abusive and unfaithful to his wife.

As indicated by the conversation between the men on Joe Clarke’s porch, Sykes’s behavior is outside the bounds of acceptable behavior for a husband in their community. The men describe him as failing in his duties as a husband by beating Delia, by being unable to provide for her, and by spending his money and kind attention on Bertha. Early in the story, Delia considers the broken state of their marriage, remembering the many ways Sykes has not done his part in their relationship. By the end of the story, she has come firmly to the conclusion that the things that have gone wrong in their marriage are not her fault. With her description of Sykes and others’ reactions to his behavior, Hurston demonstrates to the reader that the rights of marriage are tied to meeting its responsibilities.

The Importance of Home and Belonging

The importance of home and belonging is best highlighted by Delia’s connection to her house and garden. Ownership of the house is the major point of conflict between Sykes and Delia. Sykes has more interest in obtaining the house than in maintaining his marriage, and he promises Bertha he will get the house for her. Hurston makes it clear that Delia’s claim to the house is stronger than Sykes’s, because Delia has paid for the house with her wages, created the garden with her labor, and continues to care for it in everyday ways, such as making sure there are matches ready by the stove. Sykes wants to keep the house, but he does not want to do the work that makes the house a home. Indeed, Sykes makes the house less safe and therefore less of a home by bringing in the snake, first to the outside stairs and ultimately inside. It is a fitting end to this conflict that Sykes’s actions lead to his death, inside the house but unprotected by it, while Delia finds sanctuary first in the loft of the barn, then among her flowers, and finally under her Chinaberry tree—all things that she herself has cared for and cultivated.

True Christian Faith versus Hypocrisy

By comparing Sykes’s relationship to Christianity to Delia’s, Hurston develops a theme of true faith versus hypocrisy. At the opening of the story, Hurston establishes Delia as devoted to her religion. In the opening scene, Delia’s devotion to her faith is made clear by the fact that she is only getting home from church at eleven o’clock at night. When Sykes returns home even later and objects to Delia breaking the Sabbath by working on Sunday night, he accuses her of hypocrisy, although it is evident that Hurston intends to show him as the truly hypocritical one. While Sykes uses religion only as a means to attack Delia, Delia’s faith sustains her. She finds ways to separate herself spiritually from Sykes. She changes churches so that she can worship without his disruptions and feels such relief from her marital troubles after attending services that she continues singing a spiritual as she drives home and begins to work.

Sykes embodies the mortal sins of pride, lust, greed, wrath, and sloth, while Delia is humble, chaste, patient, and industrious. Early in the story, Delia comforts herself that Sykes’s evil behavior will come to hurt him, stating “whatever goes over the Devil’s back has got to come under his belly,” meaning that since he has allied himself with evil, he will eventually be hurt by it. The end of the story shows that Delia was right, as Sykes is killed by the snake. Delia refers to the particular snake as “ol’ satan” and “ol’ scratch,” aligning it with the devil in her mind. Although Sykes cries out to God, no help comes to him, while Delia rests safely in the garden. In this way, Hurston draws a contrast between Delia’s true faith and Sykes’s hypocrisy.

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