Sweat

Sweat Summary | Detailed Summary

"Sweat" is the short story of Delia Jones, a Negro washerwoman whose struggles against society and her own husband finally erupt into an act of passive aggression, totally changing the complexion of her life.

As the story opens, Delia Jones sorts clothes on the kitchen floor of her home. It is eleven o'clock on a Sunday evening in July in a small town in Florida. Mondays are long days for Delia, who earns her money as a washerwoman. This Sunday night ritual helps to ease her burden for the next day.

Delia is content and hums to herself all the while wondering where her husband, Sykes, is and why he has not returned with her horse and cart. As Delia is lost in her own thoughts, a long, black, limp object touches her shoulder, and she screams with fright. Realizing it is a bullwhip and not a snake, Delia relaxes a little bit and screams at her husband for creating fear in her.

Sykes is contemptuous of Delia for her industriousness and for being thin, and he enjoys scaring her. Sykes calls out Delia's two-faced position of going to church all day on Sunday and then washing the clothes of white people on Sunday night. Delia has her weekly schedule of picking up and delivering laundry on Saturdays, and it takes her all week to complete her work.

Sykes kicks the sorted clothes together on the floor, and Delia erupts at the behavior. Delia has taken Sykes' physical and mental abuse for the fifteen years of their marriage and has reached her limit. The sweat of Delia's work built the house, and she has fixed it the way she likes it, complete with every tree and flower planted. Delia picks up a frying pan as a threat to Sykes and tells him that he and his newest girlfriend will not get any piece of Delia's home.

Sykes does not know how to respond to this newly assertive Delia and taunts her for being too skinny before leaving to be with his fat girlfriend. Delia curls her tiny self up in the big featherbed and realizes that she can no longer hope for love in light of all the abuse and infidelity from Sykes. Her little house is all she has to hold onto. Delia is awakened by Sykes, who roughly kicks her feet and pulls the covers from her in the bed, but Delia is now resolved to ignore her abusive husband.

On the next Saturday morning, the regular customers at Joe Clarke's general store are sitting on the store's porch and watch Delia pass by in her cart as she makes her laundry deliveries. The men conclude that Delia is a fine, hard-working woman and surely deserves better than the likes of Sykes Jones for a husband. One of the men comments that he would have married Delia himself if Sykes had not found her first.

The men do not condone Sykes' laziness, abusive behavior and infidelity and would like to take Sykes and his new girlfriend out into the swamp and kill them or at least beat them senseless. Realizing that this idea is just talk, the men change the subject and ask Joe Clarke to bring out a cold watermelon. The refreshment must wait, however, when the sight of Sykes and his girlfriend approaching the store makes the men scatter.

Sykes offers to buy anything in the store for his new woman, Bertha, just as Delia is passing by on her way home, and it pleases Sykes that Delia has caught sight of him buying things for Bertha. After the pair leaves, the men return to the porch and resume their watermelon feast. The men know that Sykes has paid Bertha's rent at Della Lewis' boarding house for three months and has promised Bertha his house as soon as he can get Delia out of it.

Delia's humiliation knows no end, and she avoids people in town because of what they know about her and Sykes. The summer continues to swelter into August, and Delia's life is nothing but sweat and work. Then, one day she returns home, and Sykes blocks her from entering the house. Delia sees a box on the porch and realizes that it is a wooden crate with a wire grate over the top.

Sykes pretends that the contents of the box are a gift for Delia, who screams and nearly faints when she realizes there is a six-foot rattlesnake inside. Knowing Delia's fear of snakes, Sykes finds the situation extremely amusing and will not get rid of the reptile despite Delia's repeated pleas. Sykes even takes every opportunity to show the snake to some of the men in town, and his prowess in taming reptiles makes him feel superior.

One evening during supper, Delia tells Sykes that she has endured his beatings and his running around with other women for all their married life, but she will not tolerate the snake in her house any longer. Once more Sykes is shocked by Delia's assertiveness and retorts that he hates Delia and is tired of being with her. Delia returns the insults and warns Sykes that she will tell the white people if he ever touches her violently again.

Sykes leaves the house and does not return, leaving Delia alone on Sunday morning to attend the all-day church service in peace. When Delia returns home, the snake is quiet in its crate, and Delia can sense that another woman has been in her house. Delia lights a lamp and begins her Sunday night laundry ritual. She recoils in horror to find the rattler in her hamper of dirty clothes.

Delia stands paralyzed in terror and watches the snake coil onto the bed. Finally finding the strength to move, Delia runs to the kitchen where the wind blows out her lamp. Delia finds her way to the hayloft in the barn before she can feel safe again. Delia recovers her wits and lies in the hay thinking about her life. She finally falls asleep.

Delia wakes in the morning to the sounds of Sykes destroying the snake's crate. Delia watches from the hayloft as Sykes stands for a few moments at the kitchen door before entering the house. Moving stealthily now, Delia climbs down from her perch in the barn and moves to peer into the bedroom window. Delia knows that the sounds coming from Sykes moving in the house will awaken the rattlesnake.

Sykes does not hear the snake as he tries to find a match to light the lamp. Not able to see the snake in the darkness, Sykes jumps up on the bed, and Delia can hear Sykes' screams of horror as the snake attacks its owner. Delia feels ill from the sounds coming from the bedroom window, and she crawls to one of her flowerbeds to lie still. Sykes calls out for help, but Delia stays silent.

Finally, Delia moves toward the house, and she can hear Sykes' voice rise hopefully as she approaches. Delia is struck by the horror of Sykes' constricting throat and swollen eye. She runs outside to wait for Sykes to die with the realization that Delia has known all along what was happening to her husband.