sweat
...r. “Dat niggah wouldn’t fetch nothin’ heah tuh save his rotten neck, but he kin run thew whut Ah brings” (Hurston 168). Delia knows how useless her husband is. She also knows about his infidelity. Delia states that “if it were not Bertha it would be someone else” (Hurston 163). Sykes often times did not come home until daybreak because he was with his mistress. When he returns home he shoves Delia’s bodies to the other side of the bed. He lives with her as a free loader and an adulterer that is hateful and abusive. Bertha is Sykes’ mistress that he wants to live with in Delia’s house. She is a very portly woman, in contrast to his skinny wife. He treats Bertha as a queen. He wants her to believe that he is the greatest man alive and she is the greatest woman alive. “Git whutsoever yo’ heart desires, Honey” (Hurston 165), Sykes tells her at the village store. He then goes on the order a buffet of snacks and drinks for her. Sykes, unlike his marriage, assumes the man’s role in his affair. He pays for the room that she sleeps in and the food she eats. He often takes her to Winter Park to the “stomps”, and tells her that he’s the “swellest” man in the states (Hurston 165). He spends all of his time and money on Bertha and wants to be able to give her everything. Sykes was determined to get rid of Delia and have the house for him and Bertha to live happily ever after in. “Sho’ you kin have dat li’l ole house soon’s Ah git dat ‘oman outadere” (Hurston 165) he told Bertha. While he is saying this, the wheels in his head are turning to figure out how he is going to do it. He wants to get Delia out of the house that she has sweated so hard to pay for, and she is not going to leave. He tries to threaten Delia by telling her that if she stays around him, the beatings will continue (Hurston 167). She has lived through all the beatings so far, so the threat is not convincing enough to her. He tries to emotionally kill her by walking around town with Bertha and flaunting his relationship with her. Delia changes churches and avoids the village people and public places in order to omit herself from the situation. Sykes then places a box with a rattlesnake in it on her front porch in an attempt to mentally kill her. She is deathly afraid of snakes, and the box remains there for days. “You done kilt all mah insides bringin’ dat varmint heah” (Hurston 167) she tells him. He sits at the table and drinks a whole cup of coffee, not caring about how she feels. He then replies by saying that he hates her and wants her gone. He has become so caught up in his new relationship that he has disregarded all of his feelings toward Delia. Bertha has even come to Delia’s house looking for Sykes. All of this has ...