In the short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston, she tells the story of a hard-working woman named Delia Jones and her abusive, cheating husband Sykes. Delia and Sykes are drastically different characters. Delia is an honest, church going woman, who cleans white people 's laundry to make ends meet and Skyes is a low-down womanizer who uses his wife 's income to support not only himself but also Bertha the woman he is having an affair with. After years of putting up with her husband 's mistreatment, Delia finally holds her ground. She defends her job with a skillet. For the first time Sykes backs down. This is the beginning of the end for their relationship. Hurston lays the foundation for a story of good versus evil. Fifteen years is a long time for anyone to be mistreated and taken for granted. Poor Delia once being a lovely young woman, soft and feminine, over her fifteen years of marriage, she had worked until she had nothing soft left about her. The title Hurston uses for her short story is appropriate because that’s what Delia does work and sweat. She sweats to pay for what little she has. She sweats to provide her husband with what he squanders on himself and his plump mistress Bertha. Her husband Sykes does not appreciate her or the hard work she does. He kicks around her sorted piles of laundry, and for the first time Delia has had enough. She takes an iron in her and stands up to her husband. Sykes being the cowered he is, realizes simply bullying Delia