In Angelina Weld Grimke’s “The Closing Door”, Jessie Redmon Fauset’s “The Sleeper Wakes”, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, the roles most often appear to have men as dominant, or in charge, figures. However, the typical view of the male figure being dominant and the female being submissive may not be quite as distinct in the above three texts, as first thought. It is even possible that the roles of the dominant and submissive parts are actually switched. The following will show how both the male/female and dominant/submissive combinations may be interchangeable, depending on which aspects are considered. In the stories “The Closing Door”, “The Sleeper Wakes”, and “Sweat”, male figures appear to be the ones that are in control, or dominant, in the situations. The women take direction from men. Throughout their stories it is pervasive that society is male dominated. Although there are many similarities between the stories in this regard, some of the differences are due to social, economic, physical, and moral divisions. These divisions, or aspects, become important in how one may look at domination in these stories. In the story “The Closing Door” by Angelina Weld Grimke, the two divisions that become important in respect to who controls things are physical and economic. Grimke describes the male character, Jim Milton, as being a “brown, good-natured giant” and also “He would reach her, it seemed, in one stride and would pick her up bodily, apron, money and all” (Grimke 94). These two are good examples of how the physical aspect with Jim Milton controls the marital situation. Agnes Milton would not be able to physically stop or dissuade Jim from doing anything that he wanted to do. The other way that Jim Milton dominates the marriage is financially. He is the bread winner in the family, while Agnes Milton is a homemaker. Being a homemaker is stereotypically not a dominant position. This would be because without Jim bringing home money, they would not be able to pay their bills. Agnes depends on Jim for her financial livelihood. In Fauset’s “The Sleeper Wakes”, all four aspects are involved in who is in control of the situation. In the story, Amy becomes married to a wealthy man named Stuart James Wynne. He seemingly controls their relationship by all of the aspects. Because Amy ran away and started with nothing, she was controlled, or allowed herself to be controlled by money. She describes herself as “poor, ignorant- a nobody.” (Fauset 111). Marrying Wynne allows her to escape the poverty in which she was living and attain all the finer things in life that she had always dreamt about. So, finances could be seen as a control mechanism here. Social domination could also be considered in this case because Amy does not come from a socially high status. Her new husband, Wynne, is definitely from the upper class. He uses this status to his advantage, even if unknowingly. This is shown by “From the very beginning he was different from what she had supposed. To start with he was far, far wealthier, and he had, too, a tradition, a family-pride which to Amy was inexplicable” (Fauset 111). At one point during the story, Amy slapped Wynne. His retaliation is described as, “she fell, reeling under the fearful impact of his brutal, but involuntary blow” (Fauset 116). This describes that Wynne physically controlled their marriage. Wynne morally dominated their relationship. He loved Amy very much, but he also looked down on her, too. This becomes clear when he returned to see her after they were divorced. He said “‘Oh Hell!’ he snarled at her roughly. ‘Why don’t you stop posing? What do you think you are anyway? … What man of your race could give you what you want?’“ (Fauset 116). The last short story that shows another stereotypical example of dominance is “Sweat” by Nora Neale Hurston. This story gives an example of physical dominance by a man named Sykes. Delia Jones and Sykes Jones are married. He uses his body physically to dominate Delia. He does this by intimidation and by beating her. This is shown in a couple of different examples. The first is when he throws something on her that, at first glance, looks like a snake. Delia is very scared of snakes. Hurston writes it this way “Just then something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took hold of her… Then she saw it was the big bull whip her husband liked to carry when he drove” (Hurston 127). This shows that Sykes has no respect for Delia because he knows that she is petrified of snakes. He also catches a live rattlesnake and puts it in a coffee can with a screen on it to scare Delia into leaving. The other example of how Sykes is the dominant figure is that he physically beats Delia. The story says it as “Too much knockin’ will ruin any ‘oman. He done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women, let ‘lone change they looks” (Hurston 129). Gordon Thompson has the same opinion in “Projecting Gender: Personification in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston” In “Sweat” (from a collection of Hurston’s short stories entitled Spunk, 1985), personification takes still another form, that of symbolic tool. Delia, the heroine of “Sweat,” has been beaten and abused by her husband, Sykes. When he terrorizes her with a snake, the snake – especially in Sykes’s absence – serves as a substitute for and reflection of Sykes, further defining the nature of his character. Delia’s attitude towards the snake resembles her attitude towards Sykes; Sykes’s manipulation of the snake and his bravado suggest – in the context of the story – that handling snakes is a male privilege (745).
This shows how predominant the idea is that men dominate the hierarchy at home. But, in some respects, this may not be true. Here are some reasons that it may be looked at differently. In closely examining these stories, there is a similarity that appears to have an effect or indication of which gender is in charge. This aspect is subtle, but still very powerful, none the less. If one is dominant, or in control of a situation, it infers there is independence of that individual. In the above mentioned stories, we will look at how the men are not always the dominant, or in charge, individuals that we first thought. In “The Closing Door”, James Milton is the sole provider of the family. Yet, one of the first things that he does as soon as he comes home is to give Agnes, his wife, all of the money that he earned that day. James describes his willingness to turn over his money, willingly, by saying “As long as Jim could have good food and plenty of it, now and then the theatre, a concert or a dance, and his gold tipped cigarettes, he didn’t care what became of his money”(Grimke 94). By doing so, he is turning over his power, or control, over the finances in the household. When he relinquishes the control of money to his wife, he then becomes dependent on her. This happens through the control that Agnes has on whether to pay the bills, spend the money on things that they may not be able to afford, or whether she would just up and leave with the money. This is an act of faith by Jim Milton. He believes that Agnes will do what is best for them both, but by turning over control of money, he cannot control what Agnes does with the money. In “The Sleeper Wakes” The aspect that changes the dynamics of dominance is physical nature itself. Wynne is very wealthy. He could most likely have many beautiful women. This is due to his wealth and status. Just like Amy, there are many women who would be willing to subject themselves to a marriage of convenience. Yet, he comes back to Amy, asking her to come live with him again. He does not want to be married to her, since he feels that she has a mixed racial background. This might ruin his reputation in his circles of business and status. They were divorced for ten months before he came back to her. Wynne is the one who has control over the money. He is physically in charge because she cannot force her will on him that way. Wynne is much higher in social status than she is, so he does not need to try to draw that from her. The text gives a good example of this in Wynne saying “I do want you,’ he told her tensely. ‘I want you damnably. But—well—I might as well out with it—A white man like me simply doesn’t marry a colored woman. After all what difference need it make to you? We’ll live abroad—you’ll travel, have all the things you love. Many a white woman would envy you” (Fauset 115). So, why then is he drawn back to her? Amy is in control sexually. She is able to control and manipulate him in this manner. In “Sweat”, Sykes appears to be the dominant, in charge, character. He carries on an affair without any attempt, seemingly, to hide it. He physically abuses Delia. There does not seem to be any control that Delia has over him. If she held any control, why would she allow all of the horrible things to happen to her? If one has a choice on whether to allow their spouse to cheat on them or to abuse them, would they? It does not seem likely if one is given a choice. This would suggest that Delia had no control, or dominance, in their relationship. But if this were true, why would Sykes go to all of the trouble that he did? He paraded his fat, ugly mistress around, as if proud of the fact of his infidelity. Hurston shows this by describing Sykes’s infidelity through the eyes of town folk this way “Aw, she’s fat, thass how come. He’s allus been crazy ‘bout fat women… He’d a’been tied up wid one long time ago if he could a’found one tuh have him. Did Ah tell yuh ‘bout him come sidlin’ round mah wife—bringin ‘ her a basket uh pee-cans outa his yard fuh a present?” (Hurston 129) The parts of this that are interesting is how his cheating is so well known and how he brings this man’s wife pecans from HIS yard. So he must be the dominant person in the relationship. Why then would he bring home the snake to scare Delia into leaving the house? When she will not leave, he puts the snake in the clothes hamper in an attempt to kill her. If he was the one in control of their marriage, why go to all of this trouble? Why not tell her to pack her things and to get out? Or, why does he not just pack his belongings and leave. If his intention for not leaving is to get the house, this shows that he does not feel that he could get one on his own accord. He seems to be dependent upon Delia for his very survival. If this was not the case, why go to all of the trouble mentioned? Peter Kerry Powers agrees with the thought of each character being necessarily independent. He states that “Hurston’s understanding of gender, sometimes focusing on the androgynous appeal, and threat, of characters such as Janie Crawford in Hurston’s best known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. In characters like Janie, Hurston demonstrated her fierce belief in absolute individualism and consequent self-reliance. This individualism informed her understanding of gender and race alike, believing every tub- white or black, male or female- must sit on its own bottom… However, while recognizing Hurston’s rejection of feminine stereotypes, Hurston criticism has done little to examine her attitudes towards masculinity, underscoring instead Hurston’s self-description as the “eternal feminine” (Powers 230). Powers goes on to say that to Hurston “it seems clear that men and what it means to ‘be a man’ play a more complicated and important role in Hurston’s imagination than is generally recognized.” (Powers 231) At first, these stories appear to have male dominance. The men dominate through physicality, money, and social status. But if this holds true, why are the men in them seemingly asking for permission from the women. I feel that although the men have the ability to dominate the situations through the aspects described, the women are able to subtly get the men to turn over their power of the women. This may or may not be a conscious act on the part of the women. None the less, it does show that it is not as clear and concise as it may appear in the beginning and that the men in these stories may not actually be as dominant as it is portrayed on the surface.