Sweat

This story is about a lady named Delia. She is married to Sykes, who obviously abuses her in the story. She is hard working and any money she earns Sykes uses it to spend on the woman he is having an affair with. He gets a snake and uses it against Delia, because she is afraid of it. He thinks it will get her to leave the house. So one day she went running out of the house when he saw it. He went in and was bit by the snake. She sat under the window and listened to him die.

I think this story is definitely about spousal abuse or abuse to woman in general. The amount of male dominance that one can have on a female. Sykes is a representation with the devil, because the snake closely resembles the snake from the Bible in the Garden of Eden.