Their Eyes Were Watching God Powerlessness

Everyone has heard the stories of a woman doing anything for love or enduring anything to keep the man she feels she is in love with. Although this still does happen now, this was happening way more in the 1900s, when women was really dependent on men for mostly everything. During that time, men lead the household making all the decisions in the relationship. They were dominant over their wives and their was no questions asked. Women took a backseat to their men because they were blinded by love and powerless by male dominance. Men loved the fact that they could control their wives. In Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Janie is the character that is blinded by her wanting love. In the critical essay, “ I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands,” Washington talks about how Janie is “made powerless by her three husbands” and this essay will talk about the extent of this in reference to Tea Cake, her third husband. Washington makes it clear how she feels about Janie’s character. She feels Janie is an object throughout the text. Washington writes, “Janie is often passive when she should be active, deprived of speech when
Janie is not only the subject of the story, but she is the object of the story. She is very passive when and comes to Tea Cake. Her love is blinding and it allows her husbands, especially Tea Cake, to take advantage of her. Tea Cake stealing money from Janie is the first time he takes advantage of her blinding love. The second time Tea Cake takes advantage of Janie blinding love is when he hits her and this shows how powerless she really is with him. Janie love for Tea cake is strong, even after his death. Janie wasn’t just powerless in dealing with her own feeling, but she was also powerless when it came to Tea Cake feelings, which in the end lead to her losing the one she loved