The Gilded Six-Bits

Sex, marriage, and the implications—moral or otherwise—of sex outside marriage are central to Hurston’s short story. While much of “The Gilded Six-Bits” focuses on Joe and Missie May’s marriage, particularly their domestic life, there are also lessons implied by her unfaithfulness to Joe.

The focus on Joe and Missie May’s daily and weekly routines—most of the story is set in and around their home—allows the reader a glimpse into their intimate life. At the beginning of “The Gilded Six-Bits,” the couple are practically newlyweds, engaged in a weekly routine that centers around Joe’s payday but also involves lots of playful affection: “Missie May grinned with delight. She had not seen the big tall man come stealing in the gate and creep up the walk grinning happily at the joyful mischief he was about to commit” (87). Mutual physical desire is an important and (the story suggests) natural element of this relationship. In their mock battle, they become “a furious mass of male and female energy” (87), as though archetypes of sexuality.

Hurston lingers especially on Missie May’s physical attraction to Joe, whom she praises as a “pritty man.” Besides establishing her feelings for her husband, such remarks make her infidelity seem worse by contrast, and not only for the obvious moral reason.