Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
In literature, the marriage bed often symbolizes sweet slumber, intimacy, and comfort—but Hurston has something a little different in mind when she wrote "Sweat." In this story, the bed is a reminder of an awful marriage that's getting worse every day.
The bed is anything but comforting for Delia; rather, it's where she's bullied by Sykes and where she has her epiphany of her failed marriage:
She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and drew herself up into an unhappy little ball in the middle of the big feather bed. (26)
Delia also receives the scare of her life on that big feather bed:
She saw [the snake] pouring his awful beauty from the basket upon the bed. (91)
Don't forget—Sykes's goes to escape the snake on the bed, his "ability to think had been flattened down to primitive instinct and he leaped--onto the bed" (103).
(Un)Fortunately, the snake gets him anyway.
The bed in "Sweat" is a place where truths are revealed. It's where Delia acknowledges the sad reality of her life and where Sykes meets the end of his. Sweet dreams.