In both Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat" and Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, women sacrifice their time, energy, and pride in order to provide for men who treat them in a subordinate and demeaning manner. The lack of appreciation of both husbands reveals the theme that self-sacrifice often goes unrewarded.

In A Doll's House, Nora helps her husband recover from a life-threatening illness brought on by his overwork in the early years of their marriage. The doctors tell Nora that her husband needs a restorative trip to a warmer climate in order to regain his health. In order not to worry her sick husband about the seriousness of his condition, she does not tell him the direness of his situation. Instead, she tells her husband that her father has given them money to take a vacation. In reality, Nora pays for the trip by taking out a loan illegally and forging her father's signature. Nora and her husband, Torvald, take the trip, and it saves his life. Nora never reveals her actions concerning the loan to her husband because she does not want to injure his pride. Instead, she works secretly to repay the loan by doing various jobs and copy work, locking herself away for whole evenings at a time.

When Torvald finds out about the loan Nora took to save his life, he is unappreciative of her long hours of sacrifice. The only thing he focuses on is the fact that he may suffer from the negative repercussions of Nora's illegal actions. He calls her "a liar—worse, worse—a criminal." In the end, Nora leaves because she knows her husband does not truly love her.

In Hurston's "Sweat," Delia works long hours as a wash-woman to provide food and a home for a husband who mentally and physically abuses her. He is not only ungrateful for her sacrifices, but he is cruel. He violates the sanctity of their marriage by openly having an affair and tortures Delia with the presence of a rattlesnake, which he keeps in a box. Later on, he attempts to kill Delia by hiding the rattlesnake in her wash basket. In the end, the rattlesnake escapes from the box and bites him. Delia does not attempt to save her husband because she realizes the true depth of his cruelty and evil.

In the end, both women's sacrifices and attempts to ensure the survival of their husbands are met with cruelty and indifference. When the depth of each husband's ingratitude is made clear, each woman decides to free herself from the relationship. Nora leaves her husband, and Delia allows her husband to die.