In the early 19th century, women were considered the property of their husbands and therefore domestic violence against wives was not uncommon during of this period. Women were taught that their place was at home and that they were to be obedient wives and never have a thought or opinion different from that of their husband. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie demonstrates to the reader early in the book her naturally outspoken personality and youthful independence. At sixteen, as she begins to become curious about love and the opposite sex, beautiful young Janie is pushed into marriage and she must hide who she is as a person in order to conform to the expectations of a wife. at that time. Janie's profound outspokenness, beauty, and subliminal unwillingness to be controlled cause her difficulties as she deals with domestic violence, first during her marriage to Joe Starks and again during her marriage to Teacake. However, Janie's physical reaction to the two men who were abusing her is usually the same in every marriage, she remained silent and cried. However, his mental reactions and feelings to the abuse change significantly. The man Janie originally married, Logan Killicks, was an older man who treated Janie very well and he never hit her. Janie talks to Nanny and says, “No, he didn't even talk about hitting me. He says he never intended to lay his hands on me out of malice. He chops all the wood he thinks Ah wants and then he puts it in the kitchen for me. Keep both buckets of water full” (Hurston, pp. 22-23). The collapse of their marriage was compounded by the fact that Janie never fell in love with Logan Killick... middle of paper ... domestic violence. When she met and married Joe, she was barely 18 years old and had only a year or two of experience in how she should carry out her duties as a wife. When Joe started hitting her, she was only 23 and had never been hurt in a relationship, so it shocked her to be hit by someone she was supposed to love. When she met Tea Cake, she had been married for over 20 years, and at that time she was used to staying alone to deal with her emotional pain. She was used to being hit by men, but Tea Cake's comforting demeanor and expression of regret for hurting her kept Janie from harboring anger towards him. It's the difference between Janie's two relationships that ruined the first and made the second. These factors also caused the change in Janie's mental reaction to domestic violence at the hands of the two men who had hurt her..