The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber: analyse

In an essay discuss whether the death of Francis Macomber is accidental or intentional.

The short happy life of Francis Macomber is a story about the wealthy American couple, Francis and Margaret Macomber who are on a safari trip in Africa. On their journey they encounter the professional hunter, Robert Wilson. He is paid to guide their adventures and he therefore takes them on several haunts in the jungle during their stay. The start setting is at the lunch break where it quickly shifts to sort of a flash-back, which brings the story back to the night before the lion hunt. They reck-on the lion episode where Francis cowardly ran away from the stalking of the lion. This resulted into his wife’s lack of faith in him and a total humiliation of Francis. The embarrassments of Francis Macomber continue throughout the story until the turning point of the adventure, where he regains his dignity, by shooting a buffalo.

The story embraces many themes such as power, cowardice, control, justice and man / woman roles. Their marriage pretty much symbolises all the themes represented in the story. It is based on wealth, beauty, control and leverage, but nothing further than that. The marriage depends on the fact that Margaret completely dominates her husband at all times, exactly same way as Hemingway’s mother controlled his father. She is being descendent towards everything he says and does - nothing is simply good enough for her. But she does not take the lead by criticizing him, but by continuously belittles him, not only between the two of them, but worst of all, also in front of Wilson. She is basically ripping his manhood out of him, leaving him with nothing, nothing but his money and social position, which no one gives a damn about out in the woods.