Just by looking at the title of this story, I was not exactly sure what to expect from it. Since it is Hemingway, I knew that it couldn’t really just be a short happy story about some guy named Francis Macomber. I figured it was probably not going to be a happy or uplifting story either. In the initial descriptions of the three main characters in the story, the Macombers and Wilson, you can already tell that there is more going on than there appears.
Margot seems to have much more interest in Wilson than she does in her own husband, Francis. The two men are clearly different from each other and Hemingway depicts Wilson as a strong individual that fulfill his ideas of the ideal man. Francis on the other hand is portrayed as a complete coward through his actions on the hunt and how de deals with his wife. Margot definitely has the upper hand in their relationship, which is not something that Hemingway would agree with. It also seems like Margot is being unfaithful to her husband, definitely with Wilson, but most likely it has occurred before the story takes place as well. When Francis reflects upon the lion hunt the day before, the reader is able to see the act of cowardice that they talk about early on. Margot seemed to enjoy seeing her husband act like the coward that she thinks he is. Their conversation about the lion hunt was interesting to me because of the complete role reversal of Hemingway’s characters. Margot is talking down to Francis and just brushing off his attempts at a conversation. She even says that she knows he will take anything and refers to him as ‘sweet’.
The next day they go on another hunt and it is clear that Francis Macomber has gone through some kind of definite change. Margot’s mood has also changed and she is not enjoying the hunt at all compared to the day before. There are several lines that refer to how Macomber feels better than he ever has before and that he is without fear. He exclaims that he wants to go after another lion because ‘what can they do to you?’ to which Wilson replies ‘kill you’. At this point Margot is realizing that she has lost the control she had over Francis and is obviously upset by it. I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen at this point. Wilson knows that it wasn’t an accident but can’t say anything to anyone else because she knows about his illegitimate practices. He does let her know that he knows what happened though and almost pokes fun by asking her why she didn’t just poison him.
Even though this story was a little bit longer than the ones we have been reading by Hemingway, I found it interesting and realized that all of the details were necessary. All of them were important as the story moved on and helped to make sense of what happened. At the end of the story the title made a lot more sense to me because the happy part of Francis Macomber’s life was in fact extremely short. He was finally able to break the power and control his wife had over him to stand bravely on his own. I enjoyed this story because it was a little different from his other stories even though a lot of the themes and settings were similar. It was a nice change to actually sympathize with a male character in one of his stories, instead of writing them of as chauvinistic and condescending.
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