Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

Normally, readers would expect a short story published in 1936, such as Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” to be male-centered. The story is set in an African safari, which is clearly an area of male dominance, and strict gender roles were prevalent in 1936. As expected from the time period, women are shown to be in a socially inferior position. However, although women may seem to be inferior to men, evidence throughout the book implicitly suggests that women have power and influence in a man’s world through the character of Margot Macomber. First, women are shown to be in a socially inferior position as the men continually attempt to leave Margot behind in a place of safety and away from the hunting field. Second, Margot displays women’s power and influence over men through manipulating her possession or knowledge of things to restrict men. Finally, Margot Macomber makes her own choices despite being in a men’s world, therefore showing the power that women have.

“The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber” is a story of a wealthy American couple, Francis Macomber and his wife Margot Macomber, on an African safari led by the professional hunter Robert Wilson. The three set out to hunt a lion, but Francis runs away in fear and shows cowardness. Margot, who values courage, is greatly disappointed and loses all respect for her husband. She rather is attracted to their guide Wilson, who has shown bravery by successfully killing the lion. Later that night, Francis wakes up to find Margot’s cot empty and it is evident that she has had an affair with Wilson. The next day, determined to prove his bravery, Macomber sets out to hunt buffalos. The buffalo hunt is very successful and he regains confidence. However, Margot does not seem to be very happy about his change. Just as Macomber is about to kill the third buffalo, Margot shoots her gun at the buffalo, only to hit Macomber on the head. The bullet kills him instantly.The story ends with her sobbing and Wilson sarcastically suggesting that she killed Macomber on purpose. However, whether the killing was intentional or not is left ambiguous to the readers.

As expected, the socially inferior position of women is portrayed through the men’s continuous attempts to leave Margot Macomber behind in a place of safety and away from the men’s world. Throughout the story, Margot is constantly held back by Francis and Wilson. During the lion hunt, Wilson says that “the Memsahib can stay here in the car” (6) and even on the next day, Francis instantly cuts off her desire to follow the hunt by sharply saying “no, you’re not” (3) and orders her to stay in camp. Wilson goes further by directly expressing his thoughts that “women are a nuisance on safari” (11). The men seem to be dominated by the thought that they need to protect women from danger because they are supposedly weaker. Moreover, Margot is always seated in the back of the car, and according to Johnston, the characters’ position in the car symbolizes their degree of social acceptance. Before the lion hunt, in which Francis shows cowardice, he is able to sit in the front seat of the car. However, after being publicly humiliated, he sits in the back while Wilson, the brave hunter, is moved up the front, the “seat of authority.” They finally are shown to be hanging onto the sides of the car after Francis regains his courage through the buffalo hunt, therefore being portrayed in an equal position (6). Despite the chaging seats of the two men according to their display of courage in hunting, Margot remains in the back, implying her inferiority. As Peirce notes in his article, “to Margot, the car is a place of segregation as well as an opera box” (232). The men refer to hunting as “[putting] on [a] show” (3) for Margot, portraying her as an outsider viewing the men’s “show” from far away. In other words, she is considered too fragile to be involved in the world of men and needs to be kept in her safety box. According to Harris, “physically, Margot is passive—the men shoot, she sits in the jeep” (77). This is an extension of the traditional gender roles of the hunter-gatherer societies, where men, who were thought to be strong, went out to hunt, while women, thought to be weak, were confined to their homes. As Ring puts it, women are shown to be “helpless because men hold the power in the world” (4).

Contrary to the conventionally accepted idea during Hemingway’s time period that women are inferior to men, women are shown to exercise power and influence over men through Margot’s ability to manipulate men through her beauty and knowledge of illegal acts. Although Margot may not seem to be representative of all women, she is the only woman in the world of men in this story, therefore suggesting the potential for women to have power. Such power may be transferred to other places of male dominance such as the working place. Throughout the story, Margot is portrayed to have a full understanding of what she is capable of doing and “she manipulates her man, but deliberately and cruelly” (Harris 77). First, Margot’s possession of beauty gives her power over Francis Macomber. The marriage of the Macombers is described as a “sound basis of union. . . Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him” (9). Also, according to Bell, another reason why she can’t leave him is because she knows that her looks are not good enough to get herself a man as rich as him (7). This suggests that Margot considers and uses her beauty as a tool for marriage, prevention of divorce, and access to wealth. In addition, Margot uses her beauty to captivate Wilson and have an affair, which leads to Macomber’s jealousy. Furthermore, Margot’s knowledge of Wilson’s illegal acts puts her in a dominant position. He confesses to Margot that he’d “lose [his] license” and “be out of business” (12) if his violations of hunting rules get known, and she also knows of his illegal whipping of African aides. By doing so, according to Johnston, “Wilson has left himself vulnerable” (6). Such information is certainly a “weapon to be used for her own purposes” (Peirce 232) and even Macomber acknowledges that “she has something on [him]” (13). She has the substantial information to throw a man out of business and it allows her to grasp the higher position in their relationship. Thus, Margot is always a step ahead of the men and has power over them.

Along with her ability to manipulate men with her beauty and knowledge of illegal acts, Margot’s power to make her own choices, despite being in a man’s world, suggests the potential for women to have influence. In a male-dominated world, women are normally passive as men make all the decisions for them. Women usually don’t have a say in anything. However, Margot is unlike the conventional woman of the time period. First, she has the power to choose to kill her husband. Although whether she kills him intentionally or not is left ambiguous in the story, leaving a topic of ongoing debate, it is an undeniable truth that she does shoot and kill him. Moreover, details in the story hint at her intentional killing. According to Baym, she decides to kill him when “his belated entrance into manhood (through blood sport and male bonding) threatens her dominance” (113). She is a “destroyer” (Harris 77) of his life. Another important point to consider is that Margot does not deny Wilson’s murder accusation. Therefore, Margot clearly kills her husband as she was threatened by her husband’s change, the ability to make such decision shows her power. Second, both men, Wilson and Macomber, are attracted to Margot and she has the choice to choose between them. Conventionally, men choose the women partners and it was normal in most societies for fathers to choose the partners for their daughters. However, Margot is shown to take over this role that is normally thought to be a man’s as she is the one with the final choice. Lastly, the affairs she has with other men despite being married shows her power. It is quite evident that Wilson is not the first man, and that her affairs are regular. As Baym claims, “she commits adultery virtually under her husband’s nose” (113). The fact that Macomber doesn’t have the power to prevent her from doing so indicates her higher position in the mutual marriage.

Through the character of Margot Macomber, women are portrayed in a socially inferior position as expected during the time period. However, women are also indirectly shown to have power and influence in a man’s world throughout the book. Although Margot is left behind and far from the world of hunting, she possesses knowledge that restricts the power of men and also makes her own choices. Margot is shown to be a women who has power and influence over men. Perhaps Hemingway is actually criticizing such dominant women through the showing of Margot’s power. She is powerful, but it is not necessarily viewed in a positive light. He may be suggesting that such women create disorder in a man’s world, proving his point through a powerful woman that is in a place where she doesn’t belong. Her killing of her husband and her manipulation implicate that women really are a nuisance on safari, as Hemingway put it. Therefore, even though the story may seem to go against conventional gender perceptions, Hemingway eventually comes back to suggesting the socially inferior position of women. Rather than directly showing them to be so, he just took the long way in proving it.