The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Encyclopedia
"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a short story
by Ernest Hemingway
. Set in Africa
, it was published in the September 1936
issue of Cosmopolitan magazine concurrently with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro
". The story was eventually adapted to the screen as the Zoltan Korda
film The Macomber Affair
(1947).
in Africa, guided by professional hunter Robert Wilson. Earlier, Francis had panicked when a wounded lion
charged him. Margot mocks Macomber for this act of cowardice, and it is implied that she sleeps with Wilson.
The next day the party hunt buffalo
. Macomber joins Wilson in killing two of them and no longer feels afraid. The first buffalo was only wounded and has gone into the bush. Wilson and Macomber proceed to track the wounded animal, paralleling the circumstances of the previous day's lion hunt.
When they find the buffalo, it charges Macomber while he stands his ground and fires at it. His shots are too high, and Wilson fires at the beast as well, but it keeps charging. Macomber kills the buffalo at the last minute, while Margot fires a shot from the car at the buffalo. However, the shot hits Macomber in the skull and kills him. Margot falls to the ground and weeps.
(1938).
, claims that Macomber loses his fear as the buffalo charges, and the loss of fear ushers Macomber into manhood, which Margot instantly kills.
Baker believes Wilson symbolizes the man free of woman (because he refuses to allow Margot to dominate him) or of fear; the man Macomber wishes to be. Wilson understands, as he blasts the lion dead, that Margot is a woman who needs to be dominated. Jeffrey Meyers considers Margot Macomber to be the villain of the story. She characterises "a predatory (rather than a passive) female who is both betrayer and murderer"; and she emphasizes the connection between "shooting and sex."
This is largely due to the ambiguous complexity of its characters and their motivations, and the debate this ambiguity has generated. In the estimation of critic Kenneth G. Johnston, "the prevailing critical view is that she deliberately—or at best, 'accidentally on purpose'—murdered him",
but there are many, including Johnston himself, who hold the opposite view.
Hemingway scholar Carlos Baker
calls Margot Macomber "easily the most unscrupulous of Hemingway's fictional females"; a woman "who is really and literally deadly" and who "covets her husband's money but values even more her power over him." Literary critic and early mentor to Hemingway Edmund Wilson
observed bluntly, “The men in …these African stories are married to American bitches of the most soul-destroying sort.” Other authors who hold similar views regarding Margot include Philip Young, Leslie A. Fiedler and Frank O'Connor
(see below).
A related point that has been widely debated is whether Hemingway intended the reader to view Robert Wilson as a heroic figure, embodying Hemingway's ideal of the courageous, hyper-masculine male. Critics who argue for Margot's innocence are especially likely to question this positive view of Wilson. It is through Wilson's words that Margot's intentions are questioned, notably when he asks after the shooting "Why didn't you poison him? That's what they do in England." If Wilson is intended to be the story's voice of morality, then this implied accusation is damning. But if Wilson is a less-perfect character himself, then his judgment of Margot is suspect. Some critics have noted that Wilson chases down the buffalo in a car, violating the law and perhaps also Hemingway's code of fairness in hunting. Kenneth G. Johnston argues that Wilson "has much to gain by making Mrs. Macomber believe that the death of her husband could be construed as murder," since he could lose his license if Margot accurately described Wilson's use of the car in the buffalo hunt.
In The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story, author and literary critic Frank O'Connor
, though generally an admirer of Hemingway, gives one of the most colorful and uncharitable summations of "The Short Happy Life":
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
. Set in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, it was published in the September 1936
1936 in literature
The year 1936 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Life magazine is first published.* The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is established in the UK.-New books:...
issue of Cosmopolitan magazine concurrently with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in Esquire magazine in 1936. It was republished in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories in 1938, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories in 1961, and is included in The Complete Short Stories of...
". The story was eventually adapted to the screen as the Zoltan Korda
Zoltán Korda
Zoltan Korda was a Hungarian-born motion picture screenwriter, director and producer.Born Zoltán Kellner, Kellner Zoltán in Hungarian name order, of Jewish heritage in Pusztatúrpásztó, Túrkeve in Hungary , he was the middle brother of filmmakers Alexander and Vincent Korda.Zoltan Korda went to...
film The Macomber Affair
The Macomber Affair
The Macomber Affair is a 1947 in filmZ1947 psychological drama set in British East Africa concerning a fatal triangle of a frustrated wife, a weak husband, and the professional hunter who comes between them. The film was distributed by United Artists, directed by Zoltan Korda, and starring by...
(1947).
Synopsis
Francis Macomber and his wife Margaret (usually referred to as "Margot"), are on a big-game safariSafari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...
in Africa, guided by professional hunter Robert Wilson. Earlier, Francis had panicked when a wounded lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
charged him. Margot mocks Macomber for this act of cowardice, and it is implied that she sleeps with Wilson.
The next day the party hunt buffalo
African Buffalo
The African buffalo, affalo, nyati, Mbogo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear...
. Macomber joins Wilson in killing two of them and no longer feels afraid. The first buffalo was only wounded and has gone into the bush. Wilson and Macomber proceed to track the wounded animal, paralleling the circumstances of the previous day's lion hunt.
When they find the buffalo, it charges Macomber while he stands his ground and fires at it. His shots are too high, and Wilson fires at the beast as well, but it keeps charging. Macomber kills the buffalo at the last minute, while Margot fires a shot from the car at the buffalo. However, the shot hits Macomber in the skull and kills him. Margot falls to the ground and weeps.
Publication history
"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" was published in the September 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, and later published in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine StoriesThe Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories
The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories is an anthology of writings by Ernest Hemingway published by Scribner's on 14 October 1938....
(1938).
Major themes
The essence of The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is courage. Wilson has courage but Macomber, who is afraid of lions, has none. The cowardly husband who watched as his wife made her way from Wilson's tent hours before, reaches a point of courage when he hunts the buffalo. When Macomber finds the courage to face the charging buffalo he forges the identity he wants: the courage to face wild animals; the courage to face his wife. Tragically, Macomber's happiness is measured in hours, and indeed even in minutes. Hemingway biographer, Carlos BakerCarlos Baker
Carlos Baker was an American writer, biographer and former Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton respectively. Baker's published works included several novels and books of poetry and various literary...
, claims that Macomber loses his fear as the buffalo charges, and the loss of fear ushers Macomber into manhood, which Margot instantly kills.
Baker believes Wilson symbolizes the man free of woman (because he refuses to allow Margot to dominate him) or of fear; the man Macomber wishes to be. Wilson understands, as he blasts the lion dead, that Margot is a woman who needs to be dominated. Jeffrey Meyers considers Margot Macomber to be the villain of the story. She characterises "a predatory (rather than a passive) female who is both betrayer and murderer"; and she emphasizes the connection between "shooting and sex."
Reception
"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has been acclaimed as one of Hemingway's most successful artistic achievements.This is largely due to the ambiguous complexity of its characters and their motivations, and the debate this ambiguity has generated. In the estimation of critic Kenneth G. Johnston, "the prevailing critical view is that she deliberately—or at best, 'accidentally on purpose'—murdered him",
but there are many, including Johnston himself, who hold the opposite view.
Hemingway scholar Carlos Baker
Carlos Baker
Carlos Baker was an American writer, biographer and former Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton respectively. Baker's published works included several novels and books of poetry and various literary...
calls Margot Macomber "easily the most unscrupulous of Hemingway's fictional females"; a woman "who is really and literally deadly" and who "covets her husband's money but values even more her power over him." Literary critic and early mentor to Hemingway Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
observed bluntly, “The men in …these African stories are married to American bitches of the most soul-destroying sort.” Other authors who hold similar views regarding Margot include Philip Young, Leslie A. Fiedler and Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
(see below).
A related point that has been widely debated is whether Hemingway intended the reader to view Robert Wilson as a heroic figure, embodying Hemingway's ideal of the courageous, hyper-masculine male. Critics who argue for Margot's innocence are especially likely to question this positive view of Wilson. It is through Wilson's words that Margot's intentions are questioned, notably when he asks after the shooting "Why didn't you poison him? That's what they do in England." If Wilson is intended to be the story's voice of morality, then this implied accusation is damning. But if Wilson is a less-perfect character himself, then his judgment of Margot is suspect. Some critics have noted that Wilson chases down the buffalo in a car, violating the law and perhaps also Hemingway's code of fairness in hunting. Kenneth G. Johnston argues that Wilson "has much to gain by making Mrs. Macomber believe that the death of her husband could be construed as murder," since he could lose his license if Margot accurately described Wilson's use of the car in the buffalo hunt.
In The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story, author and literary critic Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
, though generally an admirer of Hemingway, gives one of the most colorful and uncharitable summations of "The Short Happy Life":
Francis runs away from a lion, which is what most sensible men would do if faced by a lion, and his wife promptly cuckolds him with the English manager of their big-game hunting expedition. As we all know, good wives admire nothing in a husband except his capacity to deal with lions, so we can sympathize with the poor woman in her trouble. But next day Macomber, faced with a buffalo, suddenly becomes a man of superb courage, and his wife, recognizing that[...] for the future she must be a virtuous wife, blows his head off. [...] To say that the psychology of this story is childish would be to waste good words. As farce it ranks with "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" or any other Victorian morality you can think of. Clearly, it is the working out of a personal problem that for the vast majority of men and women has no validity whatever.