The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

In the story “The short happy life of Francis Macomber” the author Ernest Hemingway introduces Robert Wilson as a safari guide, Macomber as a wealthy person and Margaret as Macomber’s wife. Macomber along with his wife goes for jungle safari to make their married life   more romantic and adventurous. According to the psychoanalysis theory of Lois Tyson, I feel that Francis Macomber is repressing himself when he expresses his embarrassment to Robert Wilson by asking him not to mention his cowardice to his mutual acquaintances when he says “I’m awfully sorry about that lion business. It doesn’t have to go any further, does it? I mean no one will hear about it, will they?” Macomber also experiences low self –esteem when Wilson and Margaret speak about Macomber’s cowardness for running away from a wounded lion and leaving it to Wilson to kill it. Besides that, I think Margaret is practicing avoidance by refusing to answer when she gets questioned by her husband for not being on her bed at 3 o’clock in the morning. Instead she replies saying “nothing as far as I’m concerned. But please let’s not talk, Darling, because I’m very sleepy.” Macomber’s displacement is evidenced when they go out to hunt buffalo. It can be witnessed that Macomber gets very mad at Wilson that he does not feel any fear and kills two of the three buffalo. I feel that Margaret is  having the feeling of fear of abandonment from his husband when she contemptuously says “you’ve gotten awfully brave ,awfully suddenly” and the narrator states that her contempt was not secure and was afraid of something.