Bijay Bajracharya

Elizabeth A.Whitley

ENG 201-096

April 29, 2012

                       The Short Happy life of Francis Macomber

  In “The Short Happy life of Francis Macomber” the author Hemingway’s theme of the story is courage which a man should posses. He introduces three major characters, Francis Macomber, Margot Macomber and Robert Wilson. The author describes Robert Wilson as a man with lots of courage where as Macomber is described as a cowardice. Margot Macomber plays the role of Francis’s wife in which she dominates Francis and gives him no respect at all. It is noticed that the relationship status between Francis and Margot is very complicated because Francis loves Margot for her beauty whereas Margot loves Francis for his wealth. It is evident when the author says “His wife had been through with him before but it never lasted. He was wealthy, and would be much wealthier, and he knew she would never leave him ever now” (Hemingway 11).

To make their relation more romantic and adventurous, they decide to go on a safari in a forest of Nairobi, Kenya where Robert Wilson turns out to be their safari guide. According to the psychoanalysis theory of Lois Tyson, “The clearest sign that an emotional problem is being repressed is the repetition of a self-destructive behavior, such as choosing unhealthy friends or romantic partners" (Tyson 25). It can be found that Francis Macomber is repressing the fact that his wife does not love him truly but for his wealth when the author says “His wife had been through with him before but it never lasted. He was wealthy, and would be much wealthier, and he knew she would never leave him ever now” (Hemingway 11). During their safari Francis gets chased by a wounded lion and leaves it to Wilson to kill it. He urges Wilson not to mention his cowardice to his mutual acquaintances. According to the psychoanalysis theory of Lois Tyson, it is found that Wilson is practicing avoidance when Wilson says “Nonsense. Let’s have a spot of the giant killer, Forget the whole thing. Nothing to it anyway” (2).

“Low self-esteem" is the belief that we are less worthy than other human beings and, therefore, don’t deserve attention, love, or any other form of life reward” (Tyson, 27) Francis low self-esteem is evidenced when the author states, “He was miserably ashamed at it. But more than shame he felt cold, hollow fear in him. The fear was still there like a cold slimy hollow in all the emptiness where his confidence has been and it made him feel sick”(5).Besides that, Margot is also found 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” (11).

    According to Lois Tyson “We are Displacing when we take out our negative feeling about one person on someone else that we can relieve our pain or anger without becoming aware of the real cause of our repressed feelings”(26). Macomber’s displacement is evidenced when they go out to hunt buffalo. It can be witnessed that Macomber gets very mad at Wilson for sleeping with his wife that he does not feel any fear and kills two of the three buffalo (15).  I feel that Margot is having the feeling of fear of abandonment from his husband when Francis kills the buffaloes .She observes that Francis has gained confidence in himself and he might leave her. She contemptuously says “you’ve gotten awfully brave, awfully suddenly… the narrator states that her contempt was not secure and was afraid of something” (18).

                                           Work Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. The Finca Vigia Edition ed. New York,NY: Simon Schuster, 1992. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Learning for a Diverse World: Using Critical Theory to Read and Write about Literature. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print