Fame Kills

Death is a recurring menace that must be confronted in Ernest Hemingway’s stories, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” is no exception. Francis indeed died bravely facing a beast that all men would flee, but the beast by which he was killed exuded beauty and had held his trust for many years. This beast had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to shoot Francis Macomber.

This beast has a name, Margaret, or Margot for short. Margot clearly had the means to shoot & kill her husband. Early on in the safari, after Francis had fled from the lion like a coward, Margot questioned Wilson the hunter: “Wilson is really very good at killing anything. You do kill anything, don’t you?” she asked. Margot’s strange request demonstrates how Margot has quickly gone from feeling ashamed of her husband to taking an interest in ending his life. The conversation continues with Wilson encouraging Margot’s little idea. He explains that there aren’t any limits to the game he hunts. “Oh, anything. Simply anything.” Evidently, Wilson is telling Margaret that he’ll kill what she wants him to, and that he understands exactly what she wants. Before leaving for the final hunt, Wilson says “we’ll leave the Mannlicher in the car.” Since Margot shot Francis from the car, clearly she had the perfect weapon to carry it out. On p. 35, Wilson says "don't try anything fancy, take the easiest shot there is,” foreshadowing the death of Macomber.

Margot had the taunting motive of greed and fame in the murder of her husband. Margot and Francis are public figures. “This columnist had reported them on the verge at least three times in the past and they had been. Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much ...

... middle of paper ...

...ure that Francis would die that day. She didn’t want some animal doing it for her. She wanted to be the one to shoot her husband dead.

Bringing your spouse on an African safari in a time when Africa is not well known to Westerners is a very enticing thing to do for someone who is contemplating the murder of her husband. It is very likely that Margot will get off without a conviction for this murder case, if there even is one. Margot isn’t going to be finding another husband soon due to her degenerate looks and the lack of age-defying plastic surgeries in the time. It was brilliant to her that she kill Francis and inherit his mass amount of funds so that she’d be well off herself. She had such a perfect chance to kill him that she’d have regretted not doing it. The evidence is great enough to prove that this beautiful beast was the murderer of Francis Macomber.