Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber

In Hemingway’s short story “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses the writer’s technique of perspective to show readers the characterization of the three main protagonists in this story. Hemingway creates a multipart claim using perspective as well as dialogue to show readers a pervasive, negative tone carried throughout the story. Wilson, Margaret, and Macomber are characterized by multiple perspectives with multiple traits and negative aspects to their characters.
In this story, readers are introduced to Robert Wilson as a extremely critical and selfish hunter who takes Mr and Mrs. Macomber on a hunt to be their safari guide and ends up having a change in judgement. In the example, “Now what in hell were you going to do about
Margaret is Mr.Macomber’s wife who is exceedingly dramatic and finds joy in putting others down but toward the end of the story she has a shift and gains fear. Margaret says, “I suppose I could,” she said, “since you put it so prettily”. In this example, Margaret is shown to be dramatic and flirty. A reader can see that she is dramatic and flirty because she flirts with Wilson by talking about how he talks “so prettily”. This shows that she is disloyal to her husband and doesn’t care how he feels. She is a flirt because she goes around flirting and sleeping with whoever she wants. Through this example, readers can see Margaret’s perspective toward Mr. Wilson and how she likes to flirt with him. Subsequently, Margaret puts down Mr.Macomber and makes him feel worthless when she goes and sleeps with Wilson. She continues to call him a coward as the reader progresses through the story. Through this example, Margaret uses her internal dialogue to make Macomber feel useless by calling him a coward so she can make herself feel better. This example shows how she enjoys making Macomber mad and finds happiness in putting people down. This only continues to make her look worse to Wilson because she puts others down for her advantage. With this example, readers can see through Margaret’s perspective that to her, Macomber is nothing but a “bloody coward” and isn’t a real man. Toward the end of the story, Margaret starts
Macomber and he first comes off as a coward and insecure, but soon after he opens up and becomes fearless and courageous. Toward the beginning of the story, Macomber says, “‘Yes, we take a beating,’ said Macomber, still not looking at him. ‘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?’” In this example, Macomber is seen as a coward because he is afraid of what others will think. He fears that Wilson will tell other people that Macomber does not kill the lion and everyone will know that he isn’t brave enough to kill a lion. Through Macomber’s dialogue, readers can see how he is a coward because he is constantly asking questions out of fear. Macomber’s perspective helps to develop his character traits of being fearful and cowardly. Subsequently,Macomber says,“No, I want to go…I want to go”.Through this example, readers can see that Macomber is insecure. He seems insecure because he immediately says he does want to hunt when Wilson asks if he still wants to go out and hunt. He only says yes because he does not want to look like a coward in front of Wilson and Margaret. Macomber only wants to fit in because he is always the coward in the situation. Macomber’s perspective helps to develop traits of insecurity through this example. At the end of the story, Macomber says, “You know, I’d like to try another lion,” Macomber said. “I’m really not