Margaret

In the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, there is definitely a surprise ending. In an "attempt to kill the bull," or as the author would like you to believe, Margaret actually shoots Francis in the back of the head. After the event takes place she is crying and kind of acting like this was all an accident, but the Hunter, Robert Wilson, is accusing her of the murder of her husband. If you ask me, it seems that she shot her husband on purpose, and Wilson was right about her all along. When you look at Francis and Margaret’s relationship over the past few days of the story, they have been arguing a lot, going back and forth between who is superior in their marriage. She even cheated on him right in front of his face when she kissed Wilson and later left the tent in the middle of the night, then lied about it. As the short story states, however, neither one of them would be willing to leave the other because they simply have it too good with one another. Margaret was in it mostly for the money, while Francis stayed simply because he was not good with women. Over the past few days, Margaret had begun to feel superior to her husband because of his hunting failure. This made her feel more confident in the fact that he would not leave her. Toward the end of the story, when he has a successful hunt, he begins to gain confidence in himself. This probably threatens Margaret, since she wanted to be the one to call the shots in the relationship. Also, she feels that he now has the power within himself to leave her. When she sees her opportunity, she shoots and kills him because this way he is unable to leave their marriage, and it gives her the upper hand once again.

What did Margaret do?

     In The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Hemingway includes a very unexpected ending. From the title, we know that he had a short life, so one may be able to predict that he dies somewhere in the story. However, it would be quite difficult to predict the actual ending. At the end of this short story, Francis becomes really excited and confident in himself, so Wilson decides they should go back and finish off the bull. Once they are face to face with the bull, they are struggling to kill it. They shoot it many times, but each time they somehow miss their mark. Seeing the men having trouble, Margaret takes the gun from beside her and shoots it; however, instead of the intended target, she hits Francis. Now, in the literal sense, this is the complete answer. She shot her husband. But why? The story makes this incident seem like it was unintentional. To me, it seems that Margaret intentionally meant to shoot him because she wanted to leave the marriage. In the story, Hemingway says that Margaret would never leave Francis because he had a lot of money and he would only make more. It also argues that Francis would never leave Margaret because he was not very good with women, and he was afraid that he would not be able to find another if he left her. So basically at this point in their marriage, they were stuck in a dead end relationship. I think that on some level, Margaret could no longer stand the idea of staying with Francis, so in that moment she shot him. Besides what she did literally, she also set herself free, physically and emotionally.

6 Six Word Sentences

In that moment, she only sighed.

I wish you wouldn't leave again.

Some things will just never change.

This is so far from over.

Sometimes, just think: all or nothing.

I'm too busy, overwhelmed, and tired.