The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber: Plot Summary and Analysis

This assignment analyzes Ernest Hemingway's short story, 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.' The solution provides a detailed summary of the plot, focusing on the protagonist's hunting trip in South Africa with his wife, Margot, and the professional hunter, Wilson. The assignment explores the setting, the dynamics of the Macomber's marriage, and the impact of perspective shifts on the reader. The analysis delves into the theme of marriage, highlighting the story's portrayal of relationships in a wealthy society and the consequences of superficial connections. The paper examines how Hemingway develops the theme of marriage through character interactions and plot events, emphasizing the lack of respect, pride, and genuine affection in the Macombers' relationship, ultimately leading to a tragic conclusion.

RUNNING HEAD- ENGLISH 1
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QUESTION ANSWERS
BASED ON-
THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER BY HEMINGWAY

ENGLISH 2
1. Compose a fairly detailed summary of the plot.
The story revolves around a social and political intervention of thoughts in sex and
marriage. The main character, named, Francis Macomber, is rich man who develops
interest in wildlife creatures and hunting for bearing his high developed tastes. He
visits South Africa for an interesting wildlife safari along with his wife, Margot, who
marries her husband for wealth. He manages to walk the jungle with the help of
Wilson and his gun bearing men. Firstly, a wounded lion scares him off but then, he
tries to keep up his image with pride and valour, so he kills a beast in the jungle and
soon after that realised that his wife did the same and killed him. Hemingway has
created the story in a simple yet a beautiful manner of explaining the harsh realities
of humankind.
2. Setting analysis - Define where and when this story takes place and present proof of
this being true.
A) When?
This story takes place back in times when rich people had interests that satisfied
their pride and increased their respect in the community. Hence, one rich man
named Macomber is said to have weird interests of hunting. Although, the man
could not live up to the image that he created for himself of a good hunter.
b) Where?
The story takes place in the jungles of south Africa when the character and his wife
goes for hunting session in jungle safari with the assistance of gunners and a trained
hunter named, Wilson (Hemingway, 2019).
3. Is the Macomber marriage a perfect match or a disaster? Use information from the
short story to formulate your answers.
Macomber’s marriage, as per the story was not a perfect marriage as the lady,
Margot, got into the relationship because of Macomber’s wealth and rich estates.
She did not respect his character and also was not really proud of his talent. A
perfect marriage is the one which does not involve money in the matter and the
husband wife is respectful about each other. This becomes more evident when his
wife moves away with the safari guide for the night in front of Macomber.

ENGLISH 3
4. How does shifting from Macomber’s to the lion’s perspective affect the reader’s
experience of their hunting encounter?
Macomber was thought to be a rich man with a great taste in hunting activities. He
had always tried to attract his wife with his skills and power but she did not pay any
heed to him. The readers were made to think of Macomber as strong man in this
starting of the story till the time when he finally finds a lion and gets scared of it. This
annoys his wife even more and she moves with Wilson at the night. This story takes a
turn as Macomber is proved to be a coward and his wife proves her disinterest in
him (McManus, 2019).
5. Discussion: Choose ONE of the following central ideas and show how Hemingway
develops that topic into a theme throughout his story. Always use examples from the
text.
Taking the theme as “marriage”-
The writer tries to put a picture of marriages in the rich society. Women often prefer
rich men for a relationship like marriage to attain all goods and happiness but a
marriage is more than money and requires respect, pride and attention towards the
partner which lacks in the marriage of Macomber and Margot. Margot did not like
her husband and Macomber always failed in his attempts to impress her with his
extraordinary qualities. She does not respect his efforts and while he misses to hunt
the lion in the jungle, running away scared, she chooses to stay with the hunk guide
named Wilson for the whole night. It has been proved that a marriage which is based
on fake relationships and commitment cannot stay successful for too long. As soon
as Margot realises that her husband would not divorce and split away, so she
mockingly and cunningly pointed gun towards his head and instantly killed him. A
different aspect of marriage is been discussed in the following story which shows us
the extreme measure and turns that a relationship can take with a lack of
satisfaction and love (Hardy, 1991).

ENGLISH 4
References
Hardy, D. (1991). Strategic politeness in Hemingway's ‘the short happy life of Francis
Macomber’. Poetics, 20(4), 343-362. doi: 10.1016/0304-422x(91)90014-g
Hemingway, E. (2019). The Short Happy life of Francis Macomber. Retrieved from
http://www.english.unt.edu/~simpkins/Macomber.pdf
McManus, D. (2019). The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway.
Retrieved from http://sittingbee.com/the-short-happy-life-of-francis-macomber-ernest-
hemingway/