Francis Macomber

In the short story,”The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” by Ernest Hemingway, he uses the author’s craft of perspective as well as dialogue and internal dialogue to form a multi-part claim that develops an overall negative characterization of the three main characters. With the development of Margaret’s character, one of the story's protagonists, Hemingway develops her characters as flirty, cruel, and fearful. Throughout the short story, one can see how Margaret is flirty. Hemingway creates this characterization through the perspectives of Wilson and Macomber as well as a third person narrator. Margaret is very flirty in her conversation with Mr. Wilson in front of her husband. “No,” said Margaret. “It’s mine that’s red today. But

This characterization is made from the perspectives of Wilson and Macomber as well as with dialogue between Macomber and Margaret. Wilson’s inner thoughts reveal “She’s damn cruel, but they’re all cruel. They govern, of course, and to govern one has to be cruel sometimes” (pg. 6).Wilson is talking about how cruel Margaret is as well as women as a group. He has seen many women control, manipulate, and attempt to govern their husbands just as he witnesses Margaret when she does the same behaviors to her husband. Through this use of internal dialogue one can see how Wilson thinks that Margaret is very cruel to her husband.Another example of Margaret’s cruelty is when Macomber confronts his wife when she returns from having sex with Wilson.Macomber starts out by saying, “That’s a new name for it. You are a bitch.” “Well, you’re coward” (pg.16). Macomber calls his wife a bitch because she chooses to have an affair with their safari guide. She treats her husband without any respect. At this point in the story, Macomber begins to become more confident, so he stands up for himself. After he calls her a bitch for cheating on him, she turns around and calls him a coward. Margaret does this without acknowledging that she has done this several times before. In calling her husband a coward, Margaret sees it as only fair that she has sex with another man, further developing her cruel, heartless nature. Hemingway used dialogue between the married couple to further expose to show her brutal attitude.Macomber’s perspective is shown in this last example through the narrator's point of view as third person.“Macomber’s wife had not looked at him, nor he at her and he had sat by her in the back seat with Wilson sitting in the front seat on page 2.” The narrator is showing how Margaret is very cruel by showing how she doesn’t even bother looking at her own husband when has did something successful. It is showing how she