Wilson And Macomber

In Hemingway’s short story, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” Hemingway uses the writer’s craft of perspective to develop the characterization of the three protagonists. Wilson, Margaret, and Macomber’s characterization is developed through multiple perspectives which creates a negative tone throughout the story.
As the short story goes on, Mr. WIlson’s judgement of Francis Macomber is one of dislike, to then one of condemning, and finally, to one of liking. To demonstrate, Wilson’s first thoughts on Macomber are expressed here, “So he’s a bloody four-letter man as well as a bloody coward, he thought. I rather liked him too until today.” Using this quote, one gets to see how Wilson feels about Macomber after running from the lion

For example, Margaret’s cruelty to her husband is conveyed when Wilson thinks, “She’s damn cruel but they’re all cruel.” Using this evidence, readers can see how Margaret is cruel to her husband after he ran away from the lion out of fear. Her cruelty is expressed by her constantly insulting her husband and taunting him. This quote also helps to see how her abuse can be seen by everybody. Using Wilson’s perspective on the situation, readers can see how Margaret’s cruelty affects everybody. Hemingway’s craft of characterization is also expressed by using Wilson’s thoughts being heard by a third-person narrator. This third-person narrator helps to create a tone that is primarily negative and pervasive. After, Margaret is going to continue to be very cruel to her husband by taunting him. Because of Macomber’s cowardice with the lion, Margaret decides to make him feel worse about it. She does this by provoking by kissing Mr. Wilson on the mouth. Using this example, Margaret can clearly be seen as a woman who constantly teases her husband. Kissing Mr. Wilson shows that she sees him as the “hero”, while also shaming Macomber for his cowardice. In order to make her husband stay in her control, she brings him down by bringing up the business with the lion and how he reacted to it to make him feel bad about what he did and to make him feel like he did

At first, Macomber’s cowardliness is expressed when even he acknowledges his fear of the lion. He says, “‘I bolted like a rabbit’ Macomber said”. Using this quote, readers can see how Macomber expresses his cowardice and even expounds upon it. He does this by saying that he ran away from the lion like a rabbit would do. Using Macomber’s dialogue, readers can see how Hemingway crafts his characters. As a reader, one can see how Hemingway also uses that dialogue with others in order to present a tone that can be perceived as negative. Later, Macomber once again expresses his cowardice by being afraid of chasing down the lion whenever it decides to hide in the grass. Additionally, Macomber is very scared to go search for the lion after it hides. At one point, he even says, “I don’t want to go in there.” Also, he tries to find multiple ways out of going to search for it by providing “answers” to his problem. This example shows Macomber’s cowardice when trying to deal with the lion after it hides in the grass. He, once again, expresses his distaste and fear by saying that he doesn’t wanna chase the lion. By trying to provide possible solutions to kill the lion, he shows how he is too cowardly to go and do it himself. Hemingway’s craft is expressed through the characterization of Macomber being a