Freudian Reading of \"The Short and Happy

¶ … Freudian Reading of "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber"

Diagnose Hemingway on the basis of the characters in Macomber. Freud felt that the work exemplified the author's mental state, so on the basis of the biography and the characters in the story, what might you conclude about Hemingway himself?

"The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is one of many of Ernest Hemingway's compelling and dense short stories. This paper will attempt to psychoanalyze Hemingway by critically reading and interpreting the themes, characters, and narrative of the short story. Hemingway was a man who was concerned with virility and masculinity as a writer and in his life. This story centers around a weak man married to a strong woman. Hemingway's female characters are often exceptionally alluring, but not because they are perfect or healthy. The women of Hemingway's stories and novels are imperfect, flawed, and often perceptibly imbalanced. Mrs. Macomber is dominant, beautiful, wealthy, and confident. She is not much like her husband Francis. The first instance we see him, he is being carried to his tent because of an injury. His wife, though, has triumphantly shot and killed a lion. The paper will show how the characters represent aspects of Hemingway's emotional state as well as foreshadow his tragic death.

If Freud or a Freudian analyst examined simply the opening scene, that person would comment on how often Mrs. Macomber emasculates Francis. She occupies the role traditionally held by the male in relationships. She is physically strong and beautiful. She is skilled with guns. She lacks fear or handles her fear well enough to definitively kill a powerful animal like a lion. Mrs. Macomber is also financially independent. She is a married woman, but there is mention of her as a spokesperson for beauty products. This piece was published in the 1930s, less than twenty years after women were granted the constitutional right to vote. Therefore, Mrs. Macomber is a feminist of her time. A Freudian analyst may also argue that Mrs. Macomber has penis envy. She envies the male penis in general, which is why her behaviors align more with behaviors more traditionally associated with men. One could also argue her alleged or implied affair with Wilson also demonstrates her penis envy; she envies the penis so much that she must have as many as she can, regardless of her marital status.

A man would shoot and kill the savage beast; a man would be financially stable and independent. If any partner would be more likely and more culturally acceptable to have an affair outside of marriage, it would stereotypically be the male partner. Thus, the presence of Mrs. Macomber is perplexing. Readers may infer that Hemingway believes that the strength of women emasculates men and is dangerous. Yet, many of Hemingway's female characters, when considering his body of work as a whole, are feminist is some way or another. Some of his female characters fight. Many of them enjoy the same leisure activities or professions as men. Many of his female characters are rich enough that they can choose to have a husband or lovers; they are not dependent on men.

Perhaps a more accurate and complicated reading of Mrs. Macomber and feminist characters like her is that Hemingway both respects and fears strong women. He is attracted to strong women because their strength is beautiful and alluring. He also fears them because he perceives that their strength somehow diminishes his strength and virility as a man. He wants to be both connected to strong women (as here Francis is linked to Mrs. Macomber through the institution of marriage), and at the same time he wants to be free to demonstrate his masculinity without her (as demonstrated when Francis and Wilson successfully hunt buffalo without the Mrs. ). Freud would say, that like many people, Hemingway fears what he desires. A Freudian read of Francis Macomber would also reveal that Francis was a masochist and that he and his wife maintained a sadomasochistic dynamic in their relationship. Neither of them needed to stay in the marriage, yet they remained married for over a decade. She painfully emasculated him; he endured it and probably enjoyed it on an unconscious level.

Perhaps the part that reveals the most about Hemingway the person is the ending, when Mrs. Macomber accidently shoots Francis in the head. Ernest Hemingway died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his later years. He was a long time alcoholic, who was treated for severe depression. Freud argued in The Interpretation of Dreams that dreams are, among other things, wishes. Freud might say that the story is a dream or a wish of Hemingway's. Dreams are expressions or wishes; artistic expressions, such as literature, express dreams or wishes of the author for him/herself or for the world. The story could have been the expression of a wish to die. If that were true, one could argue that Francis and Mrs. Macomber represent Hemingway. Hemingway is Francis is so far that he feels weak, loves women, but also hates or fears them. Hemingway was married four times. That expresses an unstable personality and unstable feelings toward women, but especially marriage.