, a rich young sportsman who goes lion-hunting in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber," learns that he goes into the bush after an animal he has wounded. In “ The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, weakness and fear is shown by Mr. Macomber and Mrs. Macomber. The wealthy couple faces fear and in turn become weak. "Hemingway relates to his life and expresses his fear and weakness through Mr. and Mrs. Macomber " (Atkins 50). Mr. Macomber is trying to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his wife and the hunter that is with them. From this moment on he must not only cease to betray his fear but he must also show positive courage. As a result, "Macomber and Mrs. Macomber are driven by a hard logic to regard weakness as a sin that must be punished mercilessly" (Atkins 51). Mr. Macomber has fear of the lion. His weakness was, of course, extreme and was expressed in an act of cowardice. Mrs. Macomber shows bravery by killing the lion for him, but she shows weakness by her adulterous sin and killing her husband because of her inability to face her mistake. Macomber's weakness deserved the bitterest humiliation and caused him to die. Therefore, when Mr. Macomber saw the lion, he acted in fear to survive by human nature and to be scared. Mrs. Macomber ultimately survives, but she now will have to survive the rest of her life with the memory of what she has done. Mr. Macomber, killed by his wife, lived his last few moments of life in fear. This humiliated him in front of his wife to the point where he did not want to survive, and just die. Mrs. Macomber kills her husband for having alienated the affections of the guide with whom she is having an affair with. "The Macomber Story, probably Hemingway's best known, has fear and survival for its characteristic situation" (Atkins 50). Hemingway’s problem is that “... he had not been discovered in any act of cowardice but he himself knew that Brady 4 he had been frighte...
