Francis Macomber

Francis Macomber is a man of enough wealth that he can afford a private, guided hunting trip in Africa. He is a man of questionable courage who is more comfortable shooting from the car than stalking his prey on foot. His humiliation at being cuckolded prompts him to an act of foolish bravery that reveals in its outcome his wife's lack of faith in him. His marriage to Margot is not a happy one, but Hemingway tells us that "Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him." After he flees from a lion that he has wounded, his wife sleeps with their guide, Robert Wilson. Hemingway's statement that Macomber "was dressed in the same sort of safari clothes that Wilson wore except that his were new" illustrates the essential difference between these two men. Wilson is what Macomber pretends to be-a hunter and, at...