What Did Margaret Do??
Deja Boyd 1st
At the end of the story The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber Margaret (the wife) shot her husband in the head, aiming for a buffalo, and it killing him. In my opinion, Margaret unintentionally killed her husband. For starters Margaret is known to be a sneaky deceitful, and deceptive. For example she cheats on her husband with the man they hired to help them hunt while they are still on the safari! When confronted about it she insincerely admits to it and even blames the affair on Francis’ earlier coward like actions. Therefore if she was going to do something bold like kill her husband she would have done so in a more secretive devious way. Also Margaret has no problem saying how she feels no matter how cruel or insensitive it might be. In the story she flirts with Wilson in front of her husband. She constantly teased and taunted her husband after he displayed some rather cowardice actions in comparison with his legacy, even though he obviously felt bad about it. Therefore, if Margaret intentionally killed her husband when Wilson made comments about how Francis would eventually leave her anyway after he was dead, I believe she would have responded with more than a simple “stop it”. Also when Wilson asks Margaret “why didn't you just poison him” I believe that should would have said more than “stop it” if she intentionally killed her husband since she has had no problem stating her opinion in the past. Another piece of evidence that supports my argument would be the fact that Margaret did not shoot until the charging buffalo was very close to Francis. In the end when the buffalo and Francis were shot dead they were less than two yards apart! Margaret saw her husband’s life in the balance so she tried to help.
