At the beginning of this relationship she does not doubt male intentions, accomplishing the type of the Gothic virgin, an ideal women role of the time ( naive, educated, kept away from men). Later on her first night at the Heights, Hindley, Catherine’s older brother, shows Isabella the gun he want to use to kill Heathcliff when he has a chance. After this occurrence Isabella tells Nelly, “how powerful I should be possessing such an instrument!”, which is the first time that she began to think that she is not a victim.
However, she still thinks about romance with Heathcliff until she tells Nelly, “I’ve recovered from my first desire to be killed by him: I’d rather he’d kill himself! He has extinguished my love effectually, and so I’m at my ease”, which means she wants him dead because does not love him anymore, which pushes her to take an important and unconventional decision. She leaves her abusive relationship, escaping from the Heights, which is a heroic act for a woman of the 1800s by breaking free from the stereotypes. She enters the Grange, “out of breath and laughing” and throws her wedding ring on the floor, as she was transformed into a different person.
This transformation shows women empowerment. From a proper lady like behavior ;until she married Heathcliff, an experience which makes her reveal her survival skills and ends her naivety; to a wise women, facing the reality and finding her way to escape from the critical situation without depending on a “hero” to come save her. She became independent, a trait challenging the women’s ideally at the time and also indicating again the role women had on the story, emphasizing that escaping from a marriage also shows a declining male dominance in a women’s life, which was represented as unusual in the 1800s , since the man held that controlling role in the society. Leading female character, Margot in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway also demonstrates women’s important role in the plot of this short story beginning at East Africa, with the hunting of a lion as a symbol of manhood. Margot, is represented as a symbol of not following conventional rules, just as Catherine and Isabelle are also portrayed, she is vicious, predator, gorgeous but her beauty is decorated with that“American female cruelty”as Hemingway calls it.
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The central focus on these two characters points out the expectations of ideal social roles that must be followed: Macomber needs to be a good husband and brave; Margot, as his wife needs to be lovely and, being a married women, she needs to love her husband as well. However, this is not how they are. Margot is not a good wife as she cheats on Macomber with William, the professional hunter(symbol of a male conventional role) and Macomber himself is a coward. Thus we can say the story and its characters, especially women do not conform with their proper roles in the society. Furthermore Margot can be considered a wild symbol of a woman; She is not delicate but wildness, courageous and beauty. “Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him”, suggesting that Margot’s only married Macomber for his money, and social status, and him to her because of her beauty.
This act of being married without being in love with your partner, also goes against the perfect marriage and the norms of the time. Margot being unfaithful to her husband is another act breaking the social values. Marriage which is such a sacred thing that happens once in entire life should be done by a couple loving each other, and strengthening each other whatever happens to them. Margaret and Macombre being married for eleven years, ideally they should have commitment of their marriage, respect and love each other. Yet, this situation doesn’t happen to them because they may think that Marriage is their way to get what they want. Francis needs a beautiful woman, like Margaret to be his “doll” to take his level of society higher, while Margot also needs a kind of man like Francis Macomber, because a rich man is one way to buy everything she wants. So, in completing these conditions they are supposed to be happy being with each other.
The author here wants to tell the reader about this social value that a perfect marriage filled by perfect couple having everything does not always end with a happy ending. This is relatable to the story because its end is tragic as the wife, Margot kills her husband, Francis. Hemingway also wants to break the stereotypes: “a marriage always filled by a couple who loves each other”, which is proven when Margot cheats on her husband, meaning she doesn’t love him. The kind of women, a woman who denies characteristics as fragility and dependence from men is another way women are portrayed in Hemingway’s stories. The characteristic presented is essential on understanding Macomber’s murder, a man who does not assume his position may not be accepted by a female. Macomber was not able to kill the lion, the animal that symbolize strength and domination over other animals in the Savanna, making his wife feel ashamed of him. Knowing her husband’s cowardly exposes Margot’s superiority, and makes her keep Macomber where she wants. However, the situation changes when the bravery of Francis begins to emerge, which creates an issue for Margot, who loses her power over Macomber, a motif that might have led her kill him.
Any yet, it is debatable by many readers/critics whether she killed her husband intentionally or accidentally. One argument might be that Margot as a dominating woman who undermines her husband’s masculinity, but then threatened when he starts to become a real man might have pushed her to intentionally end her husband life. While some others may have a more sympathetic, feminist view of Margot and consider the killing of her husband an obvious accident. According to many critics, nevertheless Hemingway himself hinted hint that Macomber’s death was murder. He dies when he is truly starting to live,that is what makes his life happy, but short. His death represents the rising of femininity and masculinity disempower. Women in Hemingway’s stories are also portrayed as obstacles to their male lives rather than positive contributors to the action. In general, the author treats Margot as a necessary evil in this story, as an unbeneficial but primary component of the existence of his male characters. In the end she is a bit of a mystery. Given all what the author leaves out of the story, we’re not sure if we’re supposed to like her, or to think of her as a selfish, cold-hearted wife. However, one thing is certain; her beauty and wits are a threat to her husband’s masculinity, which is unconventional to the time written, again this according to Hemingway.
Yes, she is powerful but only in a cruel way, and we are left wondering if author agrees with Wilson’s judgement that she’s not more than a typically horrible American woman. Although Hemingway’s female character Margot Macomber is depicted as “bitch” by male critics, she can arguably be the modern feminist “new woman”, as she shows distinctive ‘new woman’ qualities, a term defined: a spiteful, selfish, ill-tempered woman who stops at nothing to reach her goals and a “active, direct, obnoxious, independent, stubborn, demanding, achieving, strong-minded.” Another critic stated that this term was also often used by men who felt threatened by a woman, which can be applied to the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Macomber felt threatened by Margot who was trying to weaken him. And he even calls her a bitch, ‘That’s a new name for it. You are a bitch.’ An to us it may appear that Margot was such, since she committed adultery however, because this short story was written in 1930’s, Margot is considered the new woman, a woman thinks for herself, who doesn’t abide by everything her husband asks, and true to herself.
Having all these characteristics and taking the actions she did, was essential to how the story ends and also shows the emergence of the “new women”, breaking the stereotypes. In conclusion both stories, The Wuthering Heights and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber depict women’s different from others of their time and portrays them as powerful, independent by breaking the social norms, as these female characters turned out not to play their ideal female role on the society, which was best applied to Catherine, Isabelle and Margot characters. Because women were defined by men in the roaring 1920’s, the “New Woman” emerged as the feminist ideal, a woman who pushed the limits set by a male dominated society. Before females had to agree to serve, and be obedient to her man, but the new women were called Bitches because they refused to do so. However these women only wanted to challenge gender stereotypes and get gender equality. The social norms placed on women during the early 1900’s originated from Victorian ideals and the male dominated society that saw mankind as male, and female as something other than male, but slowly were changing as women started to change themselves too.
