one’s life. It is no coincidence that Margot is the one who kills him. The unresolved debate is whether she murdered or accidentally killed Macomber. If she purposefully shoots him, she has preserved her dominance and ensures that she will keep his wealth (possibly the only reason she married him). If the shot is accidental, the moment is tender, as well as tragic. She has just observed her husband become a man, and though she fears the end of their relationship, she is invigorated with energy to start afresh. Margot picks up the gun to defend her husband, trying to save him in the face of danger. For once, husband and wife are both on the same side, shooting at the same bull. It is tragically ironic that she kills the man she is trying to save, but such is Hemingway’s commentary on life. The sweetest moments are short-lived. A third interpretation of Margot’s shot is that she is trying to regain dominance over her husband by killing the bull herself. If this is the case, she wins back her power, but destroys the thing she is trying to control. The bullet accomplishes exactly what she was trying to avoid. Reception "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has been acclaimed as one of Hemingway's most successful artistic achievements. The characters are ambiguously complex, which has generated vigorous debate over their motivations. In the estimation of critic Kenneth G. Johnston, "the prevailing critical view is that she deliberately—or at best, 'accidentally on purpose'—murdered him", but there are many, including Johnston himself, who hold the opposite view. Hemingway scholar Carlos Baker calls Margot Macomber "easily the most unscrupulous of Hemingway's fictional females"; a woman "who is really and literally deadly" and who "covets her husband's money but values even more her power over him." Literary critic and early mentor to Hemingway Edmund Wilson observed bluntly, “The men in …these African stories are married to American bitches of the most soul-destroying sort.” Other authors who hold similar views regarding Margot include Philip Young, Leslie A. Fiedler and Frank O'Connor. One question is whether Hemingway intended Robert Wilson as a heroic figure, embodying his ideal of the courageous, hyper-masculine male. Critics who argue for Margot's innocence are likely to doubt this view of Wilson. Margot's intention is challenged by Wilson when he asks after the shooting "Why didn't you poison him? That's what