Ernest Hemingway Failed Relationships during His Life - Research Paper Example

Ernest Hemingway failed relationships during his life greatly affected the way that he wrote about women in his stories. Ernest Hemingway had successive failed relationships with women throughout his life. He developed a deep contempt for women, which is reflected in his literary works. The negative feelings of Ernest Hemingway towards his mother, lovers and wives arose in him due to one reason: a deeply rooted conflict in his mind and soul between an ideal and a real woman. He was way too judgmental and critical towards women in general. Their intellect; attributes; and skills did not impress him; and he was never convinced that a woman had the power to strengthen her man emotionally and financially. He always associated dark and negative powers with women. He has described time and again accomplished women in his short stories; most of these characters are the fictional representatives of the women he met in his real life. His second wife, Pauline and fourth wife Mary Welsh, worked for the Vogue and the Time magazines, respectively. His mother and wives were all accomplished women, but Hemingway could not sustain his relationships with them. “Hemingway’s initial need to see each of his four wives as an ideal figure contributed to the destruction of these marriages, for no real woman could always behave as such an ideal must…But after each failed marriage Hemingway began again his search for the Queen of Heaven, the ideal woman, a search that he justified by nostalgic reference to the golden age of his relatively brief first marriage with Hadley Richardson…Hemingway’s relationships with women thus see-sawed between chivalric adoration of the supposed ideal and subsequent contempt when the woman proved other than ideal”. (Moreland, 198) He believes that women are endowed with destructive powers: the power to annihilate the physical, mental and emotional aspects of men and of society in general. Women either got this negative energy and power from their wealth or beauty. He represents women as killers, bitches, cunning and manipulative beings. In ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber’, Margot plays the role of a murderess that cheats on her husband unashamedly. She is drawn towards both men for different reasons: her husband, Francis because he provides her the luxuries of her life; and Wilson, the white hunter whom she thinks as very handsome and sexually attractive. She makes sexual advances on him in the presence of her husband by kissing him on his mouth, as a tribute to his bravery and skill at hunting. Earlier, her husband had behaved cowardly at shooting, and in order to insult him she admires the white hunter’s achievements by kissing him. She shoots her husband in such a cunning manner so as to make it look like an accident. Margot is an attractive woman and she uses her beauty as a weapon. One can understand from the conversation between the husband and the wife that Margot has previously cheated on her husband as well. He is fully aware of the disgust that she feels for him; and the bond that has kept them together is based on her beauty and his wealth. Her husband is dead sure that she would never leave him because of her weakness for the wealth and luxuries that he has provided to her; and he would not find another woman who is as attractive as her. Had they both other alternatives, the marriage would have had dissolved a long time back. Francis Macomber is killed by Margot in cold blood. She performs this act with utter confidence and with no regrets. Wilson, the white hunter saw the cunningness in her the moment he first saw her. He despises all ‘American women’ and thinks that ‘they are the damndest of all.’ In this short story, the disgust of both men for the woman is evident; yet both are sexually drawn towards her. This is exactly what Hemingway thinks of women in general. They are gifted with the dark powers of seduction and destruction. In ‘The snows of Kilminjaro’, Harry believes that his wife, Helen has killed his talent by spoiling him with her wealth. He blames her for the death of his writing-talent. As he lies on his death bed, he regrets being with her and wishes that he had carried out his passion of writing. He also poignantly remembers his one and only lover with whom he had split up a long time back. One can associate the character of Harry with Hemingway, regarding his relationships with women. Hemingway’s male characters despise wealthy women because they believe that it gave them immense power to subjugate their manly rights. Harry is not appreciative of the fact that Helen has supported him with her wealth. She is a caring and loving person; yet, he doesn’t feel love or affection for her. He believes that he has always been successful in making women happy with his lies rather than the truth. Helen is represented as an experienced hunter. Helen is the symbolic representation of a killer, whose wealth and good qualities have rendered nothing but destructed the talent of her husband. Hemingway believed that women were either real life killers or symbolic killers. He had an estranged relationship with his mother since his adolescence. He believed that she was responsible for his father’s suicide; and hence, he sees her as a murderess too. He often professed his hatred for his mother in public. “Hemingway himself both blamed and hated his mother, refusing even to attend her funeral…” (Wagner-Martin, 126) In his short stories of ‘The Mother of a Queen’ and ‘Soldier’s Home’, the relationship between a mother and a son represent Hemingway’s personal feelings for his own mother. A bull fighter refuses to pay for the grave of his mother; as a result her remains are thrown on the public bone heap. Ironically, he pays for the grave of a stranger’s mother. He prefers to spend his money on women and on buying suits, but not for the grave of his own mother. He believes that his mother died when he was so young, that he doesn’t even remember having a mother; and hence, he feels no obligation whatsoever. Similarly, in ‘Soldier’s Home’, the tension between a mother and a son is very obvious. Harold Kribbs is apprehensive of the parental authority of his mother. He tells her rudely that he doesn’t love her; and he feels sick and nauseated when his mother says that she had held him close to her heart when he was a baby. The feelings of disgust and rejection of the parental authority shown by Kribbs are identical to the feelings of Hemingway himself. Hemingway believes that women are weak in character and morals. They are not intelligent although he has represented most of his heroines in his short stories as modern, educated and skilled women. “Instead, Hemingway’s heroines are women “without shame,” who flee civilization and its discontents with their lovers-… Hemingway women do not share suburban kitchens and bedrooms with their men, but campfires, and safari cots and bedrolls under the stars. Like Helen in ‘The snows of Kilminjaro’, or Marge in “The end of something,” they are hunters and sometimes fisherwomen.” (Wagner-Martin, 56) Hemingway’s own mother was a trained musician who performed in the local theatre and musicals. He had grown up in a progressive world where women worked shoulder to shoulder with men. The world was rapidly changing as a result of which the balance of power between men and women was taking a rapid shift. The realities of the world had changed enormously after the two World Wars. Women had to cope with the changing trends of the world by quitting their domesticity to enter the professional world. “In the game of sexual politics the American man had lost the power. The woman controls him. The regain of power for him was useless for he is destroyed by his woman. This is vividly painted in the short story of ‘The short happy life of Francis Macomber’. American woman lost her domesticity. This loss stood in the way of working out a satisfactory sex relationship under the conditions pervading the modern world”. (Meshram, 55-56) The conflict that led to the failure of all his relationships with women deepened and strengthened with the passage of time because he believed that women could not attain a balance in their personalities; personal, social and professional lives. They were unable to embrace the concept of modernity, while retaining their virtues and values. In some of his short stories, he depicts such women who want to regain their domesticity and conventional roles as women. “…the two extremes in Hemingway’s fictional treatment of women. In one group are the “deadly” females… the horrible example would presumably be someone like Margot Macomber, who is really and literally deadly….At the other extreme would stand the allegedly docile and submissive mistress-types…” (Baker, 110) Ironically, both the types of women do not represent healthy individuals of a society. They are unable to contribute to their familial or social lives. This is indeed not true, because the role of women as responsible members of the society cannot be ignored. ‘Up in Michigan’ describes a docile young woman, Liz who secretly adores Jim. The contrast between the submissiveness and masochism between the two characters is very obvious. Jim realizes that he could easily take sexual advantage of Liz, which he does so one night. Liz is startled by his advances but meekly gives away her virginity to him. However, she feels physical and emotional pain as she walks away from the sleeping Jim. Another example of meek and docile women is shown in ‘Cat in the Rain’. The American wife seems dissatisfied with her current state of life. She wishes for everything that she doesn’t have. She suddenly yearns for possessing a ‘kitty’; she wants to grow her hair and get rid of the boyish appearance. Her inner struggle between what she really is and what she is forced to become, is highlighted in this piece of fiction. Her husband represents the force of the society that dictates certain norms to be followed by its members. The modern world required a lot more from women than their docility and submissiveness. An underlying tension between husband and wife in particular; and between an individual and the society is depicted by Hemingway. This tension might have resulted in the failure of his relationships with women. In ‘Homage to Switzerland’, a waitress represents a vulnerable and meek woman who has to deal with indecent jokes by the clients in the café. “Hemingway then framed his central panel with Mr. Wheeler’s heartless propositioning of the waitress at Montreux, a sexual joke, for Mr. Wheeler knows there is no place at the station to carry out a rendezvous. Mr. Wheeler, we are told, “never took chances.” Mr. Wheeler, in fact, is a homosexual who “did not care for women.”(425) His brief interlude is a joke but a bitter one.” (Beegel, 260-261) Feminist writers of the twentieth century have attacked Hemingway for the contempt, disregard and humiliation of women in his fiction. “Many famous authors such as Earnest Hemingway showed a complete contempt of women”. (Nicholson, 62) He has dealt with the issue of abortion in his short story titled ‘Hills like White Elephants’, in an ambiguous manner. Some critics believe that Jig agreed to go for abortion, while others suggest that she decides to have the baby. Hemingway could not settle down with one woman all his life because his restlessness and quest for the perfect and ideal woman carried him to the arms and beds of one woman to the other. He could never overcome the rejection of Agnes, his first love, who left him for another man. This rejection brought out his cynicism for the women folk in general. He never forgot her, and perhaps he modeled his ideal woman on Agnes. “…Agnes Von Kurowsky, the nurse with whom he has fallen in love while recovering from his wounds in World War 1 and on whom he largely based his portrait of Catherine: “I’ve loved Ag. She’s been my ideal, and …I forgot all about religion and everything else because I had Ag to worship” … Agnes ultimately threw Hemingway over for another man, breaking their engagement with letter…” (Moreland, 190) Hemingway believes in the love of a woman; yet he gets disillusioned because he keeps on judging the virtues and vices of women; in his real life as well as in his fiction. Hemingway had led an adventurous life. He had gone through numerous and terrible physical and emotional traumas all his life. Perhaps, he had his own ways to gauge the vice and the virtue in women. Perhaps it was his yearning for perfectionism that kept him going from one woman to another. His love for Agnes could not be consummated forcing him to go on an odyssey and explore the strength and depth of human relationships. Unfortunately, he did not succeed in finding the perfect ideal woman, even after having married four times. “We know that he kept Agnes’s letters all his life… His characters, too, are usually far from home. They have no families or else they have family troubles”. (Berridge & Hemingway, 4) Once he married Hadley, he started a new life with fame, wealth and women. He got disillusioned with his marriage and started having an affair with Pauline. Though he regretted later, but it was too late for him to turn back and change things. “Unable to take responsibility himself for any of his failed marriages, Hemingway pinned the blame for the failure of the first on four people…when he glimpsed his wife standing by the piled logs… “I wish I had died before I loved anyone but her.””(Lynn, 588-589) His circumstances had taught him how to end relationships. Hemingway gives swift, smooth yet poignant endings to love stories/ marriages in his short stories and novels. This is a reflection of his own life in which he had several breakups with his lovers, wives and his mother. In The end of something, the dull conversation between two lovers suddenly changes everything when Nick tells Marjorie that it wasn’t fun to be in love anymore. Having said this, he awaits a reaction from her, who simply gets up and walks out of his life. The lovers in Hemingway’s fiction do not create scenes nor do they demand explanations. They accept the fatal ending of their relationship calmly. Interestingly, Hemingway emphasizes more upon the endings or on the failure of relationships between men and women instead of celebrating their love and companionship. He skilfully paints the dull and domestic lives of men and women with the help of their conversation and the settings of the short stories. ‘The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife’; ‘Cat in the Rain’; and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Eliot’ are a few examples that point towards the dead relationships between men and women. Hemingway failed in his relationships with women because he was not willing to accept them the way they were. He could not forgive the human fallacies of women, which created a rift in his relationships. His characters are a reflection of his personal experiences with women. Work Cited: Baker, Carlos. Hemingway, the Writer as Artist. USA: Princeton University Press, 1972. Beegel, Susan. F. Hemingway’s Neglected Short Fiction: New Perspectives. USA: University of Alabama Press, 1992. Berridge, Howard & Hemingway, Ernest. Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. New York: Baron’s Educational series, 1984. Lynn, S. Kenneth. Hemingway. USA: Harvard university press, 1995. Meshram, N. G. The Fiction of Earnest Hemingway. New Delhi: Atlantic publishers & distributors, 2002. Moreland, I. Kim, The Medievalist impulse in American Literature: Twain, Adams, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. USA: Virginia Press, 1996. Nicholson, Joyce. What Society does to Girls. 2nd ed. London: Stephen Digby, 1977. Wagner-Martin, Linda. A Historical Guide to Earnest Hemingway. USA: OUP, 2000. Read More