Now, there's something else. I forget how Catherine Barkley (Farewell to Arms) ends up but the other CB, Catherine Bourne (Garden of Eden), destroys the Hemingway character, her husband (David?). And in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Margot, literally destroys (shoots and kills) emasculated Francis, on whom she also flagrantly cheats. Hemingway's editor or close friend, I forget which, when asked about Margot Macomber, said that she represents the "American bitch wife." So there is that. Then there is this:
"You know, Effingham, that my father has told you that I ruled him, and that I should rule you. I am now about to exert my power."
That fem dom statement is from the first American novel, The Pioneers, part of the Leatherstocking Tales, by Fenimore Cooper. The speaker is Elizabeth Temple and that statement of intent is uttered to her soon-to-be husband Oliver. "The American bitch woman" is a trope as old as American literature.
