Within the story The Most Dangerous Game, the thrilling story of the hunt surrounds two primary characters, General Zaroff and Sanger Rainsford. These characters display a striking amount of similarities to one another, while remaining unique in their own regards. General Zaroff and Rainsford can be compared by their common hobby of hunting, experience with war, and skills, while being contrasted by their backgrounds, value on human life, and demeanor. To begin, Zaroff and Rainsford can be compared by their most common interest, hunting. Rainford expresses his genuine enjoyment for hunting early on as he states proudly to Whitney, “The best sport in the world.” (Connell 1) When speaking to General Zaroff for the first time, the general seems to already know who he is, justifying it due to his familiarity with Rainsford’s novel on hunting; “It is a very great pleasure and honor to welcome Mr. Sanger Rainsford, the celebrated hunter, to my home.” (Connell 5) This demonstrates Rainsford notoriety for the hunt, as well as Zaroffs infatuation with it. Furthermore, Zaroff appears to be obsessed with the hunt as he displays countless mounted heads/hunting trophies, and dedicates his entire island and life to the hunt. We see this to be further evident based on the similar skill levels displayed by both characters in the hunt. Both men appear proficient in tracking prey, identifying weaponry, techniques in killing prey, and survivalist methods. Rainsford effectively identifies the technique and weapon used by Zaroff when we awaked on the island to evidence of a hunt; “A twenty-two…The hunter had his nerve with him to tackle it with a light gun.” (Connell 4) Later within the hunt, Rainsford evades Zaroff with crude trails (recalling the lore of the fox hunt), techniques and traps learned from people of his travels, as well as logical level-headed thinking. These efforts are noted as impressive but seemingly ineffective to Zaroff , as he finds Rainsford at every turn; tracking his path in pitch black darkness within the heart of the jungle, a feat doubted by Rainsford. Finally, their common experience of war, a key factor in revealing Zaroff’s perception of human life, allows us to compare these characters. Zaroff
General Zaroff is becoming like an animal because he is beginning to look and act like an animal. When Rainsford was swept on the island he met a man that seemed normal but the more time that he spent there the more he realised that there was something off about him. His eyes ,too, were black and very bright(Connell,pg.4). Zaroff's eyes are becoming less human like and more animal like because he is becoming more dangerous. Zaroff may have done something to his eyes that would intimidate whatever he is hunting. Rainsford asked General Zaroff where him and his servant are from. “He is a Cossack,” said the general, and his smile showed red lips and pointed teeth(pg.4). Zaroff looks like what a dangerous animal would look like after eating their
Another quote that proves Zaroff shows more diligence is, “The general’s left eyelid fluttered down in a wink.” This describes how the general believes that the gods send him people to hunt. Like Rainsford, General Zaroff is also persistent in waiting to hunt humans. He never gave up on leering humans to the island, I bet even on days when it took forever. This is why I believe that General Zaroff shows off more diligence than Rainsford. Not only does he show effort, but he shows persistent and that is the meaning of
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist, and General Zaroff, the antagonist, have similar life experiences and beliefs, but their one difference, the will to take a human life for sport, builds the suspense up to Rainsford killing Zaroff for the greater good. Zaroff and Rainsford share many life experiences that majorly impacts their conflict. For example, Rainsford set up three different animal traps to kill Zaroff and Zaroff recognized two of the three immediately because of the similar hunting experiences. Rainsford starts thinking like the General when he is setting up traps such as the Malay Man Catcher and the Burmese tiger pit. When Zaroff is hit by Rainsford’s first trap he says, “I, too, have hunted in Malacca,”(14) here right off the bat if it hadn’t been for Zaroff and Rainsford going to Malacca and learning the Malay Mancatcher then Zaroff might have been killed by Rainsford.
The story “The Most Dangerous Game” was written by Richard Connell. The two main characters were Sanger Rainsford and General Zaroff. The characters were faced with many dilemmas that they had different ideas of the correct thing to do. Although the characters had many thoughts alike they also had very different morals. They had similarities and many differences.
Thesis: General Zaroff is the main Antagonist in The Most Dangerous Game. General Zaroff shows an affection for chasing, a frail and unremorseful personality, General Zaroff also shows pride and arrogance. These three character attributes
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell has been a classic among bookworms looking for a short fix since the 1920s. The story is centered around two main characters, Rainsford and General Zaroff who are both worthy hunters. When Rainsford stumbles upon Zaroff, he finds himself participating in a new game, the hunt for his life. With eyes glued to the writing, someone may not even notice the discretely placed allusions. The allusions in this story are used to make connections between the text and the reader.
"The Most Dangerous Game", written by Richard Connell, is a very riveting story with two main characters Rainsford and General Zaroff. They have many similarities in their character traits. Their traits had a major impact in the story.
Underestimation and cruel actions lead to many things. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” author Richard Connell reveals a conflict between the main characters, General Zaroff and Rainsford. Rainsford was to play the most dangerous game created by Zaroff, because the only way to survive, is to win it, otherwise death is the only other option. As demonstrated through the use of personification, symbolism, and repetition in the story, it conveys that one should understand to never underestimate another person and remember that there will always be a consequence for the wicked things that one has done.
Zaroff is purely unconscious, and has no compassion or remorse for his actions. His demented mind forces him to believe that it is moral to hunt all living creatures, when in reality he is actually murdering a human soul. The general is sadistic as well as arrogant. He is mentally unstable, insane, and he denies the fact that he is committing something as bad as what he is doing. According to General Zaroff, hunting for him has been consumed by boredom and he no longer sees hunting as a challenge. Consequently, he chooses to hunt a certain “creature” with a higher mental stability of the creatures he has hunted before.(Connell 21) As Zaroff became comfortable with Rainsford, he
When Rainsford is put into the game, he thinks of a plan to throw off General Zaroff and says to himself, “‘I'll give him a trail to follow,’ muttered Rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. He executed a series of intricate loops” (Connell 34-35). Then Zaroff talks about his life, the war, and brags while saying, “‘I have hunted every kind of game in every land. It would be impossible for me to tell you how many animals I have killed’” (Connell 29). Not only are Rainsford and General Zaroff both hunters, but also they are very good and smart hunters. Rainsford says this during the hunt and it describes him making an intricate trail for Zaroff. He is using all of his skills and being very smart to try to lead Zaroff in the wrong direction. Likewise, General Zaroff says that he has hunted every type of animal. This shows that he is a good hunter and he has hunted so many he couldn’t even tell him how many he’s killed. This displays their similarities as hunters and people because they are very smart. In the very first scene, Rainsford and Whitney discuss hunting in the Amazon and they begin to say, “‘The best sport in the world,’ agreed Rainsford. / ‘For the hunter,’ amended Whitney. ‘Not for the jaguar.’ / ‘Don't talk rot, Whitney,’ said Rainsford. ‘You're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?’ / ‘Perhaps the jaguar does,’ observed Whitney. / ‘Bah! They've no understanding’” (Connell 22). Later, Zaroff tries to persuade Rainsford into hunting humans because he thinks, “‘Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong’” (Connell 30). Another similarity the two hunters have is that they don’t care how others feel. Rainsford doesn’t care
Throughout this journal, Zaroff can be characterized as mysterious and evil. First off, Zaroff is mysterious. One way he is mysterious is that he knows Rainsford’s name and he read Rainsford’s hunting book. In the book it says, “I’ve read your book about hunting snow leopards in Tibet…” (Connell 3). This quote shows that Zaroff is interested in hunting dangerous animals and knows that Rainsford is good at hunting
General Zaroff is similar to Rainsford because they are both intelligent, and Zaroff shows this in the story because of his up-bringing and past experiences. This is seen in the story when it says “I, luckily, have invested in American Securities, so I shall never have to open a Tea room in Monte Carlo, or drive a taxi in Paris.” (Connel 48) This proves Zaroff is intelligent because he foresaw the downfall of the Russian economy, and heavily invested in said American Securities. However, Zaroff is different than Rainsford because he is powerful, which he shows when he explains his quarry to Rainsford. An example of this is seen in the story, which states “To date, I have not lost” … “The most elementary sort of problem” (Connel 50.)This proves Zaroff is powerful, because he fears nothing during the hunt. If anything, he thinks it gets quite boring. Zaroff is also different since he can be described as serious, because of his history with the hunt. In the text, this shown when it says “Hunting was beginning to get boring! And hunting, remember had been my life. I have heard that in America, business men often go to pieces…” (Connel ?) This proves Zaroff is about the hunt because it has sparked a new, welcoming,
In “The Most Dangerous Game”, Rainsford is terrified to find that General Zaroff is actually a murder. Rainsford is listening intently to the new “species” that General Zaroff is describing as hunt for his game. General Zaroff has a passion and has become obsessed with hunt because it “had been (his) life”, but sadly “hunting was beginning to bore (him)”. He was eager to continue hunting because of how much he enjoyed it. He needed a new way to satisfy himself while still involving himself in hunting. He decided to go to the extremity of killing people to satisfy himself and make him find new excitement in the one hobby that used to be his life and his source of happiness. General Zaroff’s love and passion for hunting cause him to kill and murder because hunting animals was not satisfying him anymore. Rainsford realizes that he is in the presence of a murderer and when General Zaroff is describing how he has found a new hunt for killing Rainsford figures out that “what (General Zaroff) speak of is murder”. While Zaroff is defending himself by saying that he is not murdering, he does not realize that he sounds foolish because he is saying that he has fallen in love with hunting of humans’ The idea that someone is no joke, but General Zaroff thinks “it’s a game”. Consequently, General Zaroff’s dark side comes through because his love for hunting
General Zaroff’s cool headedness adds to the various textual evidence that he is not, in fact, insane. When he is introduced to the story, he praises Rainsford's hunting ability with a seemed preparedness. Rainsford observes that the General seems to read his mind at times. He is prepared for every question that Rainsford has, and even answers some that were never asked. His actions seem calculated to make Rainsford more comfortable with him, however, as a fellow hunter, Rainsford observes, “whenever he looked up from his plate he found the general studying him, appraising him narrowly.” This makes Rainsford uncomfortable, sets him on edge for the information that Zaroff is about to reveal. During the hunt, Zaroff
He not only hunts humans and kills them for sport, but enjoys doing so. After all, the general only sees humans as beasts to be hunted. Zaroff does not even see his right-hand man, Ivan, as a human being, for he professes here, "Like all his [Ivan's] race, a bit of a savage. He is a Cossack . . . So am I."(Connell 24) This not only displays General Zaroff's opinion of his servant, but his own point of view regarding most human beings. However, General Zaroff does not only exercise every meaning of cruelty in a physical sense, but utilizes it in a psychological sense as well. Because of this psychological warfare that Zaroff wages against Rainsford, he fails to kill Rainsford the first, second, and third night. As an additional note, Zaroff also pushed Rainsford to the point where Rainsford would not give up on taking Zaroff's life, even if it meant that Rainsford would have to stoop to the level of morality known as murder. For an example of this internal game Zaroff plays with Rainsford, Connell wrote, "The general's eyes had left the ground and were traveling inch by inch up the tree. . . the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay; a smile spread over his brown face."(Connell 32) This means that Zaroff knew that Rainsford was there, yet did not kill him for an unspecified reason. Those few actions could be overconfidence, or it could be General