Comparsion Of Rainsford And Zaroff In Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game

Imagine being stuck with a psychopath on an island. A single person must survive the game to hunt or be the prey of a murderer for falling into a trap. In Richard Connell’s short adventurous story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, a main character named Sanger Rainsford is a hunter that is put into a scary situation that makes him go through intense moments during the story. This story had shown that it was an intense and daring story to read because of how everything was stated and explained. It starts off by, Rainsford had jumped overboard from a ship and started to swim. He had swam towards the gunshots he heard from an island and decided to go towards it. After swimming, he had ran into General Zaroff who already knew him from his own book. Zaroff tells him about his hunting story and how he had hunted so many wild animals it became boring. General Zaroff and Sanger Rainsford are both skilled and intelligent but they also have something different and that is that Zaroff is insane while Rainsford is sane.

First of all, in this story, the two men shared the same trait and that is being skilled. Rainsford showed that he is skilled he was able to set a trap where he knew Zaroff was going to be. This reveals that even when he is fighting for his life, he is not giving up to fighting back. In order to fight back, Rainsford called to mind, “I’ll give him a trail to follow” (Connell 19). This states that he has a trick up his sleeve and thinks this is going to work even when trying to defend himself from Zaroff. In addition, Rainsford knows he will be at that specific spot, so he waits for the right time to attack. How Zaroff proved that he is skilled is how he knows everything and how he thinks killing animals is boring. How he showed how he knew something was up, “He paused, almost beneath the tree, dropped to his knees and studied the ground”. This shares that, he knows what is going on around him and knows his surroundings because this has happened before. Furthermore, Zaroff expects everything and his skill help him hunt things like wild animals.

Secondarily, in this story, they both showed that they are both intelligent. Rainsford displays how intelligent he is by how he could get away from Zaroff and has everything is already played in his mind. “Even so zealous a hunter as General Zaroff could not trace him there, he told himself, only the devil himself could follow that complicated trail through the jungle after dark” (Connell 18). This proves that he knows Zaroff will walk these exact places and will fall into the trap. He sees it in his mind of where his footsteps will be and that exact same spot. In addition, he says to himself that there is no one that could walk this trail this complicated. In the story Zaroff proved how intelligent he is by knowing Rainsford will be intimidated when he tells him that he hunts men. He even knows something was up, Zaroff shows, “ But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they had reached the limb where Rainsford lay”. This states that, General Zaroff knows what is going on and how it is not going to work on him. Furthermore, he is way ahead of Rainsford and knows his trap he is trying to pull off.

At last, even though Rainsford and Zaroff share similarities but they are also different because Rainsford shows that he is sane, but Zaroff indicates that he is insane. Rainsford shows that he is sane by disagreeing with Zaroff when he says he hunts humans. Rainsford states, “Hunting? Good god General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder” (Connell 13). This explains that he thinks hunting men is like murder and what Zaroff is doing is wrong. Besides, Rainsford is sane and would only hunt animals not men. In the story Zaroff proves that he is insane because he doesn’t want to kill animals anymore because he thinks it is boring, so he decides to hunt men. Zaroff reveals, “I hunt the scum of the earth- sailors from the tramp ships- lascars, blacks, chinese, whites, mongrels” (Connell 14). This reveals that, he not only hunts animals, he hunts men that fall into his traps. Also the different type of men that he hunts. Therefore, he hunts or murdered men because he thinks that hunting animals have gotten boring and he wanted to make things more fun.

In the story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, two men had showed that they are capable of surviving when one could be the prey of a murderer. They had shown that Sanger Raisford and General Zaroff are both skilled and intelligent. Later in the story they had confirmed that they didn’t have anything similar and that was Rainsford being sane while Zaroff being insane because of the choices they had made throughout the story. In addition, their decisions had to cause the story to be unpleasant or pleasant, it makes “The Most Dangerous Game” an intense and daring story of holding on to life.