General Zaroff’s certitude and his underestimate of Rainsford turn out fatal in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”. When the huntsman becomes the hunted. Rainsford’s sentiment of slaying alterations. He becomes determined to last. There are several times in the narrative when endurance becomes slaying.
The efforts from Rainsford to last are cold. calculated killing. In the beginning of “The Most Dangerous Game” . Rainsford is an devouring huntsman. experiencing adult male is superior to animate beings. that his quarry has no feelings. and that runing in general is merely a game. He thinks that the universe is divided between the huntsman and the hunted. Rainsford is an American huntsman of universe fame. and is instantly recognized by General Zaroff as an writer of a book on runing Snow Leopards in Tibet. ( Connell. 7 )
While they both portion an involvement in runing. Rainsford believes Zaroff’s freshly defined athletics to be barbarous and Zaroff himself to be a liquidator in the beginning of the narrative. Even with his service in the armed forces. he is unable to see what Zaroff is making to be anything more than “cold blooded murder” .
Rainsford’s sentiment starts to alter when he learns Zaroff intends to utilize him as quarry. Hunting Great Guns General Zaroff what you speak of is murder” he stated to the General in incredulity. ( Connell. 11 ) As the Hunt progresses. Rainsford is invariably reminding himself to maintain his “nerve” because he does non desire to take part in this game. turn outing that to kill a adult male for athletics is non in his character. ( Connell. 17 )
While he is seeking to run away from his gaining control and become undetected. it is so that he realizes the abilities of General Zaroff to track and Hunt are just beyond his initial observation. Rainsford is terrified to happen he has been outwitted by Zaroff when he finds him in the tree. but allows him to populate as if this were a game of cat and mouse. This was the point where Rainsford begins his transmutation into a composure and collected slayer.
Rainsford is no longer doing trails and seeking to be undetected by the General. he is boldly going cognizant that he has to kill or be killed. Rainsford’s character evolves after the first dark in the jungle. He becomes a deliberate slayer utilizing his accomplishments that he learned in the military and runing adventures to capture his quarry. Rainsford sets three traps for General Zaroff. Rainsford’s first trap is a Maylay man-catcher. He sets up a dead tree so that it will fall and hit Zaroff Zaroff nevertheless sees the tree and manages to dodge it. having merely a shoulder lesion.
When Zaroff goes to acquire his lesion attended to. Rainsford flees and finds himself on the portion of the island that has quicksand. He rapidly digs a cavity a few pess from the quicksand and puts sharpened sticks in the underside. He so covers the cavity with “a unsmooth rug of weeds and subdivisions. ” ( Connell. 19 ) This Burmese tiger cavity is effectual because it kills one of Zaroff’s best Canis familiariss.
The 3rd trap Rainsford makes rapidly because Zaroff is non far behind him. He ties his knife to a sapling. He ties the sapling back with some vine. This trap is besides effectual because when it is triggered. it hits and kills Ivan Zaroff’s retainer. These traps were all intended to kill or maim General Zaroff turn outing that Rainsford had a high respect for his ain life but non anyone else. His last and concluding act of run intoing Zaroff in his sleeping room brings the narrative to and stop when the reader learns that Rainsford is traveling to complete the game by slaying Zaroff even after he has “won the game” . His purpose was to stop Zaroff’s life. as he had with so many other ‘animals’ over his decennaries of runing. On the other manus. some may believe that Rainsford was non a slayer at all. but is merely making what he was forced into by General Zaroff.
This sentiment makes him guiltless because his actions were technically self-defense against a true slayer. Rainsford calmly handles any challenge. whether it is falling overboard in the center of the dark or holding to swim several stat mis to make the shore. He’s survived near-death experiences. from contending during World War I to runing unsafe animate beings in some of the world’s most alien countries. All these experiences and his demeanour. could be an statement that Rainsford was the same individual from get downing to stop. he was merely accommodating to the state of affairs.
To certain extent. person of this sentiment would be right. It is unsure what any of us would make if put in a similar state of affairs. Taking someone’s life is incorrect. Our society has tribunal systems that assist us in make up one’s minding incrimination and mistake. We have to value human life of ourselves and of others. One can merely think or presume what they would make in this state of affairs. Trying other options such as repressing General Zaroff or capturing him would hold proven Rainsford less of a slayer and more of a strategic huntsman.
