The Most Dangerous Game

The Most Dangerous Game has many ironies. The most obvious irony is when Rainsford the hunter becomes the hunted. In the beginning of the story, it is clear that Rainsford is not just a hunter,...

When we personify something, we give it human characteristics. For example, if I said, "The flower stretched toward the sun's rays," we are giving the flower the characteristic of "stretching," a...

An additional conflict in “The Most Dangerous Game” is an internal conflict within Rainsford. On the one hand, he's a skilled hunter, a man who's bagged more game animals than anyone could possibly...

Ultimately, similes (like metaphors) are defined by their use of comparison to link together two otherwise unrelated subjects. This is done in order to draw heightened attention to a quality that...

The first trap that Rainsford sets is called a Malay mancatcher. To make the Malay mancatcher, Rainsford finds a heavy dead tree laying precariously on a smaller, living one and uses his knife to...

When it comes to their differences, it can be argued that while Zaroff is some sort of psychopath, Rainsford is a rational-thinking, ordinary sort of man. With regard to the matter of hunting an...

As a dynamic character in Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," Sanger Rainsford does undergo changes in his attitude about hunting. In the exposition of the story, for instance, he becomes...

Sanger Rainsford's terrifying experience being hunted throughout Ship-Trap Island by the deranged General Zaroff completely transforms him into a more sympathetic individual with a different...

While both Zaroff and Rainsford believe that hunting is morally permissible based on the concept of "survival of the fittest," Rainsford thinks that hunting humans is morally and ethically wrong....

This is a good question. Suspense is created in several different ways. The first is through the classic technique of providing a hook that hints at part of the story. This happens literally in the...

The primary example of situational irony concerns a world-renowned hunter, Sanger Rainsford, crash landing on Ship-Trap Island, where he is hunted by a maniacal general and becomes the prey. The...

Sanger Rainsford is depicted as an inventive, disciplined man who is renowned for his hunting abilities and survives the most dangerous game. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford is depicted as...

The two meanings of “game” in the title are “play” and “hunted animal.” The word “game” is used to refer to animals that are hunted. For example, tigers, rhinoceroses, and bears are all game....

Sanger Rainsford is the protagonist in the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." He goes from professional hunter to helpless huntee after a boating accident which leaves him stranded on the...

General Zaroff is the antagonist in this story, so most character traits that are associated with him are not positive. I'd like to go a different route with this question, though. I would like to...

A metaphor is a comparison of two things, without using the words "like" or "as" (a comparison with those words would be a simile). Typically, an author uses metaphor to make writing more poetic...

The setting of the story is Ship-trap Island. Much of the story takes place in the jungle of the islands itself, but the story begins on a boat and then continues to General Zaroff’s house. At the...

"The Most Dangerous Game" is largely a story that emphasizes man versus man and man versus nature conflicts, though there are elements of a man versus self conflict within Rainsford. Rainsford's...

In Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," the word bay shows up a number of times. The repetitive use of this word first applies to the way the hunting dogs sound as they search for Rainsford. Then...

A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implied comparison between two unrelated things that happen to share certain characteristics. Throughout "The Most Dangerous Game," readers are made...

The climax of "The Most Dangerous Game" is located towards the end of the story when General Zaroff leads his pack of hunting dogs in Rainsford's direction, and Rainsford jumps into the sea to...

Like most pieces of good literature, "The Most Dangerous Game" uses a combination of direct and indirect characterization to develop Rainsford and Zaroff. In this particular story, Connell is not...

General Zaroff claims that "Instinct is no match for reason" when speaking to Rainsford (Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"). Zaroff has moved on from hunting animals because they "do not...

The Malay mancatcher is the name of a trap that Rainsford sets for General Zaroff in the story “The Most Dangerous Game.” It is made by laying a dead tree on a living one, with a trigger which when...

Characterization is how an author presents a character's personality. The two methods for doing so are direct characterization and indirect characterization. Direct characterization has the author...

Rainsford wins the game through his skill as a hunter. Of course, Rainsford's game with Zaroff is unlike any of his other hunts in that he is the one being pursued. Instead of trying to fight...

Rainsford is being hunted by a madman who has everything in his favor. Zaroff, the Cossack general, is an expert hunter. He has a powerful rifle and a pack of dogs. All the odds are against...

There are two types of conflicts: internal and external. External conflicts are the events that happen outside of us, and internal conflicts are the emotional responses and or choices we have to...

This quote is part of the last line of Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game." The rest of the sentence reveals that it is Rainsford who is enjoying the bed. This means Rainsford...

Zaroff tells Rainsford he is bored and the humans he is hunting are inferior, which is how they end up killed. Zaroff is an expert hunter. He explains to Rainsford that he became so good at...

At the beginning of Connell's celebrated short story "The Most Dangerous Game," Rainsford and Whitney discuss the sport of hunting and have completely opposite views on the relationship between the...

I watched the 1932 movie version of the story a while ago and would not want to watch it again. It looked like what they used to call a B movie. In the old days theaters offered double features,...

The narrator describes Zaroff's physical appearance when Rainsford first sees the general descend the marble stairs of his extravagant chateau. General Zaroff is depicted as a tall, slender,...

By this, General Zaroff means that once a person has mastered a skill, it is no longer interesting. For example, if one can always win at chess, playing the game no longer provides a challenge....

Rainsford evades Zaroff by making a complicated trail, setting traps, and using weapons. Rainsford accidentally ends up trapped on Ship-trap island with the sociopathic hunter General Zaroff when...

The point at which Zaroff decides to make Rainsford his quarry is kept deliberately uncertain, as it is a major factor in creating suspense in the middle of the story. It is perfectly possible that...

One could argue that the primary lesson or moral of the story concerns the distinction between hunting, murder, and self-defense in regards to the way humans justify the act of killing. Before...

At the end of the short story, Rainsford sneaks into Zaroff's room and surprises him after being hunted for three days. Zaroff is initially startled, then congratulates Rainsford for winning the...

A Burmese Tiger Pit is a hole too deep to climb out of. It is filled with pointed spikes facing upward at the bottom, then covered with brush or grass. The idea is to impale the victim on the...

This is a statement from Sanger Rainsford, the main character of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. His shipmate has expressed sympathy for the jaguar that they may soon pursue;...

Both Rainsford and General Zaroff are experienced hunters who have an affinity for adventure and hunting dangerous prey. Both characters enjoy literature, which is evident from the general's...

Rainsford attempts to sleep in a tree. He hears the cry of a bird and realizes someone is coming. It is Zaroff. Rainsford watches Zaroff examine the trail and then slowly rise, shake his head,...

At the beginning of the story, Rainsford's attitude is fairly cold toward the animals that he hunts. Rainsford loves hunting, and he feels no sympathy for the animals that he hunts and kills. While...

The sea is often personified in the story, and described as a person would be. Personification is a type of figurative language where something nonhuman is described as if it were human or had...

The climax of a story is the point in the narrative when the intensity and tension are the highest. In Richard Connell's classic short story "The Most Dangerous Game," the climax takes place on...

Mood is a literary strategy that is created through diction, syntax, figurative language, and so much more. It's the way a reader feels while reading based on the way an author constructs their...