The Most Dangerous Game Literary Analysis Essay

“‘I’ll wager you’ll forget your notions when you go hunting with me. You’ve a genuine new thrill in store for you Mr. Rainsford.’

‘Thank you, I’m a hunter, not a murderer’” (Connell, 70). Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, portrays a hunter, one who feels no pity for the ones he hunts, who is suddenly in their shoes. He becomes the huntee when he meets a psychopathic murderer, and declines to hunt with him. However, he will not be let off the hook that easily. He gets three days to hide from his hunter, and if he’s discovered, he loses the “game”. It’s a game of cat and mouse, where at times the hunter will be underneath his prey, but with a gun in the hunter’s hand, the prey can’t retaliate. In “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses setting, characterization, and conflict in order to convey an anxious, haunting mood.

Initially, Richard Connell uses setting to establish that the mood of the story is anxious and haunting when we follow Sanger Rainsford as he begins his journey on Ship-Trap Island.

When Rainsford first encountered the château, “His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial château; it was set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows” (Connell, 64). The description of the hungry lips causes a sense of anxiety because it feels like it could engulf you suddenly and erase your existence permanently. Furthermore, the details of where the château is located gives off the effect that the château could possibly be a haunted house; and something evil could be lurking inside, causing the mood to become haunting and

anxious.
Secondly, Connell uses characterization to disclose the mood of the story when we were introduced to Zaroff. When he meets Zaroff, “Rainsford’s first impression was that the man was singularly handsome; his second was that there was an original, almost bizarre quality about the general’s face” (Connell, 66). General Zaroff produces an anxious and haunted feel because there is an unknown, and bizarre factor to him that is unrecognizable.
Lastly, the mood of “The Most Dangerous Game” is revealed using conflict, when we are stuck in Rainsford’s despair as a man was approaching his safe spot. “It was General Zaroff. He made his way along with his eyes fixed in the utmost concentration on the ground before him. He paused almost beneath the tree, dropped to his knees, and studied the ground” (Connell, 76). The waiting and suspense gives you anxiety about whether or not Zaroff is going to discover and shoot Rainsford. It gives off a haunting, terrifying feel knowing Zaroff is so close to his prey, our protagonist; the one we’re rooting for.
In “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses setting, characterization, and conflict in order to create an anxious, haunting mood. So in the situation of hunter and prey; which side do you fall onto?