Compare And Contrast Rainsford And Richard Connell

Two 20th century British short stories both demonstrate that the predator can become the prey if he is reckless. In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the protagonist, Rainsford, falls off his boat on his way to a hunting trip and must swim to a nearby island where he meets the antagonist, General Zaroff, a hunter much the same as Rainsford. However, Rainsford soon finds out that Zaroff is in the sport of hunting humans and that he will be hunted the next day. Similarly, in Victor Canning’s “Dialogue Behind a Curtain,” the Great Man interrogates a fisherman accused of smuggling goods and people in and outside of the Great Man’s communist country. It is only through the conversation between the two, that the dictator allows the poor

Richard Connell of “The Most Dangerous Game,” shows that the protagonist and antagonist have similar traits, which makes it simple for them to switch roles. Zaroff explains, after recognizing Rainsford, his connection to Rainsford: “I’ve read your book about hunting snow leopards in Tibet” (Connell 40). From this the reader can infer that General Zaroff’s passion is hunting, exactly like Rainsford’s. This further proves that, as the characters are similar, they can easily switch from the upper class to the lower one. "Dialogue Behind a Curtain”’s characters are similar due to their mental qualities, although the author highlights their physical traits instead: “[The Great Man] was a short, powerful man, much like the other in build” (Canning 70). This states that the characters both have similar body types, however that is something just to prove the characters similar in an obvious way. In this situation, it does not matter whether one character has more strength than another; it is simply their minds, which, as the reader can infer, are shown to be very similar throughout the story. The reader is told this outright, as soon as the characters switch from predator to