Imagery In Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game

“No animal had a chance with me...I had to invent a new animal” (7), General Zaroff brags to the captivated Rainsford in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game.” At the heart of the story is a fight for survival: winner takes all and survival of the fittest. General Zaroff’s perverse thinking creates a need in the reader to find out how the plot will unfold. The author’s use of suspend disbelief and imagery create anticipation in the story. Connell adds suspend disbelief to draw out the excitement in the story. During the hunt, the general is nearly taken out by a complex apparatus known as the Malay Mancatcher. “Not many men know how to make a Malay mancatcher. Luckily for me I, too, have hunted in Malacca” (13). The reader

The description of “the lights...shadowy lines of a palatial chateau” (3), the island and characters help the reader see the story as it unfolds. When “He lifted the knocker and it creaked stiffly….The door opened … as suddenly as if it were on a spring and Rainsford stood blinking in the river of glaring gold light that poured out” (4). The description of Rainsford’s appearance at the door of the chateau creates an underlying sense of dread. The reader has a macabre anticipation of what might be in store for Rainsford. In contrast “[t]he dining room” is described as having “a medieval magnificence about it.” It even seems like “a baronial hall of feudal times with its oaken panels [and] mounted heads of many animals...larger or more perfect specimens Rainsford had never seen” (5). Entering the dining room, Rainsford is awestruck and recognizes he is receiving the hospitality of a great hunter, maybe better than Rainsford, himself. The reader understands that Zaroff is arrogant, intelligent and wealthy, and he uses these characteristics to intimidate. Connell’s use of imagery helps the reader not only follow the story, but see and experience