Rainsford And Zaroff In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

Richard Connell reveals several different attributes about his characters, Rainsford and Zaroff, in The Most Dangerous Game. Connell does this by using a literary technique called characterization which is how the author of a written work reveals character traits of the different characters in their story to their readers. Unfortunately, characterization is not that simple. For some reason, intelligent literary figures decided to divide characterization into direct and indirect characterization. Not only does Connell use characterization in his short story, The Most Dangerous Game, but he uses both kinds of characterization for two different characters. Direct characterization is when the author candidly describes how one of his characters looks or the mannerisms of that character. Connell uses direct characterization when describing General Zaroff to his readers. When Connell introduces General Zaroff into the story, Connell describes him as being a handsome man with some strange quality about

He also describes Zaroff as being a “tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white” (Connell 4). Connell has given his readers a straightforward visualization of General Zaroff’s physical appearance. Connell allows the reader to see how he has imagined the character in his own mind. If one looks for examples of direct characterization, it will mostly be descriptions of how a character looks. On the other hand, Connell also uses indirect characterization in his written work. One example of indirect characterization that he uses is when Rainsford jumps up onto the rail in order to try to find where the shots came from (Connell 2). To be able to jump onto the rail of a yacht and keep balance allows the reader to infer that Rainsford is a fairly agile man. Although Rainsford falls off of the rail into the “blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea”, he is able to swim approximately fifty feet after the yacht and then another one hundred strokes